If he had not broken his arm, he might have missed all of this.
Like most boys, Aaron grew up playing sports. His focus was football, though, and he played quarterback for his junior-high team...until he broke his arm. With the entire season lost, Aaron had a lot of energy, and needed something to focus it on.
"I tried out for the school play," he told me. And after that, everything changed.
"I was bit by the theater bug, and never looked back."
In college, he met this girl...
"Julie was the same way," Aaron told me. "She loved to be in theater, and also to dance. She is a really good dancer and choreographer."
Aaron tried asking her out, a bunch of times, but Julie always turned him down, saying she was booked.
"Finally, I told her to check her schedule and get back to me," he said. "She asked me out on a date a few days later."
Love, marriage, Max and Madison happened after that. Career and city-of-residence changes happened in between, but theater continued to happen throughout — often with Aaron as the director and Julie choreographing.
"Maddie was born into this world," Aaron said. "She has been active in dance, singing and theater her entire life."
The family hired me primarily because Madison is moving up in that world — having been nominated for a pair of awards from the Northwest Indiana Excellence in Theater Foundation — and needs updated 8x10s. They asked for a few family portraits as well, and Julie and Madison's walk from Solidarity Drive over to the Shedd Aquarium produced some really fun, long-lens candids (see my Facebook page for those).
In fact, without the stage, and Aaron's broken arm, I would have missed all this, too.
