In
the Fall semester of Sarah’s fifth grade year, her middle school announced
auditions for the upcoming school play.
This year, the production would be Tom
Sawyer. All the middle school’s promising actors were abuzz.
Sarah
was already a cheerleader at her school for football and basketball and played
travel softball as well. I had no idea
that she might be interested in acting or live theatre. So, when she told me that she wanted to
audition, I was surprised.
She
brought home a small packet of information for students who were considering
auditioning. The packet included
information about dates, times for the auditions, expectations, the performance
date, show time, all the roles, and general guidelines. We read through the material and she was still
very interested.
As
we perused the information, we read through a brief character description for
all the roles. The guidelines noted that
no 5th or 6th grader would be given a large role (i.e.
Tom, Huck, Becky, Aunt Polly, etc.) since the upperclassmen would be cast in
the leading characters. Even though the
younger students would not actually be cast in the main roles, you still had to
select one major character and read for that part. In addition, if you wanted to try out for
Becky, you also had to sing 16 bars of a well-known song.
Of
course, as a mom, I wanted Sarah to try out for the role of the leading lady,
Becky Thatcher. But as Sarah read
through the character descriptions, she confidently informed me that Becky’s part
is boring. Instead, she is going to read
for the part of Aunt Polly. I was totally
shocked. “Who wants to play a grumpy,
old lady?” I thought. Sarah explained to
me that Aunt Polly is a funny role and that she would rather have a part that
is interesting. I quit trying to change
her mind and she went into school the next day and signed up for an audition
time. She put down “Aunt Polly” in the blank that asked “Which part are you
reading for?”
Now,
I was pretty sure that since Sarah had never been in a school play and since she
was only in 5th grade that she was going to be cast as a “townsperson”
with all the other underclassmen. But
you guessed it, I was wrong. Sarah came
home a few days later with a huge smile on her face. When I inquired as to what her good news was,
she said, “I got the part of Aunt Polly.”
She was so proud. And I was so
confused.
I
questioned her further, “But Sarah, we read that no 5th grader could
get a main part. It clearly stated that
in the information packet. I don’t
understand.” She happily informed me
that they were making an exception and that she would be one of the main
characters in the school play. I was
pleasantly surprised and she was thrilled.
For
the next few months, Sarah stayed after school most days for rehearsal. She seemed to be doing well. She knew her lines. She never missed play practice. Her grades were just fine. It appeared that this was going to be a great
experience.
The
night of the big production finally arrived.
Sarah had to be at the school two hours before the curtain rose on the show. She was dressed in an old lady frock, with
her hair up in bobby pins and colored gray.
They had even done her make-up with dark brown lines to accentuate how ancient
Polly was supposed to be.
It
was the night of the performance. Sarah’s
dad, brothers, and I took our seats. The auditorium lights dimmed. The crowd hushed. The stage and spot lights came on. The curtain opened and Sarah’s big debut
began.
The
kids all did a great job. Each character
was well cast and everyone knew their lines.
It was an amazing performance by some really talented kids. But one little actress stole the show . . .
Aunt Polly was a riot. She hooted and
hollered at Tom nearly every time she was on stage. At one point, Aunt Polly wrestled – on the
floor – with Tom while she was trying to pull out his tooth. The physical comedy was unbelievably funny
and the audience was rolling with laughter.
I
sat stunned. Sarah was a natural. I had no idea that she would come so alive and
be such a vivid character once she tried her hand at acting. During the show, people near us were telling
us how funny she was. The night was
crazy. I looked over to my husband and
with a knowing look we were both confident that Sarah was going into acting
full-time when she grew up. It was a
safe bet that I could give up my hopes and dreams of her ever playing softball
professionally.
After
the performance, while the actors were back stage changing out of their
costumes, there was a line of friends and students waiting to talk to my
husband and I to congratulate us on what a great job Sarah had done. She really had entertained the audience and
made the play so amusing. We were very
proud of her.
The
lesson that I learned that fall semester was to trust my 11 year old
daughter. She wanted to try something
new and she had the courage to go for it.
And while I wanted her to be the leading lady, she thought that the
physical comedy, supporting cast role was more fascinating. Sarah was right. Since then, Sarah has acted on stage in more
than 40 plays or shows over the past 12 years.
I never question her judgment because I learned a great lesson from when
she was a little girl – she sure can pick great characters.
Over
the years, when people asked me what Sarah wanted to be when she grows up, I
would always give them the same answer:
She is already doing it – Sarah is an actress.
(c) 2013 Diane LeJeune and Feeling Good Entertainment, LLC and Tribal Tales
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