Wednesday
The next year my sister and I were part of the cast members in Finian's Rainbow, a hippy lovefest musical about some Irish immigrants coming to the Old South (in the 70s it was still kinda the Old South). I remember that one of the primary leads was supposed to be a black man, but since were were short on those the actor had to be put in blackface. He was not very convincing as a black man, to me he just looked like a white man with unnatural paint on his face, but they told us it would look better from the audience's point of view. I sure hope it did.
My sister actually had a speaking part in this production, something to the effect of "Woody's coming in on the train today" or something. Not me, though. Not even a scream this time. However, again there were two scenes that I remember well.
The first one was during "That Great Come and Get It Day" when all the cast are supposed to dream what they want to get when they make it rich. They dressed me up in a woman's long gown and woman's sized shoes with a big floppy hat on and I brought in this enormous stuffed bear I had at home. Everyone had to come out with their riches and I remember hearing a lot of "ahhhhhs" when I trudged out on stage in my silly costume.
The other big scene I remember, I actually had fake parents for. This was the magical scene where Sharon (I think, it was a long time ago) is standing over the pot of gold and wishes that the horrible old plantation owner was black so that he could know what it was like. This was difficult on stage because there was really no place for the actor to hide while he scrubbed on black makeup, so the Director had a crowd of people crowd around him oh'ing and ah'ing while he groaned and moaned and put the horribly fake looking makeup on. To detract from the obviousness of what they were doing the director gave me and my fake parents a little bit of business to do to take people's focus off of it.
I was supposed to try and worm my way into the crowd to see what was going on and my parents dragged me back so that I couldn't see it, and I was to look very put out by that. Not a very big thing, but it got a lot of "ahhhs" and some chuckles from the audience.
That's really all I remember about the production itself, but I learned a lot about life from it. The woman playing Sharon (the female lead) I thought was very pretty and nice and sweet, just like her character that I saw in rehearsals and on stage. One day after the show I plucked up my courage to tell her I thought she was wonderful (or something, can't really remember) and she very dismissively said, "yeah, that's great kid" and walked away to go smoke and swear with the rest of the dancers. I was heartbroken, but I remember feeling like I had learned something important, although I wasn't sure what.
I also remember being introduced myself to some, for lack of a better word, fans. This older couple who were probably neighbours or relatives of another boy in the cast (actually, it was the little prick who had played Tiny Tim the year before) were talking to him after the show and he called me over. I didn't want to come over because I didn't like him, he was ratty this production because there were no child leads and he felt being in the chorus was beneath him. Little prick.
Anyway, this nice older couple were being very complimentary (mostly the older woman) and she just had to tell me that she thought I was adorable and she laughed so hard when I came out with that bear, and it is amazing that I could remember all of those songs and dances, and how old was I? Being about 8 or 9 (I may have turned older during the production) I had no idea how to handle the situation, so I just smiled and told her my age, answered her questions as best I could and thanked her. We sort of stood there until it became uncomfortable and I thanked them again and said it was nice to meet them and then I left.
The point being that I guess I liked it when my friends and relatives gave me praise for doing nothing, but it seemed kinda weird coming from complete strangers. At any rate, I handled myself with more grace than that Sharon bitch did. Although, in all fairness, I was still under the "treat your elders with respect" code, which was especially in force since my mother was in the building somewhere.
Anyway, the next year the production didn't have many kids in it (South Pacific), but there were a few and I remember that we had to audition for them. I also remember being terrified to audition. Suddenly, there were people watching me. And if I made a mistake now it would be terrible and I would be mortified. So I pretty much tanked my audition on purpose and was very relieved that I didn't get in the show.
I didn't try out for anything again for many years after that. Preteen/early teen years are rough on a girl's confidence and I just didn't feel up for it. Even highschool productions were out of the question for me. Until I temporarily helped out with the sound for a production in my second-last year.
And I got sucked in again...
