There's a First Time for Everything

In years past, Nate ran Track but he is suffering from patella tendonitus and thus was unfit to run this season. So naturally... he decided to try out for the spring musical.
This year the High School put on the play "JOSEPH, and the AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT". We all LOVE this play. We own the DVD and have watched it over and over again, loving the music and Donny Osmond's voice.
When Nate found out this was the play they were doing he decided to try out for it. He has never been in a play before, let alone a musical. Needless to say I was encouraging but a tad bit nervous for his tryouts. He is a football player and a runner, not a drama guy. This was reflected in his biography he wrote for the program, which reads:

"Nate Leonhardt, a senior, is new drama. During football he had a height of 5' 10'' and weighed 170 lbs. and enjoyed tackling people until he broke his hand, developed back spasms and developed patella tendonitus."

The drama instructer was kind enogh to add at the end, (ed. note: Football's sorrow, is drama's fortune!)

Nate came home one day and said, "I get to be one of the 12 brothers, guess which one I am". I had no idea. He said "I am LEVI". We all laughed and thought that was great. Our Levi was a little bit confused when we kept calling Nate, Levi.

I, loving this play, wasn't expecting very much from High School kids. To make this play work you have to have a GREAT Joseph, Narrators, good singers and actors for brothers and a great chorus. I was just excited to go and see my Nate be on stage, in his FIRST play, but when I saw it the first night, second night, third and forth nights (yep, I went 4 times) I was continually impressed with the talent these high school students have. THEY WERE AMAZING!! Truly!! People were saying things like . . . "I have seen this on Broadway and this was just as good".
I wish all of you could have been here to see it.

This is the part where all the brothers decide to get rid of Joseph and throw him in the well. Nate and another brother were going to throw him into the well but one day the other brother didn't show up to rehearsal so Nate, improvising, with one swift motion, picked up the actor playing Joseph, and threw him in the well, with ease.
After, the actor playing Joseph said, "DUDE YOU ARE TERRIFYING". Nate likes to point out that that is the first time in his life he has ever been called "TERRIFYING".

In this picture Nate is seen carrying Potiphars wife onto stage. He is actually look back in disgust as she flirts with the other guards. The actress who played Mrs. Potiphar said she wanted a shirt that would say "Nate disapproves of this".

As a side note, the other person who carried out Mrs. Potiphar felt self conscious coming onto stage shirtless, opposite of Nate. This caused him to do an excessive amount of pushups before going on to stage, and run grab some ice, to harden his pecks.

One of Nate's main pitches to get his friends to come see the show was to inform them that for the only time in their lives they would have the chance to see him drunk. The brothers are all posed for the song "Those Canaan Days". In this song Nate had a very important solo that he was very excited about. He was so excited about it he volunteered to sing it at home the day it was assigned. He composed himself and sang loudly and strongly the word, "EXTREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEME". That was his one word solo. For the next couple of days he'd go around and would spontaneously sing that one word in various different voices and styles.

This is the "Benjamin Calypso". This is one of the few dance numbers Nate actually participated in. He was pulled out of the hoedown for his own and others safety. While the guys were in an inner circle and the girls were in an outer circle, everyone had their arms on each others shoulders. Nate put his arms down to early and realizing his mistake, with a very swift and somewhat violent motion, he attempted to put his arms back on the other guys shoulders. As he was doing this two girls were going between and Nate accidentally hit both of them very hard in the head.

The next day Nate was asked to be one of the two brothers to escort Jacob off stage while the dancing took place. Purely coincidence I'm sure.

This is the finale. Joseph has his coat and has forgiven his brothers. Everyone is happy.
Here are some random pictures of Nate with his acting buddies after the play.

Nate and his buddy "Elvis" (Pharaoh)

Friends that attended the play.

left to right Carley Ostergaard, Nate, Dallin & Camilla Jones.

Nate and 2 of his 12 brothers. Judah (Ian) and Naphtali (Bryan)
Nate and one of the Narrators (Kathleen)
Potiphers Wife (Jen), Nate, Pharaoh (Ben W), and Potipher (Ben G)
Another Brother Issachar (Joe)

Another Brother, Zebulun (Josh Fridstrom) and great actor, Nate said he would watch him and feed off of what this actor was doing.
Joseph (Josh Finch) and Nate. This young man, Joseph, is quite talented. His voice was perfect for this part. He also seemed to be a very nice, kind, good young man. I love seeing that!
Nate and his wife (Deejay).

Nate and 3 other brothers. Asher (Manny), Benjamin (David) and Simeon (Nathaniel).