A Job Well Done

"Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might." -Ecclesiastes

The packed auditorium was buzzing with excitement as we sat among a few scattered parents and dozens of children of all sizes and ages. It was Jeremiah's turn to audition for his first full length play, Seussical the Musical. He had been given a page of script in which he had just a few minutes to review and then gave a "cold" reading. Pretty good.

We waited some more. Time to sing. Wait a minute, can Jeremiah sing? His chosen song was the humorous parody Cats in the Kettle sung to the tune of Cats in the Cradle as written by Weird Al (If you've never heard it, look it up on the web). The audience was tickled with his antics and his voice, and I think that's what won him the part of The Grinch. He also played a double role as the eagle.

Though on stage for most of the production, his speaking (and solo singing) parts were relatively small. He went to almost all of the practice days of which there were too many, often having to wait long periods for his turn to come up. He really gave his all to each of four performances.

Well the play has been long over for months now, but several lasting friendships resulted, and so many good things have transpired as part of that experience. (A dream of mine was for the boys to be able to participate in the realm of drama or perhaps speech in some way.)

A few weeks ago Jeremiah got notice in the mail that he was nominated for an award and to please come to the awards ceremony which was last Saturday night. We went not expecting anything but a good time, but we were pleasantly surprised. The very first award given was for "Outstanding Performance By a Supporting Actor in Children's Literature" (of which all nominations were from Seussical) and Jeremiah won! He went up on stage and received his award and said his thank-you.

This unexpected delight was recognition of a job well done that somebody(s) had noticed. It amazed us to think of the large cast of characters in the play and that he was chosen. A speaker for the Arts Council summed it up this way: "Their role may or may not have been a big one, but their performance was such that when you walked out the theater door, their character made a definite impact on you."

Congratulations again to Jeremiah for a job well done!