Roadshow Fun

So I've been talking a lot about the stress the roadshow has caused me lately, but not really so much about the fun of it.  Now that it's over I figured that it's only fitting that I write a more detailed blogpost all about it, so you can see (and I can remember) that it was well worth the effort to see the end results. 

A roadshow is a  conglomeration of several short performances each about 10-15 minutes long, where the 12-18-year-old youth from the individual wards (church congregations) within our stake put on a show.  The shows were all based on the theme from the Dr. Seuss book, "Oh, the Places You'll Go!"  We were encouraged  to use the thirteenth article of faith as a guide and make them wholesome (but not necessarily spiritual), praiseworthy, and fun! 

A roadshow director was in charge of each individual performance, but the youth were meant to do all of the performing and assist with the prep work, including helping to write the script, choreograph the dances, and paint the scenery. Although the youth were involved in the prep, there was still a significant amount for the adults to do as well.  Other adults helped the youth with costumes, choreography, constructing a set, planning the cast party, and gathering props.    My job was mostly to help corral the youth at the practices each week, to help the director (Sister M) with some of the details (printing individualized scripts for everyone, etc), and creating the paper program for the night.  I love paper projects like making programs, but I was a little intimidated by how to fit all the information, including the hundreds of performers' names all onto one sheet of paper and still have it look nice.   In the end I feel like it came together well in a tri-fold form that strongly resembled the sacrament meeting programs I made for several years. 

Never being much of a performer myself, I was a little surprised at how wrapped up I got in trying to help the individual youth take pride in their participation in the roadshow.  There was a good number of the youth (mostly boys) who would take any opportunity they could to bolt out of practice to the nearest basketball, but even still, somehow it all came together in the end. 

Here is the video our final performance.  It was the culmination of about 5-weeks of practice.  See Spencer as the Old Spice Guy at :45-1:35.  Emma whistles right at the end of that same scene and is in the front row (looking everywhere but at the audience) in some of the dances.  Cami is Miss Piggy right at the very end.  Ellie, who is obviously not quite old enough to be an official participant, but is always at practice with me, was so excited when the roadshow director said that she could participate.  You can see her as one of the animals in Spencer's scene and glimpses of her in each of the dances.  At the end of the performance she came bounding backstage to me (literally bounding) and shrieking about how excited she was that she'd been able to perform in "every single song!"  I sense a possible future thespian in the family!  :)

Although I am relieved that it is over, I love that it ended up being a fun experience for the whole family and hopefully for each of the youth as well.  To wrap up, I'll throw in a bunch of pictures and a list of the top ten things I enjoyed about participating in the roadshow! 

Top Ten Things about Participating in a Roadshow

10--Watching new friendships blossom between the youth.
9--Seeing fun new glimpses of their personalities.
8--Watching them help and encourage one another.
7--Watching a shy girl open up and give a performance her all.
6--Seeing how awesomely talented they all are in their own ways.
5--Getting a tiny glimpse at all the hard work it takes to perform on stage
4--Seeing how they embraced the new kid, including him in the production and in process helping him to feel part of the group
3--Hearing other people compliment your youth and their performance
2--Working hard towards a common goal and getting to enjoy the fruits of it at the end.
1--Getting to have fun together! 

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I thought our roadshows were pretty awesome, but imagine my surprise when I saw this headline on the front page of the Washington Post today...

Seriously?  How rude of them to be so judgmental against a bunch of teenagers.

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*  The video and pictures of Spencer were taken by the Nielson family.  :)