In which I gush about my kid a little more
CONSIDER YOURSELVES WARNED....
So last Thursday was the final performance of West Side Story, starring AAH among others. It also happened to be her birthday. We went to see it again: me, EPI, two of EPI’s daughters [Barbie was unfortunately unable to attend, as she is spending six months in Florence poor thing], and EPI’s father. And, as at the premiere, I was utterly stunned by AAH’s work.
This first happened about five years ago. When AAH was ten, the TV channel Showtime came to Iceland to shoot image commercials for the station and AAH was among those picked to perform. She had two days of shooting on location in two separate places in Iceland and as I was working full-time I only accompanied her to one of the shoots. It was the second of the two.
As we got there my little girl was whisked away by ‘industry people’ – hair, makeup, costume, etc. I was in awe of her professionalism [she sat in that makeup chair like she’d been doing it all her life] and if truth be told I felt just the slightest bit shaky about the whole thing because I was pretty superfluous there – my daughter was no longer my charge, but totally in the hands of the people who had hired her for the job – I was but a passive observer.
Eventually she was put in front of the camera to perform and when the director yelled ‘ROLLING!’ I could hardly believe my eyes. AAH instantly turned on this megawatt charm and delivered a performance worthy of a pro. She exhibited a quality that I had never seen in her quite the same way before and it was totally amazing and exhilarating to see.
Throughout that day she continued to work exceptionally hard under pretty dire conditions – it was freezing cold outside and she was wearing a thin little sleeveless dress and leggings and was supposed to act like she was in a much warmer climate; meanwhile, in between takes people ran over with blankets and down jackets to keep her warm. As a mother it was pretty hard to just stand off to the side and not be able to protect my child from the cold – it went against all my maternal instincts and was a decidedly unpleasant feeling. I almost strangled the [asshole] director at one point when she yelled at the top of her lungs ‘TELL THE LITTLE GIRL NOT TO LOOK SO COLD!!’ Grrr… even thinking about it now makes my blood boil!
Anyway, long story short she was the darling of the set and the producer, who is from NYC and whom we still keep in touch with, absolutely adored her. In his twelve years of producing, he said, he had never worked with a child who was so ‘professional and centered’ and said to me that if she ever showed the slightest interest in acting I should definitely encourage her because she was a natural.
Since then, there’s been another commercial that went into distribution in the US, and now there’s her awesome debut in her first play/musical. At the premiere about ten days ago I had that same jaw-dropping experience as I had that day on the set when she turned on that special something. Her singing was exceptional – I’d never heard her like that before. Even though she’s always sung a lot; in fact all through her childhood she had a habit of singing herself to sleep and also when she was waking up. Yet I only noticed a couple of years ago that she actually had a gorgeous voice – at which point EPI and I began to encourage her to do something with this obvious talent she has.
She auditioned for West Side Story with hardly any expectations, preparing a couple of Disney songs that she reluctantly and very nervously sang in front of me beforehand. When she was cast as the female lead I was both stunned and very very happy for her.
I had no idea that during those three months of rehearsals her talent would blossom the way it has. She received private coaching and tutoring during the rehearsal process, and while she sang well before, somehow this incredible voice was just… drawn out of her. When I heard her at the premiere, singing with a microphone for the first time, hitting all the correct notes, even the really high ones, dueting with others, singing like an angel... I totally had tears in my eyes.
In short, the show received well-deserved attention, was written up in [some] papers, and in general evoked absolute awe that such a production was possible to stage in three months. Just the sheer work of auditioning all those people, rehearsing a full live orchestra made up of teenagers to play music that really is fairly complex, training the singers to deliver fabulous performances for their age, choreographing the dancing, sewing costumes, constructing the set... back-to-back rehearsals day after day... no wonder I repeatedly heard people saying during intermission… ‘How is this possible?’
At that final performance, during the curtain call, when everybody was going crazy whistling and stomping and cheering, the cast and crew [all 100 of them] suddenly burst into Happy Birthday and brought out two paper crowns that they had made for AAH and another guy who also had his birthday on that day. Everyone had signed her crown, and the director had written ‘You are a miracle’. When I asked AAH about this, she told me that the director had also told her that, and had added that of all the cast, AAH had made the most progress in the 12 weeks of rehearsals.
So... please forgive me for all this gushing, but really I am SO proud of her!
... So now, if you’ve come this far and are looking for the weather in Iceland, congratulations on your perseverance and here it is: Cloudy and grey with drizzle at the moment. Getting milder than it has been since the northerly winds that have prevailed over the past couple of weeks finally seem to be leaving us. We seem to be in for a storm, though, in the west of the country tomorrow. It’s currently 5°C and the sun came up at 06.18 and will go down at 20.43.
