Mindy Nelsen, the drama teacher at the High School, has wanted to make a play about her grandpa for many years. Her dreams finally came true this year as she was able to have help from two graduate students from drama help her in creating the music for this play. I think it took a couple of years to write the music and script. Corbin (her grandpa) went away to war right after getting married. Then he became a prisoner of war for many years. During this time his family assumed he was dead. His wife ended up remarrying. After the war was over and Corbin was finally able to come home, he found out about his wife as she was also pregnant with her first child. Corbin ended up marrying a couple of years later. It is such a powerful storyline and the music was absolutely amazing. Camille was fortunate enough to get a solo part with the song "Sing Swing Dance." She did such a fabulous job.
Carter, Parker and Bradley were also able to be in the play as they needed smaller children. I think this was a huge highlight for them. They loved every bit of it even though they were only on the stage at the beginning and end of the play. They loved the interaction with the other cast members. It was also fun for Camille to have her brothers be a part of it with her.
For about 3 performances, the real Corbin actually came to the play. It was a huge honor to see him in person as he has had many health issues which made Mindy nervous if he would even live to see it happen. We had a special dinner the Friday night after the play started where he was the guest speaker and talked about his experiences first hand. He is such a cute guy that loves to talk. Mindy had to tell him it was time to stop talking as he would have kept us there the whole night:).
In preparation for this play, the cast was asked to write about any family members or other stories they have heard about war. Camille wrote a really cool paper about Harold Byron Beck's experiences of living in a fox hole for many years during WWII. It was cool to see these letters on the walls around the auditorium for all to read.
This play got a lot of publicity since it was written by the drama teacher and two students. Big Budda from Fox 13 news came and did a story on LHS which also included a song performed by the boys on TV. It was really cool to watch.
Carter, Bradley and Parker all ready for the play.
Camille on the far left with the whole cast.
For the first couple of performances we didn't know exactly what the boys should wear so we had them dress in their Sunday clothes. We finally ended up finding their costumes for the play which are shown in the first picture. In the meantime, these pictures were taken with them in their church clothes.
Parker (green tie) Carter (red tie) with their families - Jamie Corbett, Megan, and Jameson.
Before the dinner started where all of the cast and families were invited. The food was delicious and it was fun to see Corbin first hand.
Camille with her friends - Becca Parr and Britlyn Hauver.
Parker, Carter and Bradley singing the closing song at the dinner.
Camille with her friends -
A quick shot after the play. We had such awesome family attend to see them perform.
Carter on left and Parker on right
Camille had to wait for a little while to finally get a picture with Lieutenant Corbin. He was so sweet and nice to let all of these high school students get pictures with him and sign their programs.
Camille with cute Miss Nudd.
I helped out in the back with the kids one night to give Miss Nudd a break. She was so sweet to entertain the kids each night and bring snacks for them. My boys all fell in love with her. I wanted to give her a break so I helped out. These kids have a lot of energy:). It was fun to see what goes on behind the scenes. I was also able to get some pictures of Camille after her different clothes changes.
Camille and cute Emeline playing together.
Melissa was so nice to bring flowers and treats for each of the kids. They were all pretty excited.
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