Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Performing

By Rebecca Talley

I admit it, I'm an American Idol junkie. I love that show.

My kids are all performers. I'm not sure where they picked up their love for theater and performing. My husband and I both played sports. I had envisioned spending hours watching my kids compete in basketball, football, track or other sports. Instead, I attend plays, concerts, and talent shows. My oldest son wants to pursue acting after his mission. My other kids all love to be in plays. My oldest daughter at home finished The Real Inspector Hound in February and has been cast in The Tempest. Her younger sister will be on the makeup crew for The Tempest. My younger kids will be in a production of Willy Wonka for the entire month of April, with my daughter playing Veruka. Just last night, my youngest daughter told us at the conclusion of Family Home Evening to all be quiet while she performed for us. She went on to dance and sing for several minutes. I've had children involved in as many as 3 plays all at once (while I was pregnant, which was quite overwhelming). Who knew my kids' talents would be in this area? I've realized that I've raised a family of performers.

So I guess my fascination with American Idol is just a natural outgrowth of watching my own kids perform and develop their talents. My favorite contestant is David Archuleta and I enjoy watching him every week. It's wonderful that he not only has the opportunity to share his talent with the world, but we can enjoy his talent. i can't wait to see who wins.

7 comments:

Tamster said...

I loved being involved in theater when I was in high school. When I went to BYU, however, I found that there was just way too much competition. It was a little discouraging because it meant giving up something I enjoyed. It would be fun to have my kids involved in theater when they get older too.

I was also involved with sports--volleyball, in particular--in high school and church sports. I love VB and softball, and I can enjoy playing pretty much any sport. I've never liked to run, though, and I don't care for aerobics; when it comes to exercising I don't do enough of it because sports involve more than just me. I don't know how I got off onto this, but anyway...
My point is that I would also love for my kids to be involved in sports. I used to get frustrated because I didn't feel like there was any one area that I really excelled in or stood out to people as being really good at like so many others I knew. I realized, though, (I think because a friend pointed it out to me) that I have somewhat of an advantage because I can do a lot of different kinds of things at least to some degree. I love theater and sports, as previously mentioned, but I also love dancing, singing, music and can play the piano to some degree. I may not be the star at any of them, but I can hold my own.
Anyway, I think it's great that your kids are involved in something, whatever it is. It's good to have those experiences to help expand their horizons and build character (not just the character they are acting out either--hehehehe). Okay, I've rambled long enough. Good for you for helping them to be a part of something--especially when you have sooooo many going on at once!

(FYI, just a little side note: when you are using quotation marks for a title, you don't need the commas before or after it. The commas are used to set something apart, so the sentence should still be a complete sentence if you took that out; in the case of a title as you used it, you would not want to take the title out because you would not have a complete sentence anymore, so you would not use commas. Am I making any sense? I hope so. Anyway, I'm not trying to be critical at all, and I'm not a professional editor (although I've wondered sometimes if I should have been, since I'm so detail-oriented; I was a secretary for several years, though). I just thought it might help is all! Thanks for your thoughts, Rebecca! :-) Tami

Tamster said...

Just to clarify something I just said, commas should be used when the quotation marks are around an actual quote or what someone said. That's different than what I was describing before. Anyway, I hope I haven't confused anyone more. I'm not always the greatest at explaining what's in my head. That's another reason I should not be a writer, I guess. ;-) Sorry! I also don't claim to always do everything perfectly, but I do like to share what I know if it will help someone! :-)

Rebecca Talley said...

Thanks, Tami. Punctuation isn't always easy for me. And, thanks for your thoughts. You sound like my oldest daughter who has many talents and does them all well. She can't decide what she wants to study in college because she loves so many things, including theater.

Rebecca Talley said...

I fixed it, Tami. Maybe it's better now?

Kimberly Job said...

I agree. I love David too. An interesting tidbit...

My friend was flying to Nashville and sat by David's grandpa on the plane. They started talking about American Idol and the week David sang a song and sang the second verse rather than the better known first verse (I think it was one of the Beatles weeks). Anyway, his grandpa said he didn't want to sing the 1st verse because it talked about hell. What a great kid!

Also, David was in my daughter's friends EFY group last year at BYU. How cool is that?

I know... enough of the stories about I know someone, who knows someone...

How fun for you to have such talented kids. It seems kids these days are more talented. I guess it's because they have more opportunities.

Christine Thackeray said...

Ahhhh! I'm an American Idol junkie too. I like Brook, David Cook, and Dregsman, although David and Brook stunk last night. I just like to see what they come up with- I like watching original expression in any form.

BTW, my daughter was one of the leads in her elementary play last night. I was at Mutual but my husband says she stole the show. My guess is your kids got it from you.

Doug Johnston said...

I have acted for a very long time. I made a list of 100 things I will do before I die in 1981. One of those things was to sing in a musical. I did it when I was Yertle the Turtle in Seussical the Musical . I was terrible, but luckily I only had a few singing lines. After a young man came up and asked for my autograph. I had tears in my eyes, thinking he really loved my singing and acting. Then I saw him ask the person next to me for his autograph. The person next to me asked him why he wanted his autorgraph? The young man said, I get everyones autograph, to make them feel good. The tears dried up very fast.
I have been a bishop in a play, Santa in a play, a drunk father in a play, a polygamist on two television series and the most memorable was being a turtle. Go figure, even if the autograph was to make me fell good.