Jalen and the Giant Peach

When Jalen started drama classes this year, I knew he would love it.  Every Monday night after drama he jumps in the van all excited to tell me what they had done, and all the funny things that happened durning class.

As the year has gone on he has gone through stages of loving it, and saying he really  wants to be an actor when he 'grows up', to not being so sure about it.  After his 'company' did their first performance in front of parents he was so excited and said he loved being on the stage and that it gave him an 'adrenaline rush' and that when he finished and got off the stage he felt sad as he wanted to do more.

During last term's classes they focused on different skills they would need for their end of year production such as voice projection and posture etc. They then had an afternoon where they all had to audition for production.  This involved learning a monologue and doing it in front of the teachers and the whole company.  They were told that everyone would be given a part in production and that their audition would allow their teacher to see how they take direction and how confident they are learning lines, which would help her determine which part they would be given.

All week we were hounding Jay to learn his lines in his monologue and he kept forgetting about it, but finally knuckled down the day before and got it down really well. He was SO nervous before the audition.  He first of all did his monologue as he practiced it, and then his teacher asked him to do it again, but the second time he had to say it while he was pretending to cry. He said that everyone loved it and thought that he did pretty well.

The production that they are doing at the end of the year is 'James and the Giant Peach' and the kids were told that they would find out their parts before the school holidays.  The teacher was sick the last lesson though, so they didn't find out their parts, but I got an email during the holidays which absolutely shocked me.  It said something along the lines of 'your darling and oh so talented boy is going to be cast as 'James'. I read the email a few times before it really sunk in that Jay was going to be playing the lead role!

I knew Jay loved drama and that he was good at it as his teachers at school kept telling me to get him into a drama class as he was doing so well with it at school. I just didn't really know how well he was going with it. His teacher was so happy with him and said that he really deserved it and that it is going to be a lot of line learning, but she was confident that he could do it and was really excited to start rehearsing with him.  She was so lovely and said he was an amazing boy and that she would do everything she could to help him 'flourish and grow'. 

Last night he was excited to go to class so he could get the script and start running through it with the rest of the class. 

It's going to be a huge term with lots of rehearsals during the week and also on Saturdays, until they put it on in mid November.  They will be doing 5 shows over 3 days including two night shows which are open to the public, and also matinees which schools go to.

Hopefully it will be a really positive experience for Jay.  We are really excited and also nervous for him.  Let the line learning begin!