The next year my sister and I were part of the cast members in Finian's Rainbow, a hippy lovefest musical about some Irish immigrants coming to the Old South (in the 70s it was still kinda the Old South). I remember that one of the primary leads was supposed to be a black man, but since were were short on those the actor had to be put in blackface. He was not very convincing as a black man, to me he just looked like a white man with unnatural paint on his face, but they told us it would look better from the audience's point of view. I sure hope it did.
My sister actually had a speaking part in this production, something to the effect of "Woody's coming in on the train today" or something. Not me, though. Not even a scream this time. However, again there were two scenes that I remember well.
The first one was during "That Great Come and Get It Day" when all the cast are supposed to dream what they want to get when they make it rich. They dressed me up in a woman's long gown and woman's sized shoes with a big floppy hat on and I brought in this enormous stuffed bear I had at home. Everyone had to come out with their riches and I remember hearing a lot of "ahhhhhs" when I trudged out on stage in my silly costume.
The other big scene I remember, I actually had fake parents for. This was the magical scene where Sharon (I think, it was a long time ago) is standing over the pot of gold and wishes that the horrible old plantation owner was black so that he could know what it was like. This was difficult on stage because there was really no place for the actor to hide while he scrubbed on black makeup, so the Director had a crowd of people crowd around him oh'ing and ah'ing while he groaned and moaned and put the horribly fake looking makeup on. To detract from the obviousness of what they were doing the director gave me and my fake parents a little bit of business to do to take people's focus off of it.
I was supposed to try and worm my way into the crowd to see what was going on and my parents dragged me back so that I couldn't see it, and I was to look very put out by that. Not a very big thing, but it got a lot of "ahhhs" and some chuckles from the audience.
That's really all I remember about the production itself, but I learned a lot about life from it. The woman playing Sharon (the female lead) I thought was very pretty and nice and sweet, just like her character that I saw in rehearsals and on stage. One day after the show I plucked up my courage to tell her I thought she was wonderful (or something, can't really remember) and she very dismissively said, "yeah, that's great kid" and walked away to go smoke and swear with the rest of the dancers. I was heartbroken, but I remember feeling like I had learned something important, although I wasn't sure what.
I also remember being introduced myself to some, for lack of a better word, fans. This older couple who were probably neighbours or relatives of another boy in the cast (actually, it was the little prick who had played Tiny Tim the year before) were talking to him after the show and he called me over. I didn't want to come over because I didn't like him, he was ratty this production because there were no child leads and he felt being in the chorus was beneath him. Little prick.
Anyway, this nice older couple were being very complimentary (mostly the older woman) and she just had to tell me that she thought I was adorable and she laughed so hard when I came out with that bear, and it is amazing that I could remember all of those songs and dances, and how old was I? Being about 8 or 9 (I may have turned older during the production) I had no idea how to handle the situation, so I just smiled and told her my age, answered her questions as best I could and thanked her. We sort of stood there until it became uncomfortable and I thanked them again and said it was nice to meet them and then I left.
The point being that I guess I liked it when my friends and relatives gave me praise for doing nothing, but it seemed kinda weird coming from complete strangers. At any rate, I handled myself with more grace than that Sharon bitch did. Although, in all fairness, I was still under the "treat your elders with respect" code, which was especially in force since my mother was in the building somewhere.
Anyway, the next year the production didn't have many kids in it (South Pacific), but there were a few and I remember that we had to audition for them. I also remember being terrified to audition. Suddenly, there were people watching me. And if I made a mistake now it would be terrible and I would be mortified. So I pretty much tanked my audition on purpose and was very relieved that I didn't get in the show.
I didn't try out for anything again for many years after that. Preteen/early teen years are rough on a girl's confidence and I just didn't feel up for it. Even highschool productions were out of the question for me. Until I temporarily helped out with the sound for a production in my second-last year.
And I got sucked in again...
posted by Alanis at
7:44 AM
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