Oliver! at GVHS

Oliver!, GVHS's 2015 Spring musical, just finished a great run this weekend. As usual, there were 4 shows, the order of which was impacted by snow and ice. Opening night was to be Thursday night, followed by shows on Friday night, Saturday matinee, and the closing show with senior announcements and thank you's on Saturday night. Due to a late winter snowstorm that dropped 9 inches on us, the Thursday night show was moved back to a Sunday matinee. This was very upsetting to Julia, who had nearly 20 friends and counselors from the Mary Campbell Center scheduled to come for the opening.

Opening night snow (March 5)

The show, when it did open on Friday, was another big success. Everything about the show was extremely well done. I didn't know the music to this one as well as the others that Julia has been involved in (this makes three, after Les Miserables and The Little Mermaid), but I really enjoyed it. The performers were great, the orchestra was good, the sets were terrific, and the costumes (of course!) were fabulous.

Oliver! cast and main set

Amparo has now become fully immersed in costume committee, and spent countless more hours on this show, designing and making costumes, organizing things, and doing whatever she could to help out. It has been a great experience for her, getting to know a lot of really nice people and learning a lot about sewing all kinds of different things. It is great to see her having so much fun with the creative aspect of it (even if the dining room and other parts of the house look like a garment factory/warehouse sometimes). I was especially pleased, because of all the hard work, that Amp was one of the people called up to the stage and recognized with a big bouquet of roses at the end of the "thank you" show on Saturday night. She earned it.

Julia, as always, was bouncing off the walls with excitement all weekend (except when she was too tired to bounce). She was an orphan, and was in half a dozen scenes when there was a girls' chorus. She had a blast. Her Mary Campbell Center friends came to the Sunday matinee, and Julia was able to revel in being the center of attention after the show. She was able to have a few group pictures with one of the stars of the show (Marco as Fagin), who came out to greet her friends.

Julia and Marco (as Fagin) and friends

I wish I had YouTube videos to link to...but there aren't any. All I could find was this one test video of a rehearsal, with nothing from an actual show.

A lot of take-down work still needs to be done, but planning is already being discussed for next year's two shows (Footloose and The Music Man). I'm sure there will be a part for Julia, and lots of sewing to do for Amp. I'm looking forward to it.