Mr. Banks, Beast and the Duck

This blog post may or may not really be for general consumption.  If you are wondering whether this post is for you, ask yourself whether, even if the children are not your own, you enjoy seeing them shock the pants off their friends and family by doing things their parents could not fathom.  If yes, please proceed.  If no, check in with me next post.  I won't be offended.

First, the back story.  We signed Casey up for drama camp this summer, said camp to be held at the school he's been attending for the past three years.  Casey has attended drama camps for the two previous summers -- one at Berkeley Prep and one at the Straz Center downtown.  He was only 6 when he attended at Berkeley, and it was definitely a good program.  The summer he was 7, he attended the camp at the Straz Center -- we weren't that impressed with that program.  But this summer, Casey was very excited because he would be attending drama camp with several of his friends from school.

When he came home the first day, I learned that he had been given two parts (the children were doing selected scenes from several different Disney plays) -- Mr. Banks in Mary Poppins and Beast in Beauty and the Beast.  Now, I could certainly see him as Mr. Banks -- cranky and overbearing are character traits Casey can readily draw upon from personal experience:

But Beast . . .  I was a little nervous about Beast because being in love, tender, and reticent are definitely NOT character traits Casey can readily draw upon from personal experience.  As the the two weeks of camp wore on, I tried to weasel out of Casey exactly what he was going to be required of to do as Beast.  He refused to tell me.  Flat out refused.  At one point, I watched the video selection online that contained the song he was going to do and realized that the scene required dancing.  DANCING!  So I asked him if he was going to have to dance and he said no.  He told me he wanted to surprise me with everything he was doing.  I was forbidden by him to attend any rehearsals, so if I showed up early to pick him up and it was his turn on stage, I had to wait outside.

Now you need to note a couple of things about this video clip:

1)  I glued those horns on that wig.  It doesn't matter how straight you glue horns onto a wig if the wearer of the wig doesn't put the wig on straight.

2) Within the first 30 seconds of the video, Casey turned and glared at me.  I don't know why and he doesn't remember doing it.

Drama Camp was two weeks long, but at the end of the first week, Mace was recruited by the director to be Donald Duck.  So starting Friday of last week, Mace started Drama Camp.  Every day, the director bribed him with a car or a dinosaur to continue coming.  Mace was in the Mickey Mouse Club number, so he had to be on stage twice, at the very beginning and then again at the very end.  I felt pretty sure he'd be fine on stage the first time, but the second time was going to be at about 8:00 p.m., approximately 30 minutes past his normal bedtime.  The video clip below is from his second appearance on stage.  The first time on stage he was wearing white gloves, but he apparently lost them in the intervening hour and a half.

He was an adorable bill-less duck and I think he did everything he was supposed to do.  Thankfully, he did not get kicked in the head by the gymnast.

So this morning, we are all still basking in the glow of a successfully dramatic evening.  Casey cried before bed last night because he was sad drama camp was over -- apparently that's an inherent side-effect of drama camp.  It makes you even more dramatic.