The Princeless Princess

The third graders at Amelia and John's elementary school stage a musical each year. This is the first year I have been aware of this large production given that my oldest is just now a third grader, and I have to say that I was amazed by the quality and sophistication of their performance. The kids are assigned parts in the musical as a component of their regular twice-a-week music class, and all of the show rehearsals take place during music class every week. The children were assigned their parts by the music teacher about six weeks ago, and the kids performed the show four times over two days last week - twice one day for their peers at the school and twice another evening for their parents and invited guests.

The cover of the program...presenting "The Princeless Princess"!

Guess who played the princess in the play? Amelia!
More on this later, but for know please understand that there are 144 third graders in the elementary school. And each and every one had at least one part in the musical! Can you even imagine?!? It was crazy and amazing at the same time to see that many children rotate on and off the stage during a 30 minute show! There were ribbon dancers, sword dancers, frogs, various members of the royal court, jesters, etc.. And most of the kids played different percussion instuments to accompany the singing as well. I tell you, it was amazing.

Below are Amelia and two of her friends before one of the evening performances, Isabella the "Fair E. Godmother", and William, Prince #2.

These are the opening rappers who set the stage for the story.

The premise of the play is that it is the princess' birthday and she is expected to select a prince.

First the princess engages the help of a bookseller, who sells her a guide about "How to Find a Prince in Three Easy Steps". The princess must select a few qualities that she thinks would be important for a prince, and settles that he must be "Tall, Dark, and Handsome!"

After examining two princes (including Amelia's good friend William, below), the princess decides that neither lives up the "tall" and "dark" qualities. Although she does exclaim that both are "kinda' cute" with respect to handsome aspect.

The ribbon dancers perform dances to entertain the princess..

...and later the frogs make an appearance so that the princess can kiss a frog with the hopes of capturing the best prince possible.

But in the end nothing works and the princess winds up without a prince. The lesson is that declaring traits that are based on external appearance alone - such as "dark, tall, and handsome" - leads you down the wrong path. It's character that matters when you judge someone - the characteristics that are inside each and every one of us, such as friendliness and honesty.

At the end of the show, the princess declares that she was "looking for the wrong things all along! It's character that matters! From now on, I will remind myself and others that what is important for each person is what is on the inside that counts, not what you see on the outside!"

I have to say that the musical was really well done and I had so much fun watching Amelia and her peers perform for their friends and family. What an amazing experience for all of these 8 and 9 year-old kids to have!