Tag: theater

Small Success: Stagehand Edition

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Small-Success-Thursday-400pxThursdays at CatholicMom.com begin with a look at the past week’s Small Successes!

It’s so far, so good in the world of this stagehand. I haven’t broken CatholicMom.com yet, for one.

wizard of oz logo bcfBut I really am a stagehand this week. The Kid is in a show: the Young Performers’ Edition of The Wizard of Oz.

During the week, they perform for primary- and nursery-school field trips. But they’re short on stagehands, so I fill in (as a short stagehand.)

It’s fun to be backstage (and not in the green room where I saw way too many 10-year-old girls taking duck face selfies with their iPhones and posting them on Instagram. In front of their parents, no less. But that’s another story.)

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Only one piece of scenery fell down. It was lightweight anyway and it didn’t hit anyone. (And it wasn’t my scenery.)

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My only injury was a splinter, and I didn’t even need a needle to remove it. I could have used a nice bath in some Ben-Gay after Tuesday’s shows, though.

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I didn’t have to be the one to handle the (real) dog. They had a designated person to walk the dog between scenes.

I’ll be back there for more shows today–and I’ll get my T-shirt today too!

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© 2015 Barb Szyszkiewicz
Wizard of Oz logo via Burlington County Footlighters.

Small Success Thursday: Take Two

franciscanmom3 Comments

Small-Success-Thursday-400pxThursdays at CatholicMom.com begin with a look at the past week’s Small Successes!

This is “take two” because WordPress ate my first version of this post. I’m still not sure how that happened. Be assured that Take One was much more clever than this edition.

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BEFORE
BEFORE

I’ve been kind of letting my kitchen table get away from me. It’s a work space, not an eating space, but there wasn’t even space to work on it anymore. And the more stuff that got piled on it, the more I put off the job of cleaning it.

But today I’m making the Big Batch of Spaghetti Sauce with Meatballs, and I need that work surface. In less than ten minutes, I’d removed all the extra stuff and placed it where it really belonged.

Why is it so hard to get that job done? Less than ten minutes, and the satisfaction is huge. I want to dress the table up with my favorite vintage tablecloth, but that’ll have to wait until I’m done rolling meatballs.

AFTER
AFTER

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Author Cynthia T. Toney shared one of my recipes at her book blog! Check it out here:  Teens, Create Some Kitchen Magic! I modified Big Brother’s recipe so Little Brother, who has significantly less kitchen experience, could cook it on his own. Try this one at home!

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Little Brother was in a show last week (he played the King in Once Upon a Mattress, which I guess makes me the Queen Mother) and I had to help with the sale of concessions. I found myself in one of those “nobody wants to be in charge” situations and wound up working the concession stand for all 4 performances. I saw more than my share of mompetition among Stage Mothers (especially Stage Mothers With Daughters, which made me glad that Middle Sister was the Stage Manager Extraoirdinaire for her theater pursuits.)

I did manage to get through 4 performances and 2 cast parties without too much social anxiety, but by the time Set Strike rolled around, I was done. After two hours of vacuuming the theater with a 50-pound commercial vacuum that lacked power steering, I pulled an Irish exit. That might not have been my classiest move ever, but at that point I’d had more than enough of sweetly-dueling Stage Mothers. I’m going to chalk it up in the Mental-Health Victory column.

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Biting Off More Than You Can Chew

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(And this time, it’s not me doing this.)

I got a message from the director of Little Brother’s current show (Little Mermaid, Junior–the children’s production at the local theater this year). The show is double-cast because so many kids tried out AND to allow the kids to rest. This way each child only has to appear in 8 performances instead of all 16. (This mama approves.) Anyway, Little Brother is a member of the Turf cast, but the director wanted to know if he could switch to the Surf cast (cool names!) because the other kid playing Grimsby has a schedule conflict.

LMJBecause the other kid is in another show. A show that opens the same week as this show. So there are conflicts with performances and rehearsals. The other kid had already been cast in this other show when he auditioned for LMJ.

According to Little Brother, there are several kids in the cast who are in the same situation. I got the same impression when I sat around the Green Room on audition night, and it’s only been reinforced by what other parents say as we sit around waiting for rehearsals to end.

These kids are in two shows, each of which rehearses at least twice a week. In addition, they are taking lessons in dance and/or gymnastics and/or voice and/or instruments; they are involved in at least one team sport; some of them are Scouts. WHEN THE HECK DO THEY EAT, SLEEP, STUDY AND PLAY?!

ANYway. These kids are in two shows at the same time. There were kids who didn’t get a part–because other kids (and their parents) thought it was a good idea for their kids to be in two shows at the same time, and there are only so many roles to go around, even with a double cast.

Maybe there are reasons here that I do not see, but I don’t get how this is a good idea.

And I’m willing to bet that these are the same kids who, when they’re seniors in high school, will apply to 25 universities and then wait until May 1 to decide, thus keeping other kids on the waiting list.

When you’re a member of a group, team, cast or ensemble and you double-book yourself, you’re not doing the rest of your group any favors. I wish the parents of these overextended kids would put their collective feet down instead of indulging their kids’ whims (or their own.)

End rant.