May 20 was a day the Ts had been eagerly anticipating since the beginning of the school year. James' first grade class performed The Lion King.
Back around Christmastime, James announced he'd been cast as Simba. Daphne said she'd had a strong feeling he'd be Simba - because he's "very behaved" at school. His teacher told us it was because he demonstrated skill at memorizing texts.
But whatever the reason, we were very much looking forward to the The Lion King in Luxembourgish, with our quiet, reserved little James as the lead role.
Rehearsals began around January, with James revealing only small pieces of what was going on. They would take a chunk of time during class here and there to work on it. We got the run-down of who would play who. The teacher had written a script he kept in a special notebook. There was a little music but no singing or dancing. Everyone in the class of 12 had at least one line to say, which they were instructed to pretty much yell as loud as possible. James refused to tell us any of his lines or what the script was like, wanting it to be a surprise.
There were three performances the day of the play: one for the rest of the school, one for some classes from other schools, and one in the evening for friends and family.
Rafiki's mom made this cake for the evening performance, as well as most of the costumes.
sweet friends came out in support
After the opening scene in which Simba's birth is announced to the animal kingdom (in stuffed-animal form), James stepped out on stage as a young Simba for his acting debut. Here's the scene:
He was good, eh?! And loud! Go James!
with Nala
with Rafiki
taking a bow
curtain call
All the kids did a really great job. We were very impressed that they all did indeed have lines and spoke them well. Of course it was especially fun, albeit a bit shocking, to see James so into it.
post-Simba
can't smear that makeup!
Simba & Nala
their very brave teacher
Apparently we will have the access to the whole show on video at some point. I will update the post and link to it if I can.
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