BaileyKidsMusicals.com - Betsy's Blog on Children's Theater

Pepin, Peypin, Poppon, Pippin...

8/24/2020

Charlemange, of the Holy Roman Empire 742-814

Ancient ancestral names.

While tracing one of my ancestral lines, I was astonished to find that it kept going back and back and back some more. (Gotta thank some tenacious genealogists for their great work...) I had always heard that if you were lucky, your ancestry would connect up with a royal line somewhere. If that ever happened, you had the hope of connecting lines back beyond the sixteenth century. Naturally, royals kept better records of their genealogy, and they were likely literate themselves.

My ancestors spent a lot of centuries in England, then suddenly there was a jump over to France. Then these names like Pepin or Pippin started cropping up in every generation. Finally, in about 742 AD, a big name cropped up: Charlemagne, of the Holy Roman Empire.

That was curious. Who knew I would be related to ancient royalty?

This made me think of the Broadway show "Pippin," written by Stephen Schwartz. "Pippin" is a coming of age story about the son of a Medieval King who wanted to seek adventure and hopefully make a difference in the world. Yep, Pippin was the son of Charlemagne. (Just didn't realize that there was a real Pippin, son of Charlemagne and that he was my relative.)

I remembered seeing the first version of "Pippin" starring Ben Vereen on Broadway in about 1973. I remembered how uncomfortable I felt as a 17 year old, watching the very sexually explicit choreography in this Bob Fosse musical. Then, last year I saw a very different version of it done by my granddaughter's High School. Pippin done as a Circus. Interesting. Thankfully, it was cleaned up a bit for the younger cast! Whew!

I wonder what my ancestors would think of their story made into a musical?

I have to admit though, that I would love to have some hit songs like "Magic to Do" and "Corner of the Sky" as part of the soundtrack of my life!

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Unexpected Turn of Events

8/22/2020

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Ah! New technology. It's not easy to obtain or learn to use, but you figure you absolutely need it. In fact, you can't seem to live without it!

Lately, I have been hearing about the Ipad Pro that allows the musician the opportunity to scan music sheets into the iBooks program and simply flip pages with a finger or even a foot switch. That technological leap seemed like the very thing I needed! For sure!

Then, I also learned that the Apple Pencil could allow the artist to sketch directly onto the IPad Pro. What a concept! Imagine actually being able to move the pencil around on the surface you are watching -- NOT awkwardly trying to move your stylus around on a surface below where the drawing shows up on the monitor.

Anyway, I decided that I needed to invest in this wondrous technology. But when I called around to locate where to buy it, I was informed that DUE TO THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC, THE SCHOOLS MUST OFFER LAPTOPS AND COMPUTERS FOR THEIR STUDENTS' REMOTE LEARNING. The stores I contacted said that they had NO Ipads or laptops left in stock. The schools had been buying up all of their current and projected stock three months out. They told me that no stores in the area had any stock.

Needless to say, I was dismayed. It looked like I would have to wait several months before I could get this wondrous technology. So, I told my sister that I no longer needed her assistance to come with me on the much anticipated shopping trip. She said that we should go shopping anyway, but look for mattresses for her instead of an Ipad for me.

So, we went looking at mattresses at a huge furniture store with many departments. Lo and behold, it also had an electronics department. It had many different laptops and computer devices on display. "Isn't that the Ipad Pro?" I asked my sister. "It is! And it doesn't have a sign saying it is out of stock!"

Who knew I would come home from a furniture store with the technology nobody else in the area seemed to have in stock? I am still in shock, but I am more determined than ever to learn to use it!

So cool to be able to turn pages at the piano with just a little touch on the screen! Pretty slick! Now, to learn how to use the Apple Pencil...

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Isolated as if in a Jane Austen Novel

8/4/2020

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According to the research presented in Lucy Worsley's "Jane Austen Behind Closed Doors," the famed British author spent her life mostly living in other people's houses --- her parent's house in Steventon, several of her many brothers' houses, rented rooms in (her least favorite place) Bath, and other even less appealing accommodations. Sometimes the houses were small and uncomfortable, sometimes large but populated with many people, and occasionally they were very grand indeed. Each place gave her fodder for creating the settings in her novels.

