My actor aficinado

We always knew that Ian enjoyed acting and was currently involved in a youth drama program through a local university for several years.  Ian participated in musicals twice a year and was enjoying it.  It was an extracurricular activity and kept him busy on the weekends.  Each role Ian was given he did a good job, but nothing extraordinary.

This past Fall, Ian decided to audition for his middle school play, "Rock of Ages".  He was given the role of Lonny Barnett and it turned out to be the best thing ever.  This role gave Ian the opportunity to really show the world what he was capable of.  He improvised with each show and interacted with the audience.  He took command of the stage and seriously, he took his role in the play to a whole new level.  He blew us all away with his enthusiasm, energy, and natural ability to entertain.

Opening night was on Friday, February 8th. Jeff, Samantha and I were appropriately blown away by what we saw on the stage.  Ian was so much fun to watch.  He did an amazing job.  It was the kind of performance you had to see to believe.  That was my son up there!!  He was larger than life. At the end of the show I teared up. I knew how much Ian gave of himself up on the stage and it completely paid off.  I was so excited that the family was coming to town the next day and was able to see the show, that I couldn't sleep at all on Friday night.  Not for one minute.  The adrenaline rush I was feeling from seeing the show couldn't come down enough to fall asleep.  It was crazy and insane that all I could think about all night long was how great my son (MY SON!!) was during the show.  At one point, it was 3:00am and I said to Jeff, "I still can't fall asleep. All I am thinking about is Ian on that stage".  Jeff replied with "Well, I can sleep, so let me."

With each show, the feedback on Ian's performance by people we knew and those we didn't was incredible.  Everyone said "he stole the show"; "he made it what it was", or "wow, did you know he had that in him?"  They couldn't believe the amount of energy he brought to Lonny and how it was sustained through the whole show.    The best comment was by his math teacher who saw the show one night and then said to Ian, "I knew you were in the show, but I didn't know you WERE THE SHOW!   Please take all the time you need to turn in homework.  You've had a lot going on."

Each teacher who saw Ian in action, the next time in class, made it a point to tell the whole class how amazing he was and they should see the show. In Spanish class, the teacher made the students give Ian and the other boy in his class who is also in his play, a round of applause.

At the end of each show, the actors came out in the lobby and Ian would be swarmed with members of the audience fawning over him and his performance.  Parents who had their child part of cast would come up to Ian, with their child standing next to them, and tell Ian he was the best thing about the show.  Really, this happened again and again.  Watching this made me feel like the mother of a rockstar.  Even people I didn't know, sought me out, asked if I was Ian's mom and gushed about how well Ian did.

Almost every show had its little quirks and inevitably things went wrong.  These kids were true professionals and quickly covered up whatever was happening on stage and went with it. In one show, Ian fell off his stool, not once, but twice!  As it was happening, he did not miss a beat and just kept talking.  In another show, the mic stand was missing the microphone.  Ian quickly improvised and handed Stacee Jax his drum stick to sing into. And yet, in another show, Stacee Jax lost his huge wig of hair and it had the potential to completely ruin the scene.  But Jack kept performing and didn't flinch when the wig fell off.  Nothing threw these kids.  This was very impressive to watch.

These two weeks of show performances is one of those moments in time I will never forget.  This was the time that Ian showed the world what he was made of.  It's not just the fantastic performance he gave (but it was fantastic!) but the fact he put himself out there and gave it his all. I could not be more proud of him than if he had opened on Broadway.

Ian has decided to get more serious about his interest in acting.  We will now be exploring taking vocal lessons and signing up to do community theatre if the timing is right with his schedule.

We all know becoming an actor is a very tough field to stand out in and be able to support yourself.  For these two weeks in February, it seemed like even the near impossible will be possible for Ian.

Here are some amazing pictures of Ian, taken by a Robinson parent, Rich Condit.

It looks like Ian is flying!!   This is without the aid of a trampoline or springy floor.  WOW!

I think this is the coolest picture ever!

