Never Work with Children or Animals

Never work with children or animals

I've never understood this...ok, I understand it, I just have never agreed with it.

Having just finished a children's show with the local theater troupe, I found the experience quite interesting. (Not as interesting as the play which had a live sheep on-stage, but still...)

The show was “Ramona Quimby”, which was 1^st, a childhood dream come true as I've been a huge fan of the the Ramona series since I was a kid, and still have the whole set (though some are replacements after the basement flooded and killed a lot of our books). And 2^nd, the first children's show I've done in a long time and is always good, cheesy fun.

Anyway, the cast consisted of 25 children and 8 adults (and thank goodness they never figured out, they outnumbered us!). The 2 main characters were 14 & 8, and I played the mom. Sure, there was some mass chaos, but not too much more than usual. And most of that was because it was the director's 1^st try at the position. (Helpful Hint: never pick for your director debut, a cast of more than 30 or that many kids!)

But the kids themselves were attentive (some times more than the adults ;D ), and 2 leads were the 1^st to have their lines down. Which was even more impressive knowing that they both had twice as many as 'Mom & Dad'.

All of them helped out with decorating the house and lobby, building certain props and the older ones even helped me design & paint the set. It all turned out great, and very authentic.

I don't think I would have created something like this for the lobby.

I like to think that most of these kids have learned how much work goes into these shows, but learned how worth it is. It was also nice to see how many parents (about ½) where either in the show or stayed and helped out in some way. Truly, a family production.

Hope for the future of the arts.