For a time she lived at the grand estate belonging to one of her brothers who had been adopted out to a wealthy family. This mansion had many luxuries (for the time) but was rather secluded from society. I can't help but wonder if Jane herself might have pondered which was better, a situation secluded but with many comforts or a situation less comfortable but with the stimulation of more social interactions?

Apparently, holding amateur theatricals with the people you are "quarantined" with is not such a new concept. Jane wrote several scripts for home theatricals even in her youth. A few have survived from that period and document that home theatricals were held while she lived in that grand estate. In her novel Mansfield Park, the residents and guests at the manor house had to come up with their own amusements. One such activity was putting on an amateur theatrical. They held rehearsals, created costumes, rearranged furniture, and mounted an event for the household to enjoy. (Of course, in the novel, these activities were also peppered with intrigues.)

I can't help comparing our little production of "The Country Mouse and the City Mouse" presented by the grandchildren to what we might have done if we were staying together at a remote estate and needed some homemade amusement. We indeed mounted an event that the people we were quarantined with could enjoy.

But I really will be happy when this quarantine (because of the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020) is over and we can get back to more social events!

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The Country Mouse and the City Mouse 2020

7/15/2020

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The Cousins Theater Camp for our 2020 Family Reunion went very well. Nineteen of my 24 grandchildren, ages 3-16, participated on stage.

The mothers and teenagers helped behind the scenes teaching songs and choreography, making snacks and lunches, wrangling children, taking pictures, and applying bandaids when necessary. The fathers and other family members were in the audience. Youngest grandchild Camilla was our honorary baby mouse mascot.

Whereas, I don't recommend doing a Children's Musical in just a few hours of rehearsal, this worked because we did it just for fun. I rewrote the script to feature only a few characters who had actual lines and solo songs, with an experienced Narrator who could keep the plot moving along. This was clearly a time when precasting was imperative. Makayla is the oldest granddaughter and has had her share of lead parts in other shows. She really helped to keep the play on track and displayed why she has had so many lead roles.

The three main characters needed to come with their parts memorized, which they did. Melanie was the Country Mouse. She was in every scene. Heidi was the City Mouse who came to visit the Country Mouse and invited her to come back with her to the City. Megan was the City Mouse's French maid who explained how get some "Joie de Vivre" during the song "As the French Say." Those 10-12 year old girls each had a solo song and a bunch of lines. They even learned to do a bit of the Can-Can.

The other children learned as much as they could the day of the play. As expected, coordinating singing and dancing at the same time was a bit elusive. We have five 5-6 year olds who made up the bulk of the Mouse Ensemble. None of them had any dance training before, but they were good sports trying to learn some steps and even pulled off a conga line in "I Love the City Life!"

Probably the most fun the kids had was being chased by the Hawk at the Country Mouse picnic and then trying to sneak past the Cat on the way to the City Mouse pantry.

Two characters unexpectedly stole the show: Five year old Zak who played the Hawk and the Cat, and little 3 year old Avery who decided to be on stage after all even though she never once practiced with the cast! (Is she destined to be a dancer, or what?)

Everyone came on stage to dance the Finale song "A Country Mouse." All in all, despite the 98 degree weather, unruly winds, scorching sun, and very little rehearsal, the show was a resounding success! And more importantly, we accomplished our goal which was to have fun making a shared memory!

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A Little Personal History

6/26/2020

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We have decided to go ahead with our Family Reunion despite the Covid-19 social distancing and quarantine regulations this summer. We are doing some of the familiar things, but definitely not the high adventure activities we usually try to do. Most activities will be close to home and won't involve spending much money. I guess that is a good thing in the long run.

