Fast forward and Ivory is just beginning her NHD adventures. The theme this year was 'Triumph and Tragedy.' It took Ivory a bit of time to decide a topic, but she eventually chose the life of Susan B. Anthony and her triumph and tragedy in fighting for Women's Suffrage.
After choosing a topic, the next step is deciding how you want to display your info. The options are:
Paper
Documentary
Exhibit
Website
Performance
June did a paper her first year. Her teacher made everyone do a paper, then they could expand their project if they wanted. June was content with her paper. The next year (Miep Gies) June did a group exhibit. They did a good job and almost made it to state. Ivory went a different direction and decided on performance. This seemed like a good idea to me since she has done many plays. This meant writing her own script and staging her own performance. It took her a while to get everything in order, but she finally was ready to go.
Interestingly, when we learned that she needed to be multiple characters, we both thought of a split costume. Apparently, that is not common, but since we both thought of it, that is the way we went. Ivory was herself as the narrator and she was also Susan B. Anthony. She was half and half. All she had to do was face a different direction to change character.
NHD Regionals arrived. It was on a Saturday and sadly, Ivory missed Teen Author Boot Camp, but sometimes it can't be helped. We knew we needed to arrive early, and it is a good thing we did, since Ivory was very first. We went to the room and waited for just a bit for the judges to arrive. The kids have five minutes to set up and they need to be able to do all their set up on their own. Ivory had a simple set with a table that rotated. It took her less than a minute to get everything in place.
Here you can see her Susan B. Anthony side. Very prim and proper.
I recorded her performance here. This isn't her best one, but it is pretty close. The nice thing was that it was so early that the room was basically empty. She had a small audience and I think it helped her stay calm. Oddly, there was a ton of people outside the door, so whenever she was Susan B. Anthony, she could see them out there waiting. But she made it through just fine.
I left after her performance. They spent the whole day there, but I ran off to watch Pearl tumble at a meet. Then I came back in the afternoon for the awards ceremony. The year June got third, they only took the top two and the third was an Honorable Mention and only advanced if one of the first two dropped out. This year, they took three finalists in no particular order in each category. Sure enough, Ivory was one of the three. Since there were only five individual performances, this wasn't terribly surprising. Good job Ivory!
Moving on to the next round. I can't believe she can walk in those heels.
When you combine all the categories, it ends up being quite a few kids. There are the five different categories, but each category is also divided into group and individual. Look at all these happy qualifiers. I'm not sure how many kids we had originally in our region, but it is easily in the hundreds.
Here is a close up of Ives. It is hard to catch a photo with parents all around. I think there were 24 kids from our school, which is a pretty good showing.
A month later was State NHD. This was all day on a Friday. Once again, we had to be out there early, and we had to drive up to West Valley. We brought a dolly so we didn't have to carry everything around. Best decision. Upon arriving, we checked in and took our stuff to the dance studio where we would store it until we needed it. I like the mirrors. Here you can see both halves of Ivory. Her regular self and her Susan B. Anthony side.
Ivory was not first this time, so we took the morning to watch other performances and documentaries. It is really impressive the work that has gone into these projects. We watched a documentary on the Radium Girls and it was our favorite. We were rooting for Ivory's friends (Wyatt and Cohen) to make it to Nationals.
Nationals are in Washington D.C. Honestly, I didn't really want Ivory to advance to nationals. I hear they pay for one plane ticket, but hotels, food, excursions, and any other plane tickets are supplied by the family. That is quite pricey. But no need to count chickens before they hatch. Let's see how she does...
Oddly, the performance right before Ivory was the Life of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who was Susan B. Anthony's partner in crime. We decided that having a performance about a similar topic could lift Ivory up, or bring her down. We just didn't know which way it would go. Stanton focused on costume and vocabulary. She looked sensational and spoke right out of a colonial dictionary. She was cool to watch. Her performance was that she was giving an interview as Elizabeth Cady Stanton's daughter. She didn't have any props, but she didn't really need any.
Ivory went right after her. She did a great job, although she rushed a little. But everything was nice and clear. I really like Ivory's idea of trying to convince her older sister to vote. Here are some shots from her performance. When her performance was done, the judges asked her questions. Ivory never practiced her answers, but she always did a great job sounding intelligent about her subject.
After, we got a picture of Elizabeth and Susan together. (Well, Elizabeth's daughter technically.) The world needs these amazing Women's Rights Activists!
Then we had to wait. In all the other categories, once they are judged, everyone can leave and come back for the awards. EXCEPT performance. For performance, they pick six finalists and have them come back and perform again. The list was posted around noon, so we hung out and waited. Ivory took a selfie. She looks ridiculously young in this picture.
Results are up. Cross your fingers. Looks like Ivory made it. (So did Stanton. And Brock.) Brock is Ivory's friend in her class. She was really excited that he made it to State. We wanted to watch his performance, but we didn't have time in the morning. He does a great job and even plays the bagpipes.
Ivory was last this time, so we took that time to go grab a treat. We drove to a nearby Iceberg and got mini shakes. MINI! I'm not sure they understand that word.
I'm a fries dipped in frosty kind of gal and when I went to dip my fries in my shake, Ivory yelled out, "Mommy, NO!" It was so funny. She was so concerned for me. Someday, she will understand the deliciousness.
Back at the venue, Ivory performed a second time. She did a good job. She said she was less nervous this time. No interview questions, just in and out.
Then back to waiting. We played cards to entertain ourselves and this random guy came up and told us that he would teach us nines. He was an elderly gentleman who was one of the judges. I think he may have been bored. He taught us 9s and it was really fun. We played a game and beat him. Gar had no idea who he was teaching. Ivory and I are ruthless.
Then we went in for the awards ceremony. It actually takes quite a while to get through all those awards. And every kid is only listening for one category. For individual performance, Ivory was not one of the two State Champions, and she wasn't the honorable mention either. So, we didn't have to worry about nationals. It was a shame, but a relief at the same time. But she did get a special award. There were several special awards and one was about Women's History. Wyatt and Cohen also got the Women's History award for Radium Girls (and they moved onto nationals) and also the Elizabeth Cady Stanton girl too! In fact, they added an honorable mention so that both girls could get one.
Like I said, sink or swim together. I think had there only been one, perhaps that girl would have gone to nationals, but with the same subject matter, it would be weird to send two. So, I think they chose other performances. That is my personal opinion. And in the end, it worked out just fine for us. Good job my Spivey.
We drove home through crazy traffic, but it wasn't bad because NHD was all behind us. Can't wait to do this again next year...
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