The 5th Grade Musical Extravaganza

Tonight was Jaxon's 5th grade musical, and I have to say, I was extremely impressed. They started rehearsing it a long, long time ago so they were very prepared and it showed. Everything went off so smoothly - the kids all knew their parts perfectly, had all the songs down pat, looked confident and were really, really cute.

Jaxon had quite a few lines and played three different people, including Patrick Henry of, "Give me liberty or give me death", fame. And Martin Waldseemüller (if you haven't ever heard of him, don't feel bad, I'd have never heard of him if it weren't for the 5th grade play) who was a German cartographer that lived in the early 1500's. He is credited with the first recorded usage of the word America on a 1507 map in honor of the Florentine explorer Amerigo Vespucci.

There, we all just learned something. Or maybe it was just me.

Jaxon was also this character:

Anyone? anyone?

Here's your hint, he was a famous, African American who was born into slavery and became a very prominent speaker, writer and abolitionist. He escaped from slavery by boarding a train dressed as a sailor and carrying papers acquired from a free black seaman. Later, after he'd toured Europe as a public speaker, some admirers in Britain purchased his freedom.

This is what he actually looked like:

Spooky resemblance, huh.

Any guesses?

So I had to come up with 3 different costumes. I made a trip to the thrift store in Kanab and got a bunch of blazers, dresses, skirts and ties. His costumes turned out pretty good, I think. My favorite was the soft, textured corduroy jacket (worn above) and the ugly old tie with the tacky button on it. The button came off a really gaudy dress that I made into Martin Waldseemüller's robe. I also utilized a pair of my old riding breeches and some of my own pantyhose - I can't believe he fits in that stuff!

So here's the whole group. This is a pretty cute bunch. As I was looking at this, I all of a sudden realized how tall Jaxon is getting to be.

He gets that from me.

So congrats to the 5th grade and Mrs. Spencer on a job well done! It was good fun.