As part of our Family Reunion, we are doing a Cousins Theater Camp. Many of my grandchildren live on opposite coasts of the country. As a result, they have not been involved in any of Grandma's shows before. In fact, I realized that these young people really don't know any of my background and history. With that in mind, I decided to write and illustrate a few formative stories from my youth and put them into an Early Reader Chapter Book format. These stories are about how I got involved in singing and doing Musical Theater.

My mother, Carolyn Thompson Lee was extremely talented. She could sing and dance, could play the piano effortlessly, and could throw together a show at the drop of a hat. She had her children performing from practically the day of their births. Even though these are memories from my own childhood, in a way, these stories honor her most of all. She was such a driving force in making exciting things happen for me, as well as my siblings, and anyone else within her sphere of influence.

The first story, Betsy Takes a Bow, tells how my mother taught me little songs to sing and had me performing from the time I began talking. She always told people that I learned to sing before I learned to talk. When I was two, she coaxed me into singing by allowing me to wear what I considered my fancy costume --- my "ruffly, fluffly" white petticoat.

The second story, Betsy Loves to Sing, is about how Aunt Janie Thompson began including me in a children's trio when I was 5. We sang for some pretty big gatherings in front of very large audiences.

Janie Thompson was actually quite a famous entertainer and director in her own right. At the end of World War II, she toured the world as a Big Band singer with the Ike Carpenter Band. She and Tony Bennett were the singers. Janie was asked to return to BYU to train young performers in the early 1950's. She then took those talented college kids performing all over the world.

The third story, Betsy Takes Piano Lessons, is about the problem of being the 6 year old daughter of a talented mother who desperately wanted her own daughter to have advantages that she did not have growing up.

Unfortunately, I did not think any teacher measured up to my own mother and I did not appreciate piano lessons very much.

The fourth story Betsy Directs a Musical is actually dedicated to a favorite Elementary School Teacher. Mrs. Richardson not only allowed, but encouraged a group of over-zealous 5th graders to put on their own version of Peter Pan in front of the entire school.

I hope my grandchildren can humor their Grandma and get to know the reasons why I do the things I do. I blame it all on my mother!

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Cousins Theater Camp

6/9/2020

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Our Bailey Family Reunion is coming up in July. We are determined to get some new Family Portraits taken that reflect the changes in our family. Since the last picture we have gained three new members! That needs to be documented! We also plan to do anything fun we can think of that is allowed in this time of Covid-19 Pandemic Social Distancing.

I recently pitched the idea of having a Cousins Theater Camp as part of our Bailey Family Reunion in July. I was feeling deprived that I wouldn't be able to have regular Summer Theater Camps either in my backyard or in Pennsylvania for a daughter's Church group.

Looks like everyone is on board!

This is the perfect year for having the cousins camp for our 8 boys and 16 girls. We have a big core group of children that fall into the right ages between 4-13. We have a few older siblings who have agreed to be helpers and a few younger who, no doubt, will lend some refreshing comic relief with their inventive creative dancing. (The youngest girls are ages 18 months and almost 3)

The show is a musical retelling of the Aesop Fable "The Country Mouse and the City Mouse." Not everybody is invested enough to spend a lot of time learning staging and memorizing parts. Some would rather not be on stage at all. But that is not the point!

The point is that a few of the 8-12 year old girls had significant rolls in cancelled school shows, and had also been signed up to do a Theater Camp this summer. But due to circumstances beyond their control, they have been denied these opportunities. So, I have simplified this little script so that these girls can do the parts that require more preparation and the others kids can just do the lighter fun parts.

We are doing a Theater Camp in a day, or rather 4 hours, start to finish. Most will come with their songs learned and their one-liner parts memorized. We will spend the morning learning some simple staging and movement. The oldest girls are teenagers --- two are theater geeks who will act as Narrator/Prompters, and the other two will be little Kid Wranglers. The older boys will be stage hands and sound techs. Fortunately, these children have mothers who have all had a lot of theatrical experience and will help make this happen.