Ian very rarely had two feet on the ground.

Best fan club ever!!!

The day everyone showed up

Team Toppall just had a very big day.  The biggest!  For 3 weeks leading up to Saturday, February 9th, I freakishly checked the 10 day forecast on two different weather apps twice a day, no joke! Each day we got one day closer for the day I needed to have good weather.  Eventually I got to the point where February 9th finally started appearing in the 10 days forecasted and I could to start to finally breathe easy that Mother Nature will not mess up our plans.  The Washington DC metro area is unable to handle even the littlest bit of Winter weather and is quick to shut down.  It was a very real threat that the 2nd week in February could've been a huge disaster to have family fly in or drive down from NJ.

Why the worry?   Everyone from Orlando and relatives from New Jersey and Maryland came to town to celebrate my mom's 75th birthday (which actually IS February 9th) and to attend Ian's play, "Rock of Ages".   We only had once chance to get it right as the family flew in on Friday afternoon and was flying back on Sunday afternoon.

What a day it was!  It was perfect in every way and honestly, it felt surreal how all it all came together.  I feel so fortunate that everyone wanted to come to town and cheer Ian on in his role as Lonny Barnett.  He completely killed it.  With my mom turning 75 that day, my sister and I hosted a festive lunch at a nearby restaurant that made my mom feel special.   The icing on the cake was getting my cousin LeeAnn and her wife to come down from NJ.  This was very much unexpected and my mom couldn't believe her eyes when LeeAnn walked in the room.

The day went without a hitch.  The weather didn't get in our way.  The family was all together (with the exception of Meghan who recently moved to San Diego) and there was much reason to celebrate. As Mary Poppins would say, "Practically perfect in every way."

And now Winter can resume with its plans for snow, sleet or ice.  I've gotten beyond the one day I cared about, to the point I was losing sleep over it, and am back to breathing easy and enjoying watching the snow that is currently falling as I write this.

Text what?

I am amazed by the number of parents who are hands-off and let their kids (especially teens!) have basically no limits when it comes to social media, texting and playing rated "M" ("M" means mature and is appropriate for ages 17+) video games.

I trust my kids but I am cautious of their peers.  It makes me nervous that no one seems to be aware of what they are doing, or the type of video games they are playing. So many of these games are full of shooting, realistic violence, and war type scenarios. There was one game Ian asked if he could get that had dead female corpses.  And you had to examine the corpse to figure out what happened.  I should be okay with this because as the reviews said, the dead NAKED corpse wasn't onscreen for very long and I believe there was only one of them.  Um, what???  Yeah, that's not happening in my house.  Not at age 13, 14, 15 or 16.  Just reading the description of this game freaked me out.  

Don't even get me started on the texting.  OMG!  Ian is a part of many group texting threads.  These conversations just keep going and going and going.  I monitor Ian's electronic communication.  I think it is important to make sure everything is on the up and up.  To be honest, I am breaking myself in with Ian on how vigilant I want to be because it's Samantha I am truly worried about.  She is still a few years away from getting a phone and most likely having many friends to text with.  Even so, I am super glad I do check Ian's texts.  There was this one group chat that made me feel ill; completely nauseas on what I read being a texted by a friend.  It was vile and disgusting and very much out of line.  There was no reason for it and these horrid texts appear out-of-left-field and make zero sense to the ongoing conversation.  I was particularly pleased that the other kids in the group text either told him "NO / Stop!", ignored him completely or tried to reason with him why it wasn't appropriate.  It pained me to know my son was even seeing this obscene messages.  I took the appropriate measures to make sure this child stopped and hopefully even get mental help for voicing such thoughts, but here's the thing I am most stumped about....why was I the only parental type figure to see this???   With up to 20 others in the text thread, I am the only one to notice the vulgarity?  Really?   I just don't get it.  Are all these parents' heads buried in the sand?  Are they in denial that any harm could come from this?  I hope not.  But its appearing that way to me.