Donovan's Daughters

I forgot to blog about Austin being in his school play a week or so ago. Funny thing was, he didn't try out for the play.

One day during lunchtime at school, I got a text from Austin, the conversation went something like this:

Austin: I'm in the play
Me: What? I thought you weren't trying out.
A: I didn't
Me: Wait. What?
A: I'll explain when I get home. Oh, and I got the lead.

Do I need to try to explain just how long of an afternoon that was? I nearly pulled him out of his truck when he got home begging for more information.

It turned out that the kid who had the lead, had something happen and he just decided to quit the play.

This was a month into rehearsals.
This was 3 weeks before the play.
This was a lead role.
This part had over 130 lines to be memorized.
Did I mention it was 3 weeks before the play?

The co-directors of the play scrambled to figure out who they thought could do this, and they both thought of Austin. According to one director, when they asked Austin if he'd do it, he just shrugged his shoulders and said "Sure, why not".

Fortunately for Austin, he is extremely good at memorizing. The one thing he can't do is accents. His character was an Irish immigrant, but Austin is a true, no accent, midwest farm boy. The directors let the accent go.

A week before the play I asked Austin if he'd like me to run lines with him and he said "What for?" I explained that it might help him with learning his lines. He looked at me and said "I've had them learned for a few days now." Uh, ok, nevermind then. lol

I will be honest, I was so nervous on the opening night of the play. I knew this was a lot of pressure, and Austin's never had a lead role before. I wanted this to be a great night for him, but I needn't have worried. He did great!

He never missed a single line and was animated and believeable. Well, as believable as a blonde-haired, blue-eyed teenage boy can be when portraying an Irish father of 5 daughters.

All of the kids did awesome and the play was a great success.

The following Monday after the play, I again got a text from Austin:

A: I'm in Speech now
Me: What?
A: Mrs. V and Mrs. P (speech coaches) told me they saw me in the play and they want me on the team.
Me: So you have groupies?
A: What?
Me: Nevermind

Here's a couple of pictures from the play:

Here's Mr. & Mrs. Donovan. Yep, they sure look Irish don't they? lol

This is one of my favorite pictures. Austin is 5'7", but he looks so tiny next to all those big guys. lol

Mr. Donovan giving one of his fatherly speeches

When a girl is in a play, you normally give her a bouquet of flowers, but what do you do for guys? I knew Austin would die of embarrassment if I gave him a bouquet, so I had to be creative. I decided to take one single red rose and tie it to a big bag of skittles, which happens to be his favorite food of all time (yes, he swears it is one of the food groups). After the play, the rose was on the counter and the skittles were never seen again. If you look closely, you can see the tip of the flower and part of the skittles, hidden behind the congratulations picture his girlfriends little sister had made for him. But at least he survived. :)

Oh, and I thought his hair would be great for the Winterfest dance or even Prom, but I was vetoed by both Austin and his girlfriend. lol