Annie....DONE!!!

Holy Cow!!! We made it through our first broadway and what an AMAZING experience it was! Carlie LOVED LOVED LOVED every single minute of the rehearsals and performances. She was really sad at the end of it all. I was completely BLOWN away at how fantastic everything turned out. The entire show was just soo professional and soo well done and with soo many talented performers! They did a total of 4 shows--7 p.m. shows on Friday, Saturday, and Monday night and a 2:00 Saturday matinee. I watched the first two shows on TV in the Green Room (because I was a "kid wrangler") and watched the last 2 shows live. And every show I cried!!! UGH!!! I am such a dork I know!!! I was just soo proud of my little girl that I couldn't contain it! I made sure that Carlie didn't know--didn't want to embarrass the poor girl:) This is her in her orphan attire. Isn't she one of the prettiest orphans EVER?!



Opening night had 700 people in attendance! Since I was a "kid wrangler" I got to hang out with all the cute orphans and watch the show on a TV in the Green Room and make sure the orphans made it on stage at the right times. I had a blast with all these cute girls:

Here are the main orphans again in their Christmas Party dresses:


There were a total of 20 orphans--10 "Main Orphans" and 10 "Ensemble Orphans." I brought in lots of junk food and candy on Saturday for all the orphans because they were literally stuck at the theater all day--from noon to 11 p.m. And that earned me the status of "Mother of the Year." (Totally what I was going for;) I literally sat there with all of those amazing girls with a pen and notebook taking down notes. EVERY girl there had been in NUMEROUS productions. Many of the girls had actually been "Annie" in other shows. Many had acting and singing coaches. (2 of the girls were rumored to have agents:) I learned SOO much and now have a much better idea of what I need to do next.
Main and Ensemble Orphans:


Thinking back over our whole experience....I am soo glad that I didn't know how experienced and amazing the competition was. If I had ANY idea what we were up against, I am absolutely sure that I would NOT have let Carlie try out--to protect her. But Carlie is absolutely amazing and has shown me that she really can do anything she sets her mind to. We went into that audition with NO acting/singing coach and NO theater experience whatsoever so for her to have gotten the part she did, the judges must have seen something special in her too. Carlie Mae, I hope you always remember how amazing you are. I love you tons and tons.