The Grade 5/6 Show

All the kids, even the boys, were told they had to wear make-up for the school production: foundation, mascara and red lipstick.  Climber was not unduly freaked out by this, accepting the explanation that their features needed to be seen clearly under stage lighting.  It was a fun and interesting exercise putting it on him; like all people new to make-up application, his instinct was to screw up his face protectively.  The mascara was the hardest for both of us, and in the end I stood behind him, as if I were applying it to myself, while he stared straight into the mirror to avoid blinking. 



When we arrived at the theatre I covertly watched each newcomer boy walk the sidling walk of embarrassment up to their friends outside the stage door, then relax with relief and some hilarity as they checked each other out.

The Grade 5/6 production is a whole maturity level above what the younger grades do, with proper acting and scripts in it, as well the usual singing and dancing.  It seems amazing that these children were tiny Preps a short while ago and are now so capable of such a sophisticated performance. The show's basic plotline was the mystery of the School Staffroom, which turns out to be an individual utopia for each and every staff member. The principal's staffroom was filled with intelligent, smiling, perfectly behaved children, the history teacher was a pharaoh of Ancient Egypt, the music teacher had a 1920's jazz club etc. Hilariously, the office staffs' Utopia was a Water Park complete with slides, naturally enough this was not actually staged. Climber's class performed in the media teacher's Utopia, where the teacher was a 1960's Italian Film Director.


(Climber, pre the actual song, is doing his clipboard acting)

Their song was Cinema Italiano from the musical Nine, not one I was familiar with beforehand. The kids were great, acting up all the movie set madness and then singing and dancing with great talent and verve.


 (In this picture you can see Climber on the right, a host of boys wearing the ties I made and also the 2 black dresses with white pockets that I made.)

Despite the performance finishing at a latish hour, the boys insisted they wanted to go for our traditional post-show gelati.  Quite right too.  We were all tired the next day, but it was the last day of term and we've now got the holidays to catch it up.