Everyday from December 1 through December 20, with about the exception of 2 Sundays and 1 Saturday, Rachel was at The Ruth and Nathan Hale Theater in Pleasant Grove, on the main stage (or in the dressing room), rehearsing and performing in Elf, Jr, and she absolutely loved it! December 1-5 was rehearsals from 3-6 p.m. On the last day of rehearsals, they brought in a photographer to shoot the whole show. Here's the whole cast and crew. They had a choreographer, make-up team, costume team, show manager, director, and even someone overseeing children in a production to make sure that they were treated well. I was really amazed at the professionalism here. They performed on the same set for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but they still had a lot of their own sets.
I liked how they did Santa's costume. They did this really cool suit that was mostly green, and they didn't make him fat.
Here's Rachel as an elf.
Buddy with the Elves.
Here's Buddy after he first arrives in New York, and check out that cute girl in the plaid pants, pink cardigan, maroon scarf, and double tassel beanie. She's my favorite New Yorker.
Here she is again.
And again at the Rockefeller Center.
With Buddy and Jovie at the Rockefeller Center again.
Now, she's in the background, fixing her hat outside of Central Park.
Her New York Family.
Finale.
We got tired of darkening Rachel's eyebrows everyday, so we decided to tint them, so we had a tinting party. We look so good!
We got 10 complimentary tickets to go see the show, so we used them to take both sets of Grandparents, and our family over the two Saturdays. Rachel was a little sad that she didn't know anyone who was going to go on opening day on December 8, so I got a ticket and went to go see her.
It was so fun seeing her name in the Playbill.
Here she is after her first performance.
She got to have a key card to the building, a show shirt, and apparently unlimited soda backstage.
On weekdays, her shows were at 4:30, and Saturdays were at 9 a.m. During the first week, she also had two extra morning shows at 10 a.m. for school groups. After one of her morning shows, the cast wanted to go to In 'n Out for lunch, and then they headed to Target after lunch. It was funny seeing the guy who played Santa, who is pretty tall, walking around Target with all these much shorter kids trailing around him. You probably needed to be there, but I thought it was pretty entertaining.
She also went to Chiles after one of the shows with her cast-mates. It was date night for Brian and I, so we just waited for her to tell us she was finished at Chiles, and then we went and picked her up. I appreciated all the older cast members staying outside with her until we got there. I like these theater kids!
On the 13, we took our whole family and my mom to see her. (If we look a little bleary eyed, it's only because we were up late the night before watching the Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert.)
We're so proud of our performer!
Can you find Rachel in this hug?
Look how many keys he has! Since Rachel's call time was an hour before the show, we were in two cars, and Michael was ready to head home. We all ended up heading out at the same time, and he drove Grandma back to our house.
We loved how many friends went to go watch her. I reached out to Mrs. Denning to let her know about the performance, and she came to see Rachel. Unfortunately, she had to take off before Rachel got out of the dressing room. Fortunately, she was close and didn't mind me tracking her down so Rachel could say hi.
Rachel had friends from school come to watch her too. And some people from our neighborhood.
Michael was super helpful in getting Rachel to and from some of the shows so that Brian and I could work on Christmas projects!
All too soon (for Rachel anyway), the last show arrived, and Nana, Papa, the Nelsons, and Brian, Gabe, and I came to watch her. Papa took some contraband photos, and we love them.
Nearly the whole cast was crying when they came out to the lobby to greet their fans. Rachel LOVED having so many loved faces greeting her and hugging her.
Danny wanted to know why Michael didn't come. The reason is that he had come the week previous, and I knew I couldn't get him out of bed two weeks in a row to watch a play. He loves his sister, but he has his limits.
We are so proud of Rachel. It was so fun to see her love a performance again! We can't remember the last time she enjoyed something this much. She still misses all her friends from Elf. It was a really fun experience. We're excited to see what show she does next.
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