A Fun Ride

Ahhh, the play is over. It's bittersweet. Natalie and Megan loved being a part of it. They made a lot of new friends. Jonathan enjoyed...tolerated playing his cello. It wasn't so much the cello playing as the schedule. Wake up, go to work, rush home, quickly eat dinner, drive 30 minutes to Kirtland, do the play, go to sleep, repeat. And the downside for Natalie and Megan was having their hair in rollers all afternoon so we couldn't go do anything (although their hair always looked darling). It was all a small sacrifice for the blessings.
I got to see 7 of the 10 performances. I absolutely love the play. The script is crisp and flows well. I LOVE the music--I will miss being able to hear the songs. I always have one stuck in my head which tends to be a problem because I don't know all of the words. We were able to buy a DVD of the play so we'll be able to watch it whenever we want to reminisce.
Natalie's "dad" in the play, Larry Andres, was not a member of the Church. His wife and 5 daughters are and he's been attending church regularly with his family for the past year. His youngest 2 daughters were in the cast for the first time and he got talked into being in the play because they were short on men. His wife Debbie called me last week with the great news that he decided to be baptized! His baptism was yesterday afternoon before the final performance of the play. Most (all?) of the cast was there and they sang 2 of the songs from the play. It was a wonderful service. One thing that made me chuckle though was seeing several little girls with their hair in rollers. I quipped to a friend--"Have you ever seen so many rollers at a baptism?!" But it was very fitting since being in the play was the final piece to his path to baptism.
The final performance was special. The director made a brilliant change to the script. In one part of the Feast Scene, Joseph Smith congratulates Lorenzo Snow on his baptism. The cast always claps. This time Joseph added, "We rejoice with the Andres family on the baptism of Brother Larry." All of us in the audience who know and love Larry, stood up and clapped and yelled along with the cast. It was a happy, exciting moment. The picture above is after the dancing in the feast scene--Larry is the one on the far left.

YouTube Videos:

Feast Scene

Lorenzo Snow solo (sung at the baptism)

He Lives (sung by the cast at baptism)