That leaves very few in the audience, just the dads basically, but we don't care! They just better laugh and applaud ---- ON CUE!

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Freedom for Exploration

5/29/2020

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Yesterday I took a walk down memory lane -- literally. When I was very young, our family lived next to an irrigation canal. The houses near us got rights on certain summer days to open the little gates to allow water to run from the canal down the hill and onto our gardens and lawns. During the summers, us kids played along the canal bank. We floated little boats, chased the water skeeters, lost our flip flops, and sometimes dammed up the wide place so we could swim. The most fun was swinging across the water and dropping in from our Tarzan swing.

Well, I hadn't visited that canal path in many, many years. I knew that changes had been made, but until yesterday, I didn't know how it had changed. The once rustic and natural canal with a dirt trail has been remodeled into a classic, upscale jogging path complete with police call boxes every few yards. It is beautiful! But it has nearly erased the precious memories of my youth. So, I decided to write a new series of stories documenting some of those cherished moments. (My girls get worried, though, when I tell their children what a feral life I led in my youth.)

These kids are wading in my same canal, but under the watchful eye of several parents. During my youth, our mothers kicked us out of the house early in the morning and told us to stay out until lunch. Then we would stay out all afternoon, too. I remember the signal when to come in was when we started hearing the neighborhood parents calling for their kids. It could be very embarrassing for kids to be called by their pet names like "Sweetie," or "Honey Bear." My dad just whistled for us and we came a running even if we were many blocks away.

So whether my daughters appreciate it or not, I intend to write some stories for my grandchildren about what a fun and free-spirited life I led as a child. Oh, how I wish that more children could know that kind of freedom for exploration.

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Learning to Draw "Personality"

5/9/2020

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Many creative people have had their avenues of expression completely halted during this time of the Covid-19 pandemic "shelter in place" quarantine. That's why so many singers and composers are posting their musical renditions on social media. They simply need to have somewhere to perform. I feel so sorry for the students who have practiced and prepared and looked forward to concerts, recitals, plays, dance and sports who now have nothing to look forward to --- for who knows how much longer! Visual art may be a little different, but not much. Artists and writers spend many hours alone creating their masterpieces. But they, too, feel the need to get their art in front of an audience.

I am one of those creative folks who absolutely must CREATE. Directing choirs and singing are problematic in this time of social distancing. So, I have had to channel my creative juices into other avenues. I have been writing and illustrating a new Picture Book. After coming up with the initial story and plot ideas, I started designing the characters and settings and layout. Herein lies the challenge.

The story is about two young sisters who have different playing styles and yet must find some way to play together. PLOT --- fairly straightforward. Now how to give the story some humor and charm? The SETTING is mostly in the girls' bedroom for the first third of the book. Do I clutter up the focus by adding pattern and texture in the backgrounds? Hmm... So that leaves the burden of interest squarely on CHARACTER. One or the other or both of these girls are featured on every page. The story takes place all in one day, so it doesn't make sense to change costumes, hairstyles, or age in the drawings. So, my only choice is to get really good at drawing PERSONALITY. (Not so sure if I am doing very well.)

This project has been all-consuming and rather frustrating. I start off with pencil sketches, progressing on to ink and watercolor paintings. But then in order to set the book layout with text, I need to scan the images into the computer. My scanner doesn't do a very good job of capturing the nuances of the watercolors. So, my only option is to "fix" them in Photoshop. Unfortunately, the paintings lose a lot of spontaneity with all of this "fixing." Don't get me wrong, I am grateful for such powerful tech tools to help me self-publish these little storybooks. Just wish I was more tech savvy so that I knew how to use these tools better.

Meet Kathryn and Carolyn, sisters who (after a day of trial and error) finally find an activity they both enjoy doing together.

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Drawings and Renderings

4/16/2020

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What I see in my mind, I confess that I really lack the skill to recreate on paper. Even after trying to learn illustration and watercolor technique by fabulous artists via YouTube videos, I just come away with an absolute sense of awe at the artists' talent and abilities who try to teach skills to others. Then, at the end of a video, they say that "anything goes in Art." I hear it all the time. "Art is what you make it." Well, here are some of the first renderings of my illustrations for my new book.

