Catching the Acting Bug

Sometimes you just need a laugh. I’m a huge Kentucky basketball fan. I have been since I was a young teen and started listening to the games on my little transister radio. This was not a good week for Kentucky basketball fans. Sigh. Oh well. That gives me more time to come up with scenes for my work in progress. But that’s why I needed a few smiles and laughs.

Fortunately for me, my granddaughters were taking part in a high school play this weekend. Shrek, the Musical. One was the Sugarplum Fairy and the other was the Wicked Witch in the storybook characters. They weren’t the stars, but they had speaking and singing parts and danced with the ensemlble. They had so much fun with the play.

All the kids were amazingly talented with much singing and dancing. I went three times.  I am a grandmother, after all.  Of course, I could have gone six times, but even thought I didn’t go to every performance, I was definitely a proud grandmother. The play was so good that I’m sure I would have enjoyed it six times. I wasn’t the only one enjoying the show. The theater auditorium was full for each performance and my sister, who went to one of the performances, thought it was as good as any show she’d seen on the professional stage. And she’s been to a lot of plays.

The two young men who played Shrek and the talking donkey are only sophomores, but they are both very talented. The donkey was full of energy  jumping here and there in his donkey suit. He surely needed soe of that sports drink at the end of every show. And Princess Fiona could sing  and sing some more. The play followed the story line of Shrek the movie, if you’ve seen it. This play had plenty of laughs. That made it perfect as a pick me up for this blue Kentucky fan.

The kids started practicing for the play back in January, I think, if not before. For months, they’ve been practicing for hours after school. That was while the actors and stagehands had to keep up with their homework and some were on sports teams too. One of my granddaughters is on the track team. So she’d go run on some nights and practice the play on others. Sometimes she did both. But they had so much fun that they never complained about the busy schedule.

I think I especially enjoyed seeing them caught up in the acting fun because of the research I did last year for my book, In the Shadow of the River. I’ve never wanted to be an actor, but when I read some books written by some of the actual actors on those late 1800 and early 1900 showboats, I could feel their love for acting. They went out on the rivers and stopped their showboats at a new landing each night to put on their plays and acts for all comers. Those showboat families definitely loved putting on shows.

I let my characters catch the acting bug too and love being onstage.  Now I’m thinking these high school kids may have caught that acting bug too. I expect to see some of them in a new production next year. A special thanks to all the teachers and other adults who helped these kids (69 of them in the cast and the support crew) have such a great time.

What do you do when you need a smile? Read a book? Watch a movie? Go to a play?