Consider Yourself

Consider yourself at home
Consider youself one of the family
We've taken to you so strong
It's clear we're going to get along
Consider yourself well in
Consider yourself part of the furniture
There isn't a lot to spare
Who cares?..What ever we've goin we share!

Zach, myself & Sam after their performance of Oliver.

So, I've been pretty busy the last few weeks and have been busy around this time of the summer for the last 5 years now.  5 years ago was the first year our daughter Samantha decided she wanted to be a part of the Lakeshore Productions summer musical production and she has been doing it ever since.

The words above are from one of the songs from this year's musical, Oliver, and I thought it really speaks about the atmosphere and feeling everybody gets when participating in this wonderful organization.

Every summer they hold auditions for their summer musical production and they never turn anybody away.  They find some way to make everybody interested a part of the musical so that they can fulfill their love of the arts and have the wonderful experience of meeting new people and working together as a team to perform a musical that will make everybody proud.

This year's cast was HUGE!!!  I believe between the 80-90 mark, and filled with a ton of children, so maintaining a group like that and teaching that many people is a huge accomplishment in itself.

The co-directors this year did an awesome job of making this a fun year for the kids and everybody involved and did so with the most enthusiastic outlook I have seen in a while.  The task they took on was huge, but they attacked it full force and didn't look back. 

Not only was our daughter, Sam, involved for her 5th year, but our son, Zachary, decided he wanted to take his turn at it too this year, and from what I could tell, he also had a blast.

Sam & Zach after their Oliver performance.

Practices started the 2nd week in June and they run from Monday through Thursday nights and usually go from 6:30-10 pm.  The first few weeks aren't as hectic and the kids get excused usually by 9 pm but once they get closer to their performance week they run every night and some nights they are there after 10 pm to tweek the show before the show opens.  This is a huge commitment to the kids, the parents, the board members, the directors, choreographers and so many more people.  You can say their entire summer is pretty much dedicated to this show.

Sam on stage during the finale of the show.

My biggest frustration year after year is that when working the ticket table during the performances, or ushering people to their seats and what not, is the fact that I don't see nearly as many people from our own community coming to see the show.

I see some, yes of course, but then I stop and think about how I don't know many of the people coming at all.  That's great that they draw people from nearby communities as well, but it sucks how many people I know from this community that I don't see attending.  With all the work all of these people put into their performances it has to be a little frustrating to them to see some empty seats out in the audience.

Sam and Zach on stage during one of their scenes.

Don't get me wrong, they still had a successful showing I believe, but it would be great to have more support every summer from our local community.  I mean afterall, just last week we had our local fireman's picnic, and their were a ton of people supporting that from the community.  Maybe we should start selling alcoholic beverages at the summer musical during intermission and we'd get a better turnout?  I mean heh, I'm all about supporting the fire department too and spend quite a bit of time there myself, but seriously, our community has a great gift by having a local theater group, and too many people don't even take the time to support it.  That's too bad.

So, enough griping, I want to end this by saying, once again, I am so proud of my kids, I am proud of their dedication and effort put into this year's production and it's sad that another great year is over :(

My kids hanging out with some of their friends from Oliver.

I will continue to support you both and this wonderful organization for many years to come and maybe one day, when little Luke is a little older I will find myself back up on that stage myself?

Thank you again Lakeshore Productions (LPI) for another wonderful summer filled with friendship, fun and family.  Many memories were made for myself and my kiddos again this year and I am so thankful for that!!!