It’s a Hard Knock Life…

Much of Maddie’s Summer (and ours) was consumed by The Rancho Cucamonga Community Theatre Production of “Annie” at the Lewis Family Playhouse at Victoria Gardens. This was Maddie’s 3rd time participating in an Annie production but she was always one of at least 50 orphans on the stage. This was by far her biggest production and she learned SO much from working with such professional people. I am just amazed at the talent of this cast!

The show was the second and third weekends in July and SOLD OUT every performance. It was the most sold out show Rancho Cucamonga Community Theatre has every had since its inception 10 years ago! We felt very privileged that Maddie was able to be part of such an amazing production. She was cast as Tessie (the orphan who always says, “Oh my goodness!”) and she fit the part perfectly cause she’s really good at whining! She loved wearing a body mic for her first time and had so much fun being back stage with the cast. This is definitely her cup of tea! Rehearsals were several weeknights each week and all day Saturdays. The week before the show her rehearsals went until 11 pm each night. My Dad was so kind to go pick her up when Chris was out of town that last week. All the hard work was worth it when we finally got to see the show. She just lit up on stage and had so much fun! These pictures were taken by Janice Young during the dress rehearsal. If you’d like to see more pictures visit her website here.

The girl who played Annie, Jayden Young was actually in the running for Annie on Broadway. She was amazing. She had a call back in Hollywood the day of one of the performances. Luckily she made it back in time for the matinee show.

I got to work backstage a couple nights and had fun being behind the scenes. Maddie made such good friends with the other orphans. It was sad when we all had to say goodbye on the last show. We hope she has another opportunity to be in another production there!