Grandma Rooster, Dr. Seuss and More

While we've been recovering from The Sound of Music, more dramas have loomed on the horizon!

As I mentioned before, auditions for Charlotte's Web are this Friday, so Chicklet9 has been practicing.  She's singing "I'd Do Anything" from Oliver, and the truth is, as a veteran of just 3 shows, she can now memorize lyrics and choreograph movements all by herself.  I just need to remind her to do it every night, so she's got it down cold--the best way to shoot down the nerves.

After her audition, our family is going to see a friend star in a musical called Light in the Piazza. That, plus the drama of waiting hopefully for a callback and then for the cast list for Charlotte's Web, will be plenty of drama for one weekend.

Last week, besides playing general catch-up, I prepared for a new session of theater classes.  I am teaching an advanced drama class, two hours a week, which will conclude in the performance of a one-act comedy called "The Seussification of Romeo and Juliet."  It's the Shakespearean story told as Dr. Seuss would tell it:

Romeo:  
There's an optometrist whose name is Cupid,
He's opened my eyes, and made me less stupid.
I met a new girl, she's the best of the best.
She passed the Romeo "hot mama" test.

Lady Capitulate (to Juliet):
Yes!  It's I.  I'm your own dearest Mother.
I've been called the same by your sisters and brother.
I meant to say just what I said when I meant
That I am your Mother, One-hundred percent.

Last night, 17 teenagers, including B13, auditioned for roles in the play, performing highly entertaining monologues for myself and my aide for the class.  Then we had them read for various parts, and even the cold readings were hysterical.  So many of the kids could do almost any role; it made casting easy--and tough to decide.  The aide and I are pumped.  This is going to be such a fun project!

Further off, we have the drama of Holy Week coming up.  I am once again "casting" and "directing" most of the dramatized Scripture readings at the Easter Vigil, and also the Passion Reading for Palm Sunday.  Somehow this is more stressful than the drama class, because the casting never gets settled all in one night, and I don't get ten weeks to work with my readers for two hours a week!  I'm also arranging many of the readings.  Still much work to be done, on that front, and Palm Sunday only...2.5 weeks away.  Yikes!

Finally, the real-life drama:  My mother-in-law found out last Friday that she had a mass in her brain.  This was actually not as scary as one might expect, because she's had one brain surgery already, 23 years ago, when a congenitally malformed vessel ruptured, and this mass was in the same place. There is hope that this is residual tissue that may have been missed in the crisis at that time, and it would explain the seizures and other symptoms she's been experiencing in the last few years.

It's been hard to watch my strong, vibrant, outgoing mother-in-law declining to the point where she can barely walk down the aisle to receive communion in church.  They visit us frequently at Light of Christ, where both their sons and their families are on Sundays, even though it's a 1.5 hour drive for my father-in-law.  They came to spent the night on Saturday, so we could have dinner together, and then on Sunday afternoon, we all gathered to pray for Grandma, and Grandpa too. They are strong in the Lord, and in faith that He works all things together for good for them who love Him. It was sweet family time.

Her surgery was yesterday, and she came through it well.  Last report I heard, she was still sedated.  They believe they got all of the tissue, but we haven't heard the pathology report yet.  ...So the drama continues until we hear that news!