"This is Kirtland!" 2008

So I am involved in the production "This is Kirtland!" again this year. It is a musical put on by the Kirtland Stake for the tourists visiting Kirtland in the summer, as well as a great way for the families who live here to understand the area's history a little bit more. It's a lot of fun, but a lot of exhausting too. We have been rehearsing since mid-May-ish and most nights were not home until past 10pm. Needless to say, being pregnant, exhausted, and home past my bedtime is a little overwhelming at times, but now we are into performances and it was mostly worth it (I say "mostly" because I think I am still trying to catch up on my lost sleep somewhere).

This year I have a smaller part, which I'm fine with especially since I'm tired a lot (have I mentioned that yet) and because Olivia is in the play too and I have to deal with her as well. I play Marinda Hyde, like that means anything to most of you, and Olivia plays Julia Murdock Smith, one of the twins adopted by Joseph and Emma Smith after their mother died in childbirth. Olivia is only in a couple of scenes. Her first scene is rocking with "Emma" (my friend Natalie) while Emma and Joseph sing a song to each other when he is in jail and she is home with their only baby:

Olivia is also in the big dance number, but she just sits on the bench and claps. She's in the end number too where we sing "The Spirit of God" and the man who plays Joseph picks her up while we all sing. She does a really good job, although there is a lot of bribing going on behind the scenes. For example, she gets five pennies in her penny jar if she is really still during her scene rocking with Emma. She is supposed to be sleeping, but sometimes she squirms or talks. So far, so good. We still have 6 performances left though... I'm not worried. She will do anything for pennies.

Olivia in full costume. She doesn't necessarily like the hat, but only wears it in the final scene.
Olivia's hair is curled with a curling iron and tons of hair spray. It takes me about an hour to do it, so we have to do it in front of a movie to keep her entertained that long. By the way, do you see Jack in the background? He's obviously as excited about Olivia's hair as she is... either that, or he's just happy to finally have dinner (seriously, he's the first one at the table when I say "Dinner time!").In company meeting. She is actually sitting next to me. That's the closest you will get to seeing me in costume unless you are either related to me or come see the show! I'm really excited to be doing this with Olivia this year. She kind of broke down in tryouts so I wasn't planning on her being in the show, but the show's director asked if she could maybe do this small part so we tried it out and it worked. If you can, come see us!