A Mid Summer’s Night 2019….

Over the weekend we were transported back to the time of William Shakespeare and his comic play, A Mid Summer Night’s Dream via the Centennial State Ballet’s production. Caedmon was a purple bug and I was a backstage mom/doctor/extra set of hands. A few months ago after we got the casting as rehearsals were just starting Clint sat down and read through his copy of Shakespeare’s play and then pulled me aside and said “I’ve read through the play and I can’t find any mention of a purple bug, are you sure that is what Caedmon is?” I had to inform him that Caedmon being a purple bug was more or less saying that he was moving scenery. But in my humble opinion he was the cutest moving scenery in the show. In the first scene he had a part where he called the other purple bugs back up to the front of the stage and he was so excited for his role.

It was a busy week before with dress rehearsals every night. As the backstage doctor I was there each night making sure no one got hurt and then tending to anyone who was hurt. Caedmon was only in the first Act, so during the second Act I told him to find a spot to watch. A short time later I looked around and I found him chilling with one of the big ballerina’s just talking. They were talking about all sorts of things from favorite colors, to favorite costumes, and on and on. Her music would cue and she’d jump up and go dance and then go back and sit down and talk with him some more. I think he developed a little crush on her because he asked to take her flowers and he wrote a card wishing her good luck on the day of the first show.

Caedmon was the only boy purple bug but there were 14 little girl purple bugs that he spent a lot of time with throughout the week. The moms in their dressing room planned crafts and activities for each night of dress rehearsals and kept all the girls happy, fed, entertained and ready to dance at the right times. He was excited to show me whatever craft that they made each evening.

Saturday was the first day of the show and Clint, Leighton and my brother Chris watched the show and Caedmon joined them during the second Act. Leighton’s take on the show was such “I really expected more action and not really people just going across the stage dancing with each other (ummmmm pretty sure you knew it was a ballet right?), but Caedmon’s part was cool and the sword fight was awesome. But there were too many fairies dancing. The second half was boring except the ribbons going around the pole….but my favorite was still the sword fight”. Thankfully he is not a dance critic, but I’m proud of him for watching and supporting his brother even if it meant watching fairies dance a lot. When I met up with them after the show Caedmon was beat and done and wouldn’t smile for a photo unless I tickled him but then I couldn’t get him to look at the camera…..

Because I usually had to be there early Caedmon learned that the big dancers do class before the performance to warm up and he started joining class each day. Sunday technically I wasn’t working backstage and it was my chance to watch the show, however there was a certain 7 year old who found me in the shower that morning and asked if we could go early so that he could take class with the big kids. I couldn’t say no to him and so we found ourselves there 2 hours before curtain with him taking class with the big kids. My parents and I watched the show Sunday and really enjoyed it. The dancers all did such a good job it is easy to forget that they are all high school students. They were all beautiful.