The Three Princes

Let's give you some back story on this. We have some people in our ward who are theater people. We have been to some of their productions and heard about others. They were doing some auditions in May, but I hadn't heard much about it. Apparently, they needed some more faeries, so they asked if ALL our girls wanted to participate. Plays can be very fun and a good experience, so I thought we would go for it. I signed them all up. However I repented when the read-through night came. Pearl gets a bit cranky when she hasn't gotten enough sleep. Long rehearsals and a week of late night performances didn't seem like a good choice for her, so I took her out. But that same day, Ember was over visiting and Ivory invited Ember in Pearl's place. At the read-through, I was a bit taken in. I have always enjoyed plays and suddenly I really wanted to be involved, especially if most of my kids were going to be doing it. I told the director that if they needed any help, I would be happy to step in.

A day or so later, she emailed me because a part had fallen through. They had shifted people around and they offered me the part of the Stepmother. I knew it would take a lot of time, but I said yes.

Oh...I didn't realize exactly how much time it would take. The play became our lives. Lots of parts moved around. My girls who were all faeries shifted rolls multiple times, until they settled out like this:
MOM: Stepmother
JUNE: Faerie
ROBYN: Faerie and Page
IVORY: Page
DAISY: Monkey Boy

We had rehearsals almost every night leading into the month of June. Sometimes we couldn't go because there were school events. We missed because of concerts and graduations, but the rest of the time, we were at rehearsal. June (the person) was done before we even started. She wanted out. But I told her that following through on a commitment was important and she might love the experience at the end. She was doubtful but she stuck with it. Ember was also not thrilled with all the rehearsals. I felt bad because she was sucked in unwittingly, but we still kept her.

Then, early June, we went to girls camp. Half the cast went with us. I hear that was a crazy week. When we came back, we jumped right back in. Literally, we returned from camp and went to rehearsals that evening. And the play started less than a week later.

Today, I'll just show you pictures from the play and give some anecdotes. The next post will be behind the scenes.

WARNING: I'm going to talk about the plot and ending of the play. There will be SPOILERS. So if you don't want to know how it ends, please stop reading.

So let's talk about The Three Princes. This play was really fun. Pam Lockwood wrote and directed it. There is some great humor in it and the fantasy aspect is perfect for the imagination. The opening of the play introduces you to a poor orphan boy who becomes a dark lord when his love is spurned by the princess. (To be fair, she didn't know he existed.) This princess becomes the Queen and she has three sons...the three princes. They are ready to have their own adventure but the dark lord is still around, plotting his revenge.

(Tyler came two nights and I took pictures from both evenings, so if they don't exactly match up, that is why.) Here are our heros. The three princes (in age order) Egan, Garrett, and Chance. Little do they know that during the course of the play, they are going to run into Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Rapunzel.

The king and queen put on a ball to bring eligible maidens from around the country. Looks like my girls are very eligible. They got to dance in the ballroom scene. During the grapevine foot work, Ivory and I would always dance backstage.

After the beautiful maidens have their introductions, it is time for my big entrance. My beautiful daughters follow me out. Although I can see no flaws as their 'mother,' Migraine and Dispepsia are lacking in basic social skills and were not blessed with their mother's good looks. :) Naomi and Becca did a fabulous job being super awkward. They were over the top and it was so fun. Good fortune came our way. Dispepsia landed on the prince. She got to actually TOUCH the prince!! Do I hear wedding bells?

Meanwhile, the Dark Lord Donovand is working on his dire plans, and he has sent a dark faerie, Wednesday, to carry out his evil works. Little does he know that she is going to fall hopelessly in love with the youngest prince...

Daisy played one of the Monkey boys who were the henchmen of the Dark Lord. The henchmen were sent on errands to keep an eye on the princes.

Cinderella is quite the cry baby. She is so distraught over her chores and the fact that the prince doesn't seem to like her. Abby played a great fairy godmother who was ready to teach Cinderella a thing or two about life. She had no time for tantrums.

Prince Egan has sent his pages far and wide with the slipper, determined to find his princess. Ivory and Robyn were great comic relief. They argued and complained and in one show, they even dropped the slipper...right in front of the prince. He almost broke character.

