Another Play for Jonathan

With the end of this week, Jonny's summer of theater camps comes to an end. He was in 4 this summer: one at the Chanhassen Dinner Theater, one with Prairie Fire Children's Theater production (they did "The Wizard of Oz"), a super cool comedy improv camp through Homeward Bound Theater Company, and finally, Westwood's own WATCH camp's musical "High Cotton". Thou this is the least "professional" of the camps listed, it is usually the among the highest quality in performance. This year was no exception.

The kids audition for parts in late June, get roles assigned by early July, memorize their lines and the songs they will be singing, develop a character map, pull together a costume, then have 5 consecutive days of rehearsal before the big performance on Saturday evening. The kids work hard from only 9am-12pm everyday, and manage to pull together a fabulous show.

In years past, Jonny has played Mordca, the Innkeeper in Fiddler on the Roof:

And played a scene in the role of Jesus during Godspell, Jr:

This year, he was Reverend Fletcher in "High Cotton":

He fit this role well...it suits his daily personality as a kind, compassionate, caring for everyone, living by Truth and following the Word kind of person that he is naturally. Watching him tonight, I could almost even envision him as a real pastor someday! How cool would that be?!?

All the family came to support Jonny, as well as Grandparents Connelly, and Grandma ? and Lyle. OH! Crispy and Tubby had stayed overnight the night before at their house, attended a Mankato Moondogs game, and helped to take care of the sheep. It was Tubby's first sleepover at the farm, and he had a great time. So much so, that he didn't want to have anything to do with the rest of us when we were reunited at the play, and he was VERY upset that he did not get to go back home with them. As we were driving home, Grandma's car was in front of us...as they went straight at the stop sign, we took a right, and Tubby yelled out "No! Noooo!" and cried the rest of the ride home. So much for missing us.....

Bethany slept for the first 20 minutes of the play, then was awake and antsy the rest of the time. I had to stand with her in the back, constantly bouncing her, patting her back, walking back and forth...this girl is a lot of work! We finally found a dark back row to nurse, and thankfully she didn't let out any loud belches. After the play ended, I gave her to Grandpa to try to work his magic with her, but she was fussy, even for him!

At the conclusion of the play, we had some excitement thanks to the tornado that was moving close by, and we were all ushered into the church basement into a middle room of the building. Tubby was a bit freaked out, but the kids were able to distract him with a whiteboard and markers we found. Once sure that the tornado was out of our path, we all took our chances and left for home. Everyone made it safely, and most of us enjoyed the neat lightening display from one lone white puffy cloud amongst the dark blackness of the others.

Jonny is really a talented boy, and takes after his daddy in this theater arts world. I look forward to many more great performances in the future like this (without the tornadoes, of course!).