ANNIE Comes to Hickory

You gotta love it when NYC comes to a small town near you!

CAST, our local children's theater brought Annie to the stage this Christmas season so I decided to take my grand girls. (not in the pic)

When  Kat (the orphan in yellow with green rickrack) found out, she gave me complimentary tickets!

Is that sweet or what!

Sweet is what it was. Everything about this performance was sweet.

Well maybe not everything on account of - you know - Miss Hannigan.  That's  her in the tacky dress! 

My youngest grandgirl sat on my lap whenever Miss Hannigan was on stage!

But afterward we met her up close and in person and discovered she wasn't actually a mean lady after all.

She is Cathy Stallings, CAST's director who appears to be a limitless source of energy and enthusiasm, guiding the children through one show after another. Certainly not the sort of person who hates little girls!

Many of these characters also played in BLUE but there were some new ones as well.

I was super-impressed with the acting and singing! First rate. Go see it tonight or Sunday if you live near Hickory and get the chance.

Oh, and thanks to Kat!

BLUE IN PAPERBACK: November Winner

Are you proud of me? I'm only 5 days late in announcing that Robin Bulleri is this month's winner of BLUE in paperback!

Six winners so far!  Six more chances.  Follow directions in the sidebar if you want the chance to win. 

And while we're on the subject of BLUE, our local children's theater, CAST is producing the play based on my book, this coming weekend.

Photo by Mel Hager

Show Times

Thursday, Friday, & Saturday
November 11 - November 13  
7:30pm

Sunday, November 14
2:30 pm

at

200 South Center St.

Hildebran, NC

828-493-258

FRIDAY 5: Five Blue to Comfort Things

1. I love the e-mails I'm getting in which people say they like COMFORT as much as BLUE. I can't say how much this matters to me. Of course my daughter thinks she's partial to Blue. But that's okay. As long as Comfort is not a huge let down, I can deal.

2. The Blue play opens tonight. There are two casts since this is being performed for the public in the evenings and for school groups during the day. One of the Ann Fays presented the director with a copy of Comfort last night. How sweet was that?

3. My grandson, who is 4 years-old, will be at the play. His mother read BLUE to him and he sat through the whole thing. The other day he walked past me and said, Ahni, I loved Blue". (Ahni is my grandparent name.) Then he turned and flashed his dimples at me! It just might have been my most heartstopping Blue moment ever! (And I've had plenty.)

4. My grandaughter who is 7 gave up on Blue after Chapter One. (She's old enough to feel the pain in the story and she's not as fond of tragedy as I am.) In her decided opinion, Daddy going off to war was a bad way to start a book! At first she wanted to see the play but wisely changed her mind. I'm relieved because that child was never going to forgive me when she found out Ann Fay burned Bobby's toys. (This way she can still be my fan.)

5. My parents will be there. And my good hubby and our children. A few siblings too. And my 8th grade language arts teacher who predicted I'd be a writer someday. Front and center. I'm getting nervous.

BLUE PLAY

It's tech week at CAST - that last week before the play when all the costumes, props, and technical issues are resolved.

On Monday evening we dropped in on a rehearsal. It wasn't a dress rehearsal though, so Ann Fay was the only one in costume. I can see why she wore the overalls. That girl owned those britches like they were her skin!

The rehearsal was moving! (Hubby and I were in tears.) But there was plenty of humor too. Anticipation is building! Good luck to all the amazing cast members.