Annie and Sandy the Dog

It was so fun recently to see Savannah in the performance of Annie! When hearing that the middle and high schools were going to put on this play, without hesitation, she said that she wanted to audition. I was excited for her! I thought for sure she would get one of the orphan parts, but instead, got the part of Sandy, the dog. Even better--that fit her perfectly too. Over the years, one of her favorite playtime activities with siblings is playing different animals, specially dogs. So for her to be Sandy was perfect. We were very proud of her taking the initiative to audition and then to commit to two practices every week. She never missed a practice! The play was great for her social development too as she made a lot of friends there. It was wonderful to finally have the day of performance come and be able to attend with Bri. I think I had a big smile on my face every time she was on stage. I'm proud of her and am loving watching this girl grow and develop in middle school!
Here is Savannah now, giving her perspective:
ISL was putting on the play Annie, so I tried out and got the part of Sandy, the dog. I love dogs, so it was perfect for me. :)

The first time I went to rehearsal for Annie, I didn’t know anyone there except for a few of my friends and the awesome directors, Mr. and Mrs. Martin and Ms. Signe.
As the weeks went by, I found that the high schoolers are not always so boring. We practiced for almost 2.5 months, two days a week after school.  The last five days of Annie were very stressful times. The people in Annie, including me, were taken onto a bus that would take us to the theater that we were performing at. When we got to the theater for the first time, I saw my dog costume. It looked very demented. The head was like 5x the size of my head, and inside of the costume it was very, very hot.

In scene 4, I had exactly 1 minute to change into a normal New Yorker. That was only one minute, I had to put on makeup before and hoped that it would not smudge. It was tense in the locker rooms. The main room was about the size of a very small room: 9 by 10 feet.

The performance was a very good and bad time. It was good because during rehearsal, we were practicing really well. Then when we got to the stage, it was even better because we had more space than we had practicing during rehearsal. During the performance, I was dying underneath my costume.  After scene four, I had exactly a little bit less than one minute to change out of my dog costume, put on a dress, and then make sure that my makeup was not smudged.  Here are a few pictures of me practicing to put stage makeup on for the short scene where I got to be a New Yorker without the dog costume.  Rhea wanted in on the fun girl time, so she put a little makeup on too.  My dad caught us on camera.

We had three performances, and they all went well: One with all the elementary students, one with the middle school students, and the last one was for parents, high school, and other students that hadn’t seen it yet.  My parents came and supported me in the last performance. During the performance, for my scene, I tried to put a microphone under my dog head, but it wouldn’t work because the inside of the costume was covered in foam. I wanted a microphone because when Annie sings “Tomorrow,” I’m supposed to sing “ruff, ruff, ruff” along to the tune with her. Anyway, it was fine and slightly awesome because all of the elementary kids now know me as Sandy the dog.  :)

Miss Hannigan

Our friend Clark as Mr. Bundles

After the performance with Clark, Beatrice (Annie), and Savvy.

 Savvy, Mr. Ulvis, and friend Georgina.At the end, parents brought flowers up on stage as they gave us a standing ovation.  My parents brought flowers as well. It was my first time acting in theater and I would love to do it again!