Peter Pan

Tessa took part in her first stage production this year. Her dance studio classes are strictly that, so if a student wants to be a part of the big spring musical production, then they sign up (if they are younger) or audition for parts. The rehearsals take place each Saturday for those students involved. It's different than what I was used to growing up, but it works out just as well. PDT took on Peter Pan the musical (children's production of it) and I signed Tessa up. The littlies were Neverland Animals, and Tessa was a mouse with two other girls.

We had a week long of rehearsals at the theater, and although it was nuts having to deal with the rehearsal schedule and all three kids, it was totally worth it. Jake would swing by and tag me out after work when he was able. 

Here is Tessa on one of her dress rehearsal nights with fellow mouse Ada. There is the bird in the background and Tinkerbell.

Tessa was so excited to wear make up ...until the fourth night of it anyway. Between the makeup and the hair netted ballerina bun, she'd had her fill for a while.
The girls with Tink:

Parents were allowed to take video during the dress rehearsals, but not during the actual performances. Tessa had this habit of ending up dancing right behind Ada, but I can mostly see her. Closer up would have been nice (or zooming in), but I had Paige on my lap and Cole by my side while trying to video. We do the best we can. So, this is the main Neverland animal part of the production during one of the dress rehearsals (you can hear Tessa yell, "See ya!" at the very end):

The performances took place on a Friday night and Saturday afternoon. Friday night we brought Cole to the show. He loved it, especially the pirates and the "Captain Hook gril" --several little boys, but the big parts were all female, thus the "gril". Cole gave Tessa flowers:

 I asked Tessa, "Was that so fun dancing in front of an audience?" She answered, "Yeah, but I  can't believe I have real, grown up flowers!!!"

 Peter Pan with Tessa:

 The whole cast of teens and kids were awesome. The older kids were always very sweet with Tessa.
I could take no flash photography at the actual performance, so I took the next two pictures at the Saturday matinee. Unfortunately our camera is getting old and sometimes has lines running through it (boo), so that's what is going on with the first picture.

 The animals are sad because the bird is explaining that Hook and the pirates have kidnapped the Lost Boys, Wendy, John, and Michael:

I went ahead and took a video after the performance was technically over. The cast had already bowed, and this was a song snippet to finish off the show (yes, that was me justifying taking a video when I was told not to. Note that Jake the rule keeper was not with me this day):

Way to go, Tessa!

We have been singing Peter Pan songs for a couple of weeks now. Jake and Tessa watched the musical production together on his phone, and Tessa has made up a couple of dances inspired by Tiger Lily. As a funny side note, they were finishing watching it together on Sunday. They snuggled together on the puffy chair and Jake held the phone up for them both to see. He fell asleep a couple of times, accidentally dropping the phone on Tessa's face each time.
In the future she may wonder why her face hurts every time she sees or hears Cathy Rigby.