King Arthur's Quest

Jared auditioned last Monday for a part in the play King Arthur's Quest, which a traveling theater company had come to his school to help put together. He stayed after school for two hours Monday for auditions are part assignments, and was told at the end of the two hours that he would be cast as a "mini." There wasn't much explanation as to what a "mini" was, but Jared was EXTREMELY excited to have earned a part in the play!

The rehearsal schedule that came home told us he would take Tuesday off from rehearsal, but would be need to rehearse W-F from 3:30pm-5:30pm. When I picked him up Wednesday, he told me he'd been cast as a mini blue knight. We quizzed Jared about the rehearsals and learned he had a line to say ("The knights of the round table!"), and that he was having TONS AND TONS of fun, but otherwise, we didn't know much. However, the program was clearly very organized and well-run, with LOTS of parent volunteers, so I knew Jared was in good hands.

Saturday was the day of the big performance (and yes, you read that correctly! Kids auditioned Monday, reheared for FIVE DAYS--less on the part of the "minis" like Jared--and were ready to perform TWICE on Saturday). Jared had to be at dress rehearsal at 11am Saturday, and was there through dress rehearsal, lunch, show #1, snack, show #2, photo opps, costume turn-in, and check-out. 8.5 hours solid Saturday, and he was BUMMED that it was all over!!!

The kids did AMAZING. I was extremely impressed that they could put together a play in only five days. The older kids rehearsed from 3:30pm-8pm each night, but their efforts really showed through, and all the kids were enjoying themselves.

As the play got underway, the whole "mini" thing became clear... The bigger kids played King Arthur, Guinevere, Merlin, The Knights of the Round Table (and their squires), Taliesen, and The Raven. At one point, the big kids headed out on a journey and exited towards the front of the stage. A few seconds later, you see the "mini" versions walking across the stage towards the back and it's pointed out that they're walking "really far away". Thus establishes that the minis are the "far away" versions of the "biggies" (as Jared claims they were called during rehearsals). A bit later, the "biggies" are needed to go on a quest to deal with a giant. Big kids exit to our left, then in file the "minis" from the right (the little kids on stage made the giant seem GIANT... get it?). Another scene had the biggies exit, and then the minis enter to deal with a dragon, making the dragon appear much larger (which, by the way, then led to a hilarious dance scene between the dragon and the minis!! I had tears streaming down my face I was laughing so hard!!).

Jared had an AMAZING time during the whole process and has asked several times if he'll get a chance to do something like this again. He loved it! He really enjoyed the audience and got into the whole performance. I thoroughly enjoyed watching him! I took a bunch of pictures, but without being able to use a flash, most of my pictures came out totally blurry and worthless...

Here's what I did end up capturing!






(singing the finale song)


posing for group pics afterwards