Carter and the Amazing Technicolor Community Theatre

This week the Rexburg Community Theatre (note the British spelling -- we're very cultured up here) put on a production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Carter was in the children's chorus with about 30 other children.

We observed several rehearsals. We now know that theater-types are a little crazy. For some of these people, their own lives are a show by themselves. Of course, you have the teenage girls that are always huddling and giggling and are constantly asking the male cast members for hugs (particularly the shirtless ones - see picture).

Then, there are always one or two teenage boys who believe they should have been cast as Joseph so they sing extra loud and make overly-dramatic stage gestures (most involving flailing arms) in order to draw attention to themselves (said one such teenage boy, "My favorite movie is High School Musical. Everyone tells me I sound totally like Zack.") But - hey - drama is their life.

Here are a couple funny things we witnessed:

1- At the end of the second performance we overheard one of the performer's mothers say, "It's so nice that we can see our daughter's shows here in town and for only five dollars. Some day seeing her on stage will involve a thousand-mile plane trip and hundred-dollar tickets. We'll just have to enjoy these small-town shows while we can." It should be noted that the daughter of whom this mother was speaking is no older than 10. She shared the prestigious part of "children's chorus member" with about 30 other children.

2- At a cast meeting before the second performance, one cast member reported, "My boss, who never lies, saw Joseph on Broadway, and she said our show was almost as good." You probably didn't see the show, but let me restate three words. Rexburg Community Theatre. Enough said.

Although the experience in hindsight was good for Carter, we are glad it's over. When we signed up to have Carter in the show, we were told the practices for the children's chorus would be once a week for about an hour. The last 3 weeks they ended up being every night for about four hours (from 6pm-10pm). Very annoying, but how do you tell your son who has already invested so much time and energy into the play that you're pulling him out of the show two weeks before the performance because you just can't stand the constant rehearsals and the impact it's having on his sleep schedule?

Anyway, check out the pictures of our thespian son (look it up - it has nothing to do with what you think) and his friends (all girls - maybe this kid's onto something) .