Children's Theater Festival

For those of you out there who do not know what Children's Theater Festival (CTF) is, I'll fill you in. At our high school the winter theater production is actually three half hour children's shows directed by students. The student director picks the script, helps design the sets and costumes etc, and picks and directs the cast. Then one Saturday each show is done twice and outside of the theater is a carnival for the kids to play at between shows. It is tons of fun and is pretty much the best show of the year.

It has been a Chatfield tradition since Holly participated in it her freshman year. For me it was always a blast, especially the year I played Maleficent in Sleeping Beauty and made some kids cry because I was so scary (I had to tone it down after that). Holly, Julie, myself and now Carlie have all directed a show our senior year. Holly did Goldilocks and the Three Bears, I did one about a witch's first birthday, Julie did Aladdin and Carlie also did the Three Bears.

I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to go down to Redlands this weekend and see all the CTF shows, including Carlie's . I went with mom, dad, Kellie and Kellie's friend Marshall who brought his (totally awesome) six year old sister Tessa. First we saw Beauty and the Beast, which was pretty good, but definitely pulled most of their script from the Disney movie. The best part, to me, was the fact that a troop of girl scouts sat behind us and made hilarious comments during the show.

Carlie's show was next, and it was really good. Her cast did a great job and I especially just wanted to eat up her Baby Bear, he was so adorable. And it was really interactive with the kids, and the audience did a great job participating. Even though Holly and Carlie directed the same script, you kinda can't compare the two because they were sooo different, each good in their own way. I think Carlie was happy about how it went, even though there were some rough patches along the way.

Last we watched Peter Pan. I'm glad I knew the story before I watched it, because besides the boy who played Peter, I couldn't understand a word. The costumes looked great though. It was a fun day, including watching Tessa eat her cotton candy. I think cotton candy is gross, but watching her enjoy it and in such a messy way almost tempted me to have some myself.

I spent most of the rest of the day in Redlands doing some laundry and just hanging out until the Christmas Parade. Also a long beloved tradition, the parade goes through downtown Redlands and is just fun. We sat with some families from the ward and the parade was awesome. There were cute dogs, cute kids, some awesome horses, awesome cars that were antique and some new (like all the corvettes) and lots of cute floats. I was a little bummed because when RHS marching band walked by I couldn't see Kellie and they weren't even playing. Probably the best part was watching the Mortensen children eat tons of licorice, candy canes, cream puffs and be wacky.