Sunday, April 24, 2016

Sunday, April 24, 2016

Tonight's picture was taken in April of 2004. Mattie was two years old. This is a follow up to last night's blog photo. We took Mattie to the Reston Zoo and you can see that Peter was sharing goat/sheep food with Mattie. Reston Zoo is a very hands on place where they allow you to feed and touch the animals. Mattie was cautious about the feeding part but eventually got right in the mix of things. 


Quote of the day: Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not. ~ Dr. Seuss


Peter and I had the wonderful opportunity to spend the afternoon with the Take the Stage Performance Company. Take the Stage hosted a benefit musical for Mattie Miracle and it was a huge success! There were over 150 people in attendance and many of them were people who were unfamiliar with our work. In addition, Take the Stage paid for 18 families whose children are being treated at Georgetown University Hospital to attend today's performance. 

The children in the production are in grades 4 to 12. One may think how good could such a musical be with this age range? Well in this case, the answer is excellent. They performed 15 numbers and literally the talent, staging, costumes, and choreography were something you could easily see from a college production. IT WAS THAT GOOD! 

Besides the talent what resonated with me were two things: 1) the energy and passion these children have to perform and to raise money for a good cause made me pause and take notice. In order to do this benefit production they had to rehearse and work hard (they performed this same show four times in February, but their season is over now, yet they came back for this benefit show)!  They were doing the Foundation a major favor, but they did not look at it like that. They were happy to devote their time to rehearse and to perform today. This is self evident in the beautiful smiles you will see below. 2) Given their ages you wouldn't think they could emote and express such deep feelings through song, but they did it beautifully and memorably. Their songs resonated with each of us in the audience because they sung about human emotions.... being disappointed, not fitting in, and the need to be listened to and heard. 

Before the performance we went backstage to meet the cast! Check out these smiling faces! Peter snapped a photo of them as they were listening to me talking and thanking them!

Cast of 25!

This group uses LIVE music! Here is the orchestra. 

This song was entitled, "Live in living color" from the play Try and Catch me.

This song was entitled, "Somewhere hovering over Indiana" from A Christmas Story: The Musical.

"Forget about the boy" from Thoroughly Modern Millie

"If only you would listen" from School of Rock. This was an incredibly moving song because it gets to the heart of so many issues we see in society today. People not truly listening to one another! 

"Step in time" from Mary Poppins.

"Coffee in a cardboard cup" from 70, Girls, 70. This was a Kander and Ebb song and it was fitting for these musical geniuses. Very clever and witty. It basically was depicting our BUSY society, people running around and attached to their cardboard cup of coffee. Each kid was dressed up in a different professional outfit, and it was humorous and at the same time a humbling reality we are faced with in our society. 

"Middle of a moment" from James and the Giant Peach.

"Raise you up" from Kinky Boots.

After the show, Peter and I were photographed with Susan Alexander Thompson (director) and Michael Axler
(music director).

Susan is married to our board member, Brett. Brett has helped Mattie Miracle with lobbying for psychosocial care. Susan and Brett are a dynamic couple and we are grateful to both of them for their support of Mattie Miracle.

Last night I hand wrapped and bowed 25 peach colored roses. After the performance we handed a rose to each performer. The children were truly touched and appreciative of this gesture.