So last Thursday was the final performance of West Side Story, starring AAH among others. It also happened to be her birthday. We went to see it again: me, EPI, two of EPI’s daughters [Barbie was unfortunately unable to attend, as she is spending six months in Florence poor thing], and EPI’s father. And, as at the premiere, I was utterly stunned by AAH’s work.
This first happened about five years ago. When AAH was ten, the TV channel Showtime came to Iceland to shoot image commercials for the station and AAH was among those picked to perform. She had two days of shooting on location in two separate places in Iceland and as I was working full-time I only accompanied her to one of the shoots. It was the second of the two.
As we got there my little girl was whisked away by ‘industry people’ – hair, makeup, costume, etc. I was in awe of her professionalism [she sat in that makeup chair like she’d been doing it all her life] and if truth be told I felt just the slightest bit shaky about the whole thing because I was pretty superfluous there – my daughter was no longer my charge, but totally in the hands of the people who had hired her for the job – I was but a passive observer.
Eventually she was put in front of the camera to perform and when the director yelled ‘ROLLING!’ I could hardly believe my eyes. AAH instantly turned on this megawatt charm and delivered a performance worthy of a pro. She exhibited a quality that I had never seen in her quite the same way before and it was totally amazing and exhilarating to see.
Throughout that day she continued to work exceptionally hard under pretty dire conditions – it was freezing cold outside and she was wearing a thin little sleeveless dress and leggings and was supposed to act like she was in a much warmer climate; meanwhile, in between takes people ran over with blankets and down jackets to keep her warm. As a mother it was pretty hard to just stand off to the side and not be able to protect my child from the cold – it went against all my maternal instincts and was a decidedly unpleasant feeling. I almost strangled the [asshole] director at one point when she yelled at the top of her lungs ‘TELL THE LITTLE GIRL NOT TO LOOK SO COLD!!’ Grrr… even thinking about it now makes my blood boil!
Anyway, long story short she was the darling of the set and the producer, who is from NYC and whom we still keep in touch with, absolutely adored her. In his twelve years of producing, he said, he had never worked with a child who was so ‘professional and centered’ and said to me that if she ever showed the slightest interest in acting I should definitely encourage her because she was a natural.
Since then, there’s been another commercial that went into distribution in the US, and now there’s her awesome debut in her first play/musical. At the premiere about ten days ago I had that same jaw-dropping experience as I had that day on the set when she turned on that special something. Her singing was exceptional – I’d never heard her like that before. Even though she’s always sung a lot; in fact all through her childhood she had a habit of singing herself to sleep and also when she was waking up. Yet I only noticed a couple of years ago that she actually had a gorgeous voice – at which point EPI and I began to encourage her to do something with this obvious talent she has.
She auditioned for West Side Story with hardly any expectations, preparing a couple of Disney songs that she reluctantly and very nervously sang in front of me beforehand. When she was cast as the female lead I was both stunned and very very happy for her.
I had no idea that during those three months of rehearsals her talent would blossom the way it has. She received private coaching and tutoring during the rehearsal process, and while she sang well before, somehow this incredible voice was just… drawn out of her. When I heard her at the premiere, singing with a microphone for the first time, hitting all the correct notes, even the really high ones, dueting with others, singing like an angel... I totally had tears in my eyes.
In short, the show received well-deserved attention, was written up in [some] papers, and in general evoked absolute awe that such a production was possible to stage in three months. Just the sheer work of auditioning all those people, rehearsing a full live orchestra made up of teenagers to play music that really is fairly complex, training the singers to deliver fabulous performances for their age, choreographing the dancing, sewing costumes, constructing the set... back-to-back rehearsals day after day... no wonder I repeatedly heard people saying during intermission… ‘How is this possible?’
At that final performance, during the curtain call, when everybody was going crazy whistling and stomping and cheering, the cast and crew [all 100 of them] suddenly burst into Happy Birthday and brought out two paper crowns that they had made for AAH and another guy who also had his birthday on that day. Everyone had signed her crown, and the director had written ‘You are a miracle’. When I asked AAH about this, she told me that the director had also told her that, and had added that of all the cast, AAH had made the most progress in the 12 weeks of rehearsals.
So... please forgive me for all this gushing, but really I am SO proud of her!
... So now, if you’ve come this far and are looking for the weather in Iceland, congratulations on your perseverance and here it is: Cloudy and grey with drizzle at the moment. Getting milder than it has been since the northerly winds that have prevailed over the past couple of weeks finally seem to be leaving us. We seem to be in for a storm, though, in the west of the country tomorrow. It’s currently 5°C and the sun came up at 06.18 and will go down at 20.43.
posted by Alda at 2:35 PM
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