Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Out Of the Woods!

Lexi is obsessed with "Into the Woods."  I mean, like "more-than-she-was-obsessed-with-Frozen" obsessed.  It was one of the first movies that she attended in the theater and had a descriptive services headset.  Descriptive services add a narrator to the movie who talks when there is no dialogue.  The narrator describes what those of us with sight are able to see.  It's a great service for the visually impaired and Lexi LOVES it!  Prior to seeing the movie, Christi had given her the soundtrack CD, so Lex knew all of the songs and had already sung them hundreds of times before going to the theater.  After she saw the movie, a sweet couple from our church congregation took her to a local high school production of the play.  Now, in addition to the soundtrack, she owns two copies of the movie:  a digital copy on Amazon that Christi got for her, and a DVD that Christi got for her after we realized the digital copy didn't have the descriptive services option.  Lexi and Sophi sing the songs from this musical multiple times a day.  At the top of their lungs.  Over and over.  It's a beautiful thing.

Despite all of this, I had not yet seen the movie.  Christi impressed upon me the fact that it was very important to Lexi that I watch it with her.  When I demurred, Christi impressed upon me the fact that my future happiness in my marital relationship was largely dependent on my watching it with Lexi.  I saw the light.  So one Sunday afternoon, Christi, Lexi, Sophi and I cuddled in our bed to watch Into the Woods.  It was a painful experience.  While watching Captain Kirk belt out 'Agony' was a bit of a fanboy fantasy, and while the songwriting was exceptional, the movie itself had a warped storyline and was waaaay too long.  At the point in the movie where it looks like everyone is going to live happily ever after and I would be able to turn off the TV (and I was dozing off already), Christi turned to me and said, "that's the end of Act I."  I totally thought she was joking, and once I realized it was true, I began to understand the true meaning of 'Agony!'  [Side note: after finding the link to 'Agony' above, I have been playing the song while working on this post.  Sure enough, like moths to a flame, there are now two darling little girls in my office ;)]

Of course I didn't let Lex and Soph know my true feelings.  I talked about how fun the music was and how great the various characters were.  Continuing with their love of this musical, these two little angels decided to put on their own production.  On my way home from work the next evening I got a call from Christi.  "Hurry back!  Lexi and Sophi are putting on a production of Into the Woods for us and can't wait for you to get here."  Barely able to contain my joy, I put the pedal to the medal and arrived just in time for curtain call.  Jessica was invited to be the narrator, Sophi was Rapunzel and Lexi was every other role (except milky white, the cow, who was played by Molly).  In the pictures below, notice Lexi's red cape and Sophi's Rapunzel hair (some kind of nylon stocking with a belt to extend it).  Very clever costumes with no help from mom and dad.




And so their production began.  We began to video.  My attention span is not tremendously long.  5 minutes.  8 minutes.  12 minutes.  15 minutes.  Finally I realized the truth.  Having seen the movie just the day before, I was very familiar with the storyline, dialogue and songs.  Suddenly I knew.  I turned to Christi and said, "They are going to do the ENTIRE movie!  Line for line!!!"  Fortunately, despite her attention span being decidedly more 'kid-prodution-friendly' than mine, Christi knew it just wouldn't work for us to watch a full 2.5 hour musical that particular evening.  She asked the girls to do two more of their favorite parts and then it would be time for dinner.

I love our girls!  They did a fantastic job.  I'm embedding a video below.  It's 15 minutes long, so just skip around to a couple of scenes to see a bit of their creativity.  Enjoy!

-Jer