Radio Kids

Tuesday night we were treated to a performance that I am still beaming about.  The Armstrongs (the fourth and fifth graders) put on a musical.  The playwright (yes, that is spelled correctly) was sitting front and center.  I was sitting nearby and she remarked that I looked familiar.  It turns out that we worked together at Holland Hall way back when.  The playwright's name is Sally Adams.  She is currently the middle school drama teacher at Holland Hall.  She was gracious enough to let Mayo perform this musical and loaned the script, score and costumes.  We are in her debt.

She went backstage before the performance and met some of the kids.

The time is 1926 and the setting is the Mayo Hotel.  Tulsa is in the midst of the oil boom and two young girls from Iowa receive a letter from their Pa telling them that they are to go to Tulsa to stay with their Aunt Pat.  Their mother has recently passed and he has found work in the oil fields outside of Tulsa.  The rest of the story is set inside the Mayo and involves those two young girls getting acquainted with rich oil barons, bell boys, going to a ball, and worrying about their Pa after an explosion in the oil field.  It is full of drama, romance and some great comedy.

Here are our leading ladies.

These three men are Mr. Getty, Mr. Phillips and Mr. Skelly of oil baron fame.  They had such swagger in the play. 

This gentleman here in white is Dakota and is one of my all time favorite kids on the planet.  He really owned the stage.

There was a great musical number where the women faced off with the men about women's rights and equality.  It was a fabulous number!  And the first time I caught a glimpse of my girl.

Then my eldest made her stage debut with an emotional scene in which she cried the whole time.

Poor Gladys.  She works as a hotel switchboard operator and listens in on party lines when she knows she isn't supposed to.  And she was eavesdropping on someone she is sweet on but he is planning on inviting someone else to the bachelor's ball.  She is already 22 and feeling the sting of becoming an old maid.  Oh my...the drama.

Emma Jane really milked it for all this scene was worth.  The more the audience laughed the harder she cried.

There was dancing.

There was singing.

And hysterical bus boys.

But mostly there were happy kids who really worked hard and felt a sense of pride in what they had accomplished.

There was a fancy ball at the end.

Don't these kids look like they are having a blast?

After the performance as the curtains were closing the applause was deafening.  That brought Emma to tears.  She said she wasn't expecting the thundering applause and loud raucous cheering.  She said she felt so loved and proud of what they had accomplished.  And in true Emma fashion, she remarked that it was everyone who had made it possible.  That without the props, the stage hands, the costumers, the sound and lighting volunteers, it would not have been possible.  She asked if she could give some of her flowers away to the assistants.

Emma with her teachers who directed and organized the musical.  Also pictured is the star of the show, Sara, who sang and had the leading role.

I am pretty sure these kids are going to be on stage again.  I feel like we haven't seen the last of these performers.