The Jungle Book

So, for those of you who didn't know, Nathan was recently involved in a Showbiz Kids production of The Jungle Book. This was his first play ever, and he really took to it. It's the perfect outlet for him, because he gets to sing and channel his energy into his part. Surprisingly he was chosen to play the part of Amal, a young wolf in Mowgli's wolf family pack, which was a pretty significant part for a first grader who had never been in a play before. He actually had more lines than some of the 3rd graders in the play.

Here he is in make-up from the dress rehearsal:

And here he is trying to look like a fierce wolf:

When we came back for the actual play last Thursday night, they gave him a bit more make-up, which he thought definitely made him look more like a wolf. Here he is waiting for his turn in the make-up room:And here is the finished product:
The whole family went to support Nate. Next time though, Kimmy will probably stay with the babysitter. She was fussing for me and for Dad and for Nate all throughout the show, and I felt really bad for the parents who were trying to video tape the play...you can't hear the actors when there is some crazy baby screaming in the background.
Nate was in two of the three scenes. The first one was at Council Rock, where the wolf pack is discussing how Shear Kahn is back in the jungle. He is right in the center next to Mother Wolf in the white and grey costume:
Here is the opening number, our video camera is out of commission, so I taped it with my camera. The quality is not the best, but it's still great to have. Don't stop watching until you see Nate's bow at the end.

He had a hard time figuring out what arm went in front and which went it back. It was my favorite moment from the whole play.

Mowgli finally makes his appearance here:
Here is Nate delivering his first line:
More from Council Rock: He finally found where we were sitting in the audience...he's looking straight at us.
This is the pack's hunting song:


This is the end of the play, when all the characters are on stage at once. They did great sitting quietly considering there was like 30 kids participating.

When the show was over, they invited the actors to come onto the stage one by one for photos. Nate's good friend MaKenna was in the play too. Here they are afterwards:They wanted to take pictures with all Kimmy and Dana, but Dana had tried to go on stage after the show was over and was told by one of the adult leaders that only the actors could be on stage. She totally got her feelings hurt and refused to pose for anything, so Nate and MaKenna took pictures with just Kimmy:
The other awesome thing that happened after the play was that some little kid came up and asked Nate to autograph his program. It was the sweetest thing. Nate was more than happy to do it, and I got to catch it on camera. It was a really great production, and we couldn't be more proud of Nate. He memorized all his lines and delivered them right on cue. As you can see from the videos, he was also a singing star! He loved it so much he is already asking when the sign ups are for the fall production of Pinocchio.