Behind the Scenes Tour

**Post updated to include the press review , a JSOnline article about the girl who plays Tiny Tim and the press release.**


In the last couple of weeks we have learned a lot about what goes into putting together a pretty large scale professional theater performance. While this is not Alyssa's first theater experience, I'd be willing to venture that it's the biggest time commitment she has had, in probably the grandest production she has been a part of. I thought I would give you a little tour of what she's been doing the last several weeks.

First up was perfecting an English accent. Again, not her first time having to speak with an English accent, but it was her first time to work with a dialect coach. We ran into her dialect coach, Jill at a Starbucks, and she is so nice. No wonder Alyssa loved the dialect sessions so much.

The weekend after her birthday, my parents came up to spend time with Alyssa and after going out for lunch, we walked her up to practice in the main rehearsal hall, The Hub. The next several photos were taken by Emma or Rebekah as they explored the hall.

Getting her petticoat off the rack.

A huge dress goes over this petticoat, she feels like a princess when she gets in costume.

Where her stage shoes wait for her to put them on.

Emma was fascinated with all the props in the rehearsal hall. This is a model of what the stage in the Pabst will look like for the performances.

The Christmas goose.

More food props. Fun, behind the scenes info: There is a fezziwig scene in which there are tables of fake food that the children are supposed to be eating from in the background as the scene plays out. The children's director thought the kids' acting looked slightly forced as they were eating fake food, so she arranged for real small gingerbread cookies to be tucked in among the props. So when the kids look like they are really have a snack on stage ~ they are! Alyssa was so impressed they would do this to make the scene look more natural.

Rebekah outside the entrance to The Pabst.

Emma on the other side of The Pabst.

At the beginning of Tech Week, Dave was able to go with Alyssa on a tour of the Pabst. The Hub where they had previously been practicing is in an ajoining building, so there were all new dressing rooms and such to familiarize herself with, not to mention the beautiful theater itself. This is a grainy cell phone pic, but it is gorgeous.

Her costume rack. She is so excited about each of her costumes, and she has quite a few changes to make, so she has an assistant to help her with that. She also serves as a helper to Tiny Tim during costume changes.


Last night was opening night for the Friends and Family Preview.

Curtain Call.

I knew my mother in law would love to see as many photos of the theater as possible. Here is the best shot I could get of the balconies. The whole theater is beautiful. Alyssa claims the middle section {1st Balcony} is the best vantage point. I thought the seats we were given in the orchestra section were awesome.

Excited family and friends ready for the performance to begin.

Looking from the lobby down into the theater.

The hallway that led to the bathrooms, because I am showing you all the most important locations, after all.

Alyssa was so happy that a couple of her friends were able to come see opening night ~ Thank you for being there, Katie and Megan {not pictured :-( }!

My parents drove up to see the play, which did not end until after 10pm, on a weeknight in which they had to work the next day. Saying thank you is not enough! Alyssa was so glad you were there. All she talked about all week long was how excited she was for everyone to see the play, she would have loved to fly in all Dave's family in from Hawaii to see it, had that been a possibility.

Rebekah fell asleep in the second act, so our post show family picture is a bit of a bust. Alyssa chose our outfits for the evening ~ she wanted us to wear purple and black.

One more photo of Alyssa and Katie.

Alyssa was so excited after the preview last night, that she could hardly sleep {even though she needed to ~ badly!!} She kept asking me what my favorite part was and if I saw her actually eating the cookies during the Fezziwig scene {yes! She took the command to really eat something seriously :-) } They have the press preview tonight, and officially open on Friday. I thought the entire cast was amazing, if you're local and can go, I think you would enjoy it immensely.

Congratulations, Alyssa. We are so very proud of you! Keep doing what you're doing.