Our granddaughter, Racheal has been a middle child most of her life. She is a freshman in high school and sometimes finds herself overshadowed by her older sister Sarah who is a senior and has a boyfriend and a car and went to the prom and is going to graduate in a couple of weeks and then going to college. Not to mention being often upstaged by the precocious baby of the family, Madison, who is always into something and is very vocal and outgoing.
Racheal has always made excellent grades and we anticipate she will go far academically. Then came high school drama class. Racheal came out of her shell before our eyes, became this wonderfully confident teenager and tried out for the lead part in Les Miserables. She was quite disappointed when she did not get the lead, but her dad told her that the seniors always get the leads, her time would come. But she knew she could do it! The drama teacher gave her some smaller parts and luckily also the part of understudy to the lead.
The students practiced their parts, learned their lines and other people's lines, learned all the songs, were ready for a dress rehearsal when the bottom fell out of all their hard work. Someone local was complaining that the language and characters in the play were inappropriate for high school age actors. The school board decided to avoid any controversy and cancel the play, or ban it from being performed on school property (is it election year?) Parents converged en masse, one of which is an attorney. Suddenly the play was back on, at the school, with free admission!
Back to Racheal... The play was performed three times, one of which was for the understudies only. That is the one that got all the attention, the one that everyone was talking about, "Wow, did you hear that girl sing?" Well, this proud grandparent is here to tell you that that girl was our Racheal, who (I hear) sang better than the senior in the same part, who belted out her song with an amazing voice that I have never heard before. Actually I didn't get to hear her in person, but thanks to video I was moved by her performance all the way here in Kansas.
She knew she could do it when she auditioned for the lead part. She showed them!
Great job, Racheal!