Some of the best scenes were the the three of them trudging along to find the slipper. The search is exhausting. The pages can barely stand, but Egan is determined.

Chance has stumbled across his lady love in an unlikely tower. Good thing the witch is not around at present. Missy had wig issues. She wore this weird thing in the tower and then had no wig when she came down later.

Pam changed her mind and Missy ended up with this white wig that she wore the whole time. It didn't match the hair that she threw out the window, but sometimes you just had to have a good imagination.

As the prince Egan searches, Donovand comes to my house to convince me to lock Cinderella up. I had no idea the prince was interested in her. How could he be after meeting my lovely daughters?? But although he was a strange character, it didn't take much convincing for me to lock her up. After all, she is not my favorite.

I loved the scene where I lock her up. At the end, I put the key inside my dress and laugh evilly as I exit the stage. I didn't really know that I had an evil laugh, but it isn't too shabby. Many people commented on it, and my kids said it was too easy for me.

Lots of stuff is going on at once. You have to be clever to keep up. Garrett meets Sleeping Beauty (Angel) and they are getting along well. The king and queen are distraught that Egan cannot find his maiden. They call for the great warrior Morgan. Morgan turns out to be a tiny, fat dude, which surprises everyone, but he is very sure of himself and knows where to find Cinderella.

Wednesday, the faerie, seems to think if she mentions that Rapunzel has a prince visitor that the witch will break up that relationship, but she doesn't plan on the witch taking violent measures. Our witch and king were played by the same guy. It was funny when he went into witch mode and used his scratchy voice.

Thanks to Morgan, the prince knows where to find Cinderella. He shows up with his shoe and I'm so glad to see him. I know that he will love my daughters.

I'm sure the shoe is going to fit, but when it falls off Dispepsia's foot, there is a bit of a scramble for it. The shoe football frenzy was my favorite. You never knew where the shoe would go, but it always got to Egan in the end.

I assured him that no one else was around to try on the slipper, but after the other princes mentioned how mad Egan could get, I gave in and told him she was locked in the cellar. Aidan had the hardest time keeping a straight face during this scene. He was always smiling while holding the shoe in my face. He finally started staring at my earrings instead of my face to keep from laughing.

I went to release Cinderella, but she had escaped somehow (probably that darn fairy godmother). When I thought I might have to face the prince's wrath, I fainted dead away.

Egan thinks he has problems because he still can't find his princess, but the other princes can't stay with him because they need to meet up with their own girls. They bid farewell. Egan tells them to be careful and Chance says, "What could possibly happen?"

He may have spoke too soon. Angel is missing (she didn't stay put), and when Chance goes to get Rapunzel, the witch blasts him from the tower. It is not looking good for the princes. Wednesday is devastated that she got Chance injured, so her plan is to get him to Rapunzel so true loves kiss will revive him.

Garrett is having his own problems because the Dark Lord does not want him to find his lady love. The faeries are determined to stop him.

Garrett finally finds someone, but it wasn't the princess he was looking for. But once he realizes who she is, they team up to help Chance.

It is time for the Dark Lord to pull out all the stops. He send a hoard of minions to fight the princes. June got to do the fight scene. She threw on a cloak and battled it out with Kaleb up on the steps.

There is only one hope left. Donovand seems to be winning, but Wednesday turns herself into a dragon and joins with the fairy godmother to defeat the Dark Lord. At the same time, Garrett finds and kisses Angel, breaking the spell. I won't lie, this part was always super confusing for the audience. No one knew what the dragon was for or that it was a dragon in some cases. Most of the cast didn't even realize that the 'kiss' broke Donovand's spell. We were just along for the ride.

It would have been helpful if there had been dialogue to explain that the dead faerie on the stage used to be the dragon. The only clue was that she has a knife wound to the neck and supposedly Chance had hit the dragon in the neck. Seriously confusing.

The story has a happy ending. The three princes find their ladies and everything is just as it should be. Even the pages who were lost underground for a while found their way back to the wedding party. Hurrah!

But wait, the story is not over. I managed to get my hands on Donovand's special necklace. Being evil, you know I plan to use it for nefarious purposes. But that is a tale for another day.

There is the basic story. I obviously didn't cover everything. You'll just have to go see it sometime if she puts it on again. It was a great cast and a great experience.