She Flutters: Darby, Part III

April, 2010

Darby arrived at our Wednesday rehearsal refreshed, prepped and pissed off. The last didn't concern me too much because she was finally awake and with us. I'd imagined Darby as a moth up in a corner of Room 42, looking down at us unengaged and melancholy. She now appeared to have landed and stood at her music stand alert and ready.

Darby understood that Faith, her counterpart as Narrator One, would now cue the actors when they called for lines. This job had been taken away so that Darby could focus on her own cues as Narrator Two.

"Okay, actors, when you need help, Faith will give you the line when you call for it."

The cast looked from Faith to Darby and back again. Their heads swiveled in search of a reaction and, if there was one, I didn't want to see it. Just moving along, people, moving along — nothing to see here, nothing at all.

And so we started our run-through. It was ragged but not horrible. For the first time, I didn't say one word. If a cue was late, we waited while the actors figured out who should be speaking. If a prop was missing, we waited for them to find it. This is how it would be in performance and I needed to prepare them to be on their own up there and relying on each other, not looking at me to help out.


I didn't say one word but someone did. Darby took it upon herself to reprimand the actors all the way through.

"Garth, you missed a line!"

"Oliver, wrong word!"

"Phoebe, you're late!"

"Dominick, you’re in the wrong place."

"Natalie, that's not the right line!"

Endless admonitions came from Darby at stage right.

I shot her a look and she shrugged back with a look that said, I'm just sayin'.

This was I'm pissed-off and I'm back, make no mistake about that behavior and I let her get it out of her system — this one time.

After notes and as the kids settled in to write in their journals and nibble snacks, I took a moment with Darby.

"Hey, thank you so much for staying with the script today. You missed one of your cues on page thirteen but, overall much better.I appreciate it."

"Oh sure, Ms. Ryane, you're welcome."

"One tiny thing."

"Okay."

"You don't need to tell the actors when they drop a line or mess up. We'll just keep going. They don’t need to hear that."

"Oh, okay, sure."

"Good. Start writing, I know that's your favorite part."

She wrote, she shared her writing and we moved on, folks. We just keep moving on.

A Moth: Darby, Part I
A Moth: Darby, Part II

CHILDREN'S WRITES: A Journal Entry

I live in the forest. The forest is really dirty with rodents. My fellow friends are some witchs, gargoleys, rodents, and other outern forest animils. I eat all animals except rodend and bears. EEWW bears. The rodents are gushy and crunchy.

I believe that Macbeth shouldn't have killed Duncan. Also, I do believe that Macbeth has changed the future by killing Duncan. I would like Macbeth ded and earn more greater powers. What the power is to zap and burn people.

What I will do to get what I want is make my spell tell me what my future would be like as a witch. I am scared of Macduff, Banquo and Macbeth. Also, and maybe some fellow witch they are to bosy. I am really afraid to get killed by a wich or even someone I don't no. I am loyal to all my buddys.

—Faith, 5th grade