It is the story of my two oldest girls who, whether they liked it or not, grew up needing to be each other's best friend. But they had such different personalities. They could sit down with toys and never figure out how to play together They had such different styles of play. One was a natural caregiver. No matter the toy, she was a mother to it, only wanting to dress it and make a home for it.

The other used her imagination to create stories for the toys and act out the parts of each character. She especially loved playing with her little ponies and felt that she just had to give them very long elaborate names.

For those of you parents in this time of "shelter in place" frustration, I can relate a tiny bit. My girls were not against playing together --- because that was their only choice most of the time --- but it was generally up to me to help them figure out things they could do together that they could enjoy for more than just a few minutes at a time.

This is a story about how Mom comes to the rescue to help them find a way to happily spend time together. I salute all of the parents out there during this time of pandemic crisis who have children who just can't figure out what to do with themselves while they are stuck at home.

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What to Do During the Pandemic Isolation

4/9/2020

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So what exactly do you do when you have no schedule, no where you can go, and no one you can see? Read a book? Watch TV? Raid the refrigerator? Stare at the computer screen?

Okay, realistically all of the above.

But I was getting very tired of being stuck inside my house with nothing much to do. So, I started writing and drawing illustrations for a new Picture Book.

I have seven children and each of them told me that they expected I would write a story about them. Matthew's story "Is This Cowboy Food?" was first. It was the easiest to write because we have told that story over and over again for years. Katelyn's story "Who Will Be My Friend?" was also pretty easy to write because that was just her personality and those events really happened. Michael really had "Too Many Sisters" and Mitchell and Camilyn really had adventures on their "Wonderful, Marvelous, Magic Bunk Bed." But, I confess that I was having trouble thinking up the right stories for Kathryn and Carolyn.

Kathryn only liked baby dolls. She liked to dress them, and style their hair. She was not very imaginative though with their names. Every baby doll was named either Marie or Rose and she never acted out any stories with them. The only real story to tell about Kathryn seemed best told in a baby's board book. She liked tactile experiences. So a story about touching different kinds of fabrics or materials of varying textures and ending up with a page about braiding "hair" seemed the perfect story for her. But, I have limited resources as far as printing goes, so I scratched that idea.

Carolyn was such a unique personality that the stories to tell from her childhood seem too fantastic to be relatable to normal children. She started talking and singing songs at 8 months old. She could write her name at 18 months. And she could illustrate recognizable characters from the chapter books we read as a family before she turned 2. She often had "daymares" that terrified her. She claimed she had a haunted head. Once she used an entire ream of white copy paper, drawing just a few lines on each page, but when spread out all over the family room floor and taped together, she had created a puzzle depicting the three-ringed Barnum and Bailey Circus! She was then just 3 years old. Now, who in their right mind would believe any of that?

These two girls were so different, and yet their early lives were inextricably connected. Because our house was so small, they had to share a room. When they were very young, they were the logical playmates for each other, indeed, that was their only choice most days. They tried to play together, but their playing styles were very different. Many days were spent in struggles just trying to find something to do that they could enjoy together.

Ah ha! Lightbulb moment! That's their story!

So, I am now writing them a combined story about a typical day in their lives circa 1986. The working title is "Spin Around Dresses and Click Shoes."

Wouldn't you know the only inspiration picture I have been able to find from the right year is of the backs of their hair! (Oh, and baby Katelyn where is your pretty Spin Around dress?)

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<<Previous

Pepin, Peypin, Poppon, Pippin...

Unexpected Turn of Events

Isolated as if in a Jane Austen Novel

The Country Mouse and the City Mouse 2020

A Little Personal History

Cousins Theater Camp

Freedom for Exploration

Learning to Draw "Personality"

Drawings and Renderings

What to Do During the Pandemic Isolation

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