Bye Bye Birdie

Things I loved about Bye Bye Birdie:

I loved the creative rush that came through this form of expression. Just the movement and music were invigorating, but when the opportunity of adding my character's personality to the mix was included it gave me a challenge that was great fun. There was something about using my whole body to express something that was a great release to me. It seemed to stabilize my emotions and allow me to feel deeper and appreciate feelings more. It was satisfying on many levels.

Watching my children perform was a thrill. Ammon was so creative and fun to watch and he did such a great job creating Harvey Johnson. He was funny and appropriate and interesting and he had energy and was helpful and fun to be with. Jonah has always been nervous to be in front of people, but he did it and he did it well. He did everything he was asked and he did them just right. He was so excited when (justly so) the director pointed to him and said "This is the kind of energy I want!" It helped me understand Caleb. When the music hits Caleb, it hits him all the way down to his feet. He feels it and he goes. It was so nice for him to be able to just let loose. The hard thing was to make sure that he never let loose so hard that he would fall off of the stage. Emma did hard things. It is really hard when you are 11 to do things that draw attention to yourself, but she did the dances and worked hard to learn all of the things she had to do. It is also hard to act a certain way when you are feeling emotional, but she did it. She was a trooper and should be proud of herself.

I loved being with my kids for this. We would play games and talk. I liked having a picnic with Jonah and Caleb on stage every night. We would eat animal crackers and talk about Lego Indiana Jones. Ammon and I would hang out backstage and just chat. Mostly though, it was integrated into our lives. We sang the songs all of the time, we quoted lines, and we laughed about it. Even Micah knew all of the songs and we would hear him singing "Gotta wot a wibin', such a wot a wibin', such a wot a wibin' to do" and we would just sing along. It was a unifying event and it was nice that it was inclusive, made a good transition to school getting out, and that it had an end (even though we were sad to see it end.)

Meeting new people was really broadening to me. Everybody has a story. People do hard things. A lot of the people in the cast had never done anything like this before (myself included) yet they were going in with both feet and really pulled a great thing out of nothing. It was a great experience for my children to see that when someone needed a blessing, two cast members were right there worthy and able to give him a blessing. They were then able to see the results from that blessing and their testimonies were strengthened.

I was so glad that Brandon and Kate got engaged on the final night of the show. They are both great people (and so darn cute together) and I am thrilled for them. But I was also thrilled for myself. I made it a fairy tale ending to this dream I was living. It made it so touching to hear her sing the songs about longing and permanency and know that she was now going to have these things in her life. I know that it was an extremely public way to propose, but I am so grateful that they did it that way because it is one of my most cherished memories of the play.

This was a hard, scary thing to do, but it was worth it. It took a fair amount of time, but it was with my kids and it was a growth experience for us. It was fun and rewarding and I am really glad that we did it.