Spring was an exciting time for both girls, who bravely took to the stage and showed off their Star Power! Though Zoe is in a Performing Arts program at a middle school that puts on two productions a year, the kids have to audition for their parts. For their Spring program, they put on a 3-hour production of Into the Woods, a musical that weaves together Brothers Grimm fairy tales (also adapted to the big screen with lots of stars, including Meryl Streep). The main characters are drawn from Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk and Cinderella, among others.

Zoe landed the part of Lucinda, one of Cinderella’s evil stepsisters. Their musical theater program puts on four shows, with two separate casts for the same roles. I share this only because there was a Lucinda in the other cast, who apparently had more hair than Zoe… which is one reason why Zoe ended up wearing a ridiculously awesome red wig (more on this later).

Before I forget to mention it, the picture above is Zoe’s glowing face after the first show (for which she did her own makeup). If I ever wonder if it was the right choice to let this gorgeous child pursue a performing arts program, all I have to do is look at that face.

Zoe’s school has a pretty advanced program, especially for a middle school, where the musical theater director insists on doing the ‘real’ show (not a kid version) and allows their stage tech students to run the live show (instead of the adults running sound, set and lighting while the kids watch and learn). When you look through that lens, it’s pretty incredible all these kids pulled it off!

I’m going to throw a plug in here for her sister, Ella, who sat through over 6 hours of Zoe “shows” in April (including arriving early and an intermission) to see Zoe perform the same play on stage, twice. That’s love. I’ll also spoil the surprise and share that Zoe missed Ella’s production… Just wanted that in writing.

Now on with the show! Below are a few video clips of Zoe on stage as Lucinda, sadly taken by her mom, who could not find a good seat or camera angle in any of those six hours… In fact, during the first run, she was seated behind a lady with a topknot and a hipster with a pointy beanie hat. Who does that?!

But I digress… Here is a photo of happy Zoe before the show, so you can really enjoy the transformation:

ZOE LOSES HER HEAD (sort of)…

In the first show, there was a scene where the evil stepsisters are trying to squeeze their foot into Cinderella’s slipper. Let’s just say, Zoe learned a lot about the value of bobby pins during this clip, and she handled her stage snafu like a professional. Because the video is so terrible, I’ll also share that the evil stepmother tries to cut off part of their foot to make it fit (thanks Brothers Grimm), which explains the Prince’s reaction at the end. (CLICK FOR VIDEO)

The following clips are giggly moments, well acted by a sassy onstage Zoe (wig intact):

INTRODUCTION SCENE: (CLICK FOR VIDEO)

LOOKIN’ PRETTY: (CLICK FOR VIDEO)

HAIR LIKE CORN: (CLICK FOR VIDEO)

THE DANCE: (CLICK FOR VIDEO)

As much as she hated that silly wig (and loved that puffy dress), I loved seeing her stand out on stage in both. It was worth the 6+ hours, and all the hours of rehearsal that led up to it. Speaking of which, one special treat she really enjoyed during their hours-long after school rehearsal time was the treat of having Grubhub deliver dinner to her at school. Only once (out of 3 times) did the Grubhub driver accidentally give her food to the wrong child. That’s something?

Not to be outdone, little miss Ella was in a show of her own through Drama Maniacs, an after school program where the kids get to help write the show itself. The theme was Super School, where the kids were superheroes–and one of them was a rotten tomato (that’s a spoiler)–attending a school for super kids. They wrote the script, with guidance, and got to decide their own character and super power. Ella decided to be a BEE.

If you’ve got some free time, check out their 20-minute show (CLICK FOR VIDEO):

If you don’t have a lot of time, at least fast forward to 4 minutes and 30 seconds, so you can see Ella take her shoes off on stage (NOT part of the script) and deliver a line (from the script). While you’re watching her carefully unzip her boots, you can imagine my face in the audience as I tried to get her attention to signal a “Nonononononono“. She of course didn’t see me, and when I asked her afterwards what happened, she casually said, “I got hot.” And there you go. Stars. They’re just like us.

For the record, I made Ella a “Super School” sign on our easel, as I did for Zoe, but I cannot find the picture. Oops? Moving on… You already saw Ella’s fabulous piano recital from March (more star power), and as a final show of talent for this post, you can enjoy Zoe’s singing recital in May.

A few notes before you watch the video:

• Zoe had just gotten over COVID (yes, she made it through an entire pandemic without getting sick only to get it in May); she literally tested negative 2 days before the recital…
• She’s singing “Popular” from the Broadway production, Wicked, which she picked.
• Since she was quarantined for basically 10 days leading up to the show, we never really even saw her practice… So I’ll admit that I had no idea what to expect. We watched one run-thru, during which Bart made a suggestion you’ll see during the musical interlude.

(CLICK FOR VIDEO)

Even though the video quality isn’t amazing, there’s no mistaking that this kid is talented! From her voice to her choice of dress to her fabulous eyeliner “wings” to her incredible expressions, I can’t stop watching. We were in awe when we saw her perform live, from a computer screen in the other room.

And yes, my husband is the one who suggested she check out her nails during the instrumental part. That guy.

Hope you enjoyed the star moments shared in this post. We can’t help but be biased as the parents of these two stars, but in my opinion, WATCH OUT WORLD. These two are destined to do something cool, no matter what stage they end up on in life.