“Annie”

A few weekends ago was the much anticipated performance of ACPP’s (Anna and Chloe Play Productions) “Annie”.  There were actually two performances, the role of Annie was double cast.  The play was about an hour and half and it was quite a feat.  I could not believe all of the costumes and props and lines these darling kids had to juggle.  The age range of the performers was 3-12.   Unfortunately, I was running the music and therefore hardly got any good pictures.   Anna had to fill in where they didn’t have the right person for the part, so she played the parts of Lilly, Bert Healey, Pepper and a maid.  She is so much fun to watch, she has such a voice and really just sparkles.  Her Lilly voice was killing me, she really had fun with that ditzy blond role.

Abigail played Grace, an orphan, Mr. Bundles and one of the Boylan sisters.  She honestly probably had 15 costume changes, not to mention a bazillion lines to memorize.  The thing that always kind of catches me off guard with Abby is what a huge voice she has.  She was just belting her little guts out and it sounded fabulous.  She is definitely in her element on stage, she loves every minute of it and is so much fun to watch.

This was Nate’s first taste of stardom.  He played Rooster.  He sort of signed on the play under intense pressure from the directors and wasn’t super into the rehearsals.  He was also really nervous, and I’m not sure he’s dying to do more of that kind of performance, but he was so so so cute.  His shy little Brooklyn accent, and his awkward, sincere choreography was making me tear up from sheer adorableness. 

Ben played the part of Sandy, the dog.  Every time he crawled onto stage you heard a collective, “Awww”.  It was perfect for him, he didn’t have to say a thing, just be up there and look cute in his too small doggie costume.

The Saturday performance got a huge audience turnout, we put 90 chairs out and I’m guessing at least 70 were filled.

These two twelve year old girls, Chloe and Anna, honestly do this completely on their own.  They scavenged for all the costumes, (Chloe’s Mom and I are always surprised to see all kinds of clothes and household items pop up in the performances), wrote the script, choreographed all the numbers, kept 10ish kids of different ages and temperaments occupied every week for 2 hours.  Chloe found and compiled all the music they needed, coordinated extra rehearsals, sent a million emails to the parents, printed programs, had cast t-shirts made, scheduled the church building for the performances, etc, etc, and Anna learned her 4 parts.  Pretty amazing!  We’re so grateful for all the support they got, so thank you so much for all of you who came to see it. 

We are now taking a very long break before staring the next play.