"Okay girls, sit back, watch and learn."
In the front row sat the four girls who missed our technical rehearsals because they chose to take a boating trip with their fifth-grade class. Today, bright as buttons, hair shiny, brushed and decorated with sparkly barrettes and, in Darby's case, curled into ringlets, they looked like four nervous chorus girls.
It was not only time for them to quickly pick up on lighting and sound cues, but it was time for me to GET OVER IT.
We had our first audience arriving at 10:30 to see our Invited Dress Rehearsal. I had to get these kids up to snuff and I had to GET OVER IT.
"Celia, ready to call those first cues?"
"Yes, Ms. Ryane."
Onstage I walked through Bettina's cues, where she would place a crown on King Duncan's head while grand music rumbled through the auditorium. I walked super-slow, milking the moment into a royal extravaganza.
"See that, Bettina? That's how important the moment is. The audience will completely get the mood of 'Macbeth' by how you do this. Got it?"
Bettina nodded.
"Okay, up here. You do it."
She slid up the stairs, took her place, waited for the music cue and DID NOT GET IT.
"Okay, that wasn't exactly right. Let's try again. Faith and Darby, you can take your places at the microphones but don't touch them — they might fall. Once the music stops and King Duncan is crowned you'll start the narration. Got it?"
The twosome took their places.
"Amaya, you can come up as well and be ready to pick up your witch stick."
It's around now that I sum up: We've had a wet-pants disaster, an escalated learning curve for four actors, and Dominick ate Twizzlers, which should not have happened because of his sugar allergy.
It's around now that I figure: What the heck, let's take a chance and all lose our pants.
10:30.
The double doors spring open and lines of tiny kindergarteners parade into the auditorium with big eyes. Following them, first-, second-, third- and fourth-graders. Following them, I'm told, will be the fifth-grade class....This is what I was told: We have to wait for the fifth graders and their teacher.
We did wait. All of us waited. Forty minutes later they arrived and I thought, GET OVER IT.
Your job is to stop them for doing what they are not supost to do. You are supost to help your friends. I had a best friend and she broke her leg and I went over two her house and had a sleep over and played. We played in the sprickler. I was fun with her as a best friend.
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