63. Backstage (mom)

If you have been reading the blog lately you know that my girls are in their elementary school's play production and the performances are this weekend. This photograph was taken of Katie backstage just after last night's performance. She looks outstandingly beautiful in the shot, but at the same time I find it terribly disturbing... in the JonBenet sort of way. Although she is only 9 years old, she looks much, much older.  It is not easy to see her grow up or to realize that she heading so rapidly for the terrible tweens. She is amazingly photogenic (if such a thing really exist) and a cooperative model. If the industry wasn't such a destructive place I may consider encouraging her into it. In the meantime she will have to be satisfied with performing in school plays once a year and putting on way too much make-up so the stage lights don't wash out her face. (She really loves the make-up part.) What I didn't realize is that a bunch of my friends are stage moms...

I had a bear of a time curling the girls hair. On Friday the curls had fallen out before we made it to the theater. Today I put double the effort into the task, and although the curls lasted longer, they still fell flat too soon. Backstage I approached a couple of moms whose daughters displayed the perfect ringlets. How did they get those great curls and how did they make them last? The answer was consistent... a professional salon. And the make-up job, yes, a professional too. While my daughters' hair was obviously not up to par, several moms asked me who did their make-up so I guess I did OK. The thought of taking a 8 and 9 year old to the salon for hair and make-up before the school play never, ever crossed my mind. Again, feeling a little JonBenet creeped out.

There is always competition for solos in play production. There are more kids than parts with solos and of course even more stage moms. Let me back up... this is an elementary school performance. The kids are 7-11 years old. Every child that wants to participate does and everyone will get a turn at the mic... but it may not be a solo.  So last fall all the audition preparation that we encouraged Katie to do was nothing more than to sing along with Liza Minnelli to her iPod. She did great and ended up with a duet.  Call me naive, but I had no idea that some parents hired professionals to coach their children on their audition songs. I guess like everything in life if you really want something you need to go in prepared to get it. So much for enjoying childhood, Katie will have to give up her summer to prepare for her next audition. I will have to book early for the salon, I heard it fills up quickly.