One of the big traditions at our elementary school is that in the fall of fifth grade you read Tom Sawyer, then you perform the play with your class. There was a fair amount of discussion about whether or not this would happen last fall when Covid was wreaking havoc, and the faculty decided not to put on the play.
Eliza was disappointed of course, but it worked out in the end because the teachers found a way to perform the play safely and when the number of Covid cases were much smaller: they saved it for the end of the year, then performed it outside and limited the number of people attending to two per student. This had the added benefits of a mountain backdrop for several scenes and having enough space that several pieces could be left in place so the kids had less work to do setting up each scene.
The kids were allowed to request to play a certain part and Eliza was so excited to get her first choice, the part of Huck Finn. (I think it worked in her favor that her already small class only has 6 boys in it, so several girls played boy parts.) Part of the reason Eliza wanted this part was that Jack had the part - now it's a legacy! At some point in the month leading up to the play, everyone in the family helped Eliza practice her lines:
Nobody was allowed to use the school's costume pieces so it worked out well that Eliza already had a pair of overalls, and she borrowed one of her brother's shirts. We ordered a cheap straw hat from Amazon, which Eliza started deconstructing almost as soon as she opened it. It turned out great!
She was so excited when the big day arrived, and Suz and I were happy to be in the audience, front and center. The trickiest part of performing outside was that the kids had to really project since they weren't using mics but they all did a great job and we understood them very well. I was really impressed with the performance, and I think Eliza needs to do more acting in the future!
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