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We drove to Cincinnati Tuesday, September 13th. He got settled in his room and hung-out with his class. We bought him some additional stuff at Bed Bath & Beyond and of course, Wal-Mart.
On Wednesday his class had several hours of "diagnostics" where all 18 of the students sung an entire song, did a monologue and danced.
While they were doing that, we met with many of the parents of MT15. They were from California, Toronto, Dallas, Denver, Florida, New Orleans, New Jersey, Upstate New York, and KC. Many stories were exactly (and eerily) the same (kids who sing constantly, spacy, a level of parent enmeshment, not quite fitting in, multiple school offers, nuttiness.) Some things were completely different. We met a couple who didn't allow their daughter to do many productions because they had her on a path to "peak" at 26 years old rather than 16. One parent cried the entire 4 hours we were together in anticipation of missing her son.
We drove home to KC today. Eric had his personal diagnostic critique and reported to us that they liked his voice although he had some jaw placement issues they would work on. They liked his previous dance training. They felt that even though he had some good expression and mannerisms during his monologue, he was, nevertheless, not-believable. Apparently, many others were pretty well roasted. All of them were told to go to the gym. So since Eric is the only one with gym and weightlifting experience, he is the whole classes designated weight trainer.
He had that determined, focused tone in his voice that I've come to recognize as the, "I'm on a mission and have no time for chit-chat" voice so we got off the phone pretty quickly. If I know him, he'll debrief with his class mates individually and give them encouragement and perspective about the day. He'll rally the troops in his own way.
chris
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