Be Prepared: Curtain Up

January, 2010

This is nuts. I should be better at this. I've earned the savvy and the know-how and still....

Every Wednesday morning between January and June I awake with a knot in my stomach and these thoughts in my head: What? What's today? Oh cripes...what if this is the one...the day I lose the room, let them down, miss an action, overlook a sadness and turn my back at the wrong time?

In my first year of doing Shakespeare Club, I searched online for teachers' tips. I grabbed every teacher's elbow at the school and with panic in my voice asked, "How? How do you do it?"

I still grab those elbows and I still get help, but here's the main piece of advice I received, over and over: Be prepared.

So, every Wednesday morning I drink just enough coffee and then:

1. Hit the gym, step onto the treadmill and sweat like an Olympian.
2. Sweat some more in the steam room.
3. Blow-dry my hair.
4. Put on light makeup.
5. Eat a light lunch.
6. Hum and warm up the articulators.
7. Re-check the printout of my itinerary/script.
8. Get dressed.
9. Drive the car while taking deep breaths.

Every Wednesday I fight my fear. Every Wednesday I prepare as if going onstage to play Rosalind in "As You Like It." A role, by the way, I never actually played and always wanted to and now...well, it seems I have a gig at an elementary school.

And here they come, running, jumping, screaming and throwing backpacks in a jumble and...please God, let this be a good house.

I cannot even express how much I love Thursday mornings.


CHILDREN'S WRITES: A Journal Entry

I want to be in shakespeare club...

1. I want to be an Actrice

2. I want to see what it's like living 300 years ago

3. I want to know exactly what happened in Will's life

4. I like to prefrom

Today I learned...

1. There is 2 Anne Hathaways.

2. That Will had 3 kids

3. That not going to church was a law.

—Mary, 3rd grade