The Return of the One Liners
“The soul is healed by being with children”
In my previous blog life, I had a series of posts that were titled One Liners. Sometimes the most ridiculous moments don’t have a long winded backstory. They are merely moments in time, frozen in my memory as those ‘Wow’ seconds that eventually become inside jokes. They are the epitome of the phrase ‘kids say the darnedest things’. So here we go!
I am in a final rehearsal with a handful of younger students, ages eight to twelve give or take, before the big opening night performance the next day. This was a greener crop of student. We had been rehearsing in a studio for months, so when we finally got them on stage, only four days prior, it was like moths to a flame. They wanted to touch everything, play with curtains, press all the buttons and stick their hands in the electrical outlets. Thankfully no one died. Let’s just say there was a BIG learning curve when it came to theatrical lingo, vocabulary and traditions that come with the performance aspect of a production.
We were about to stage bows and it occurred to me that these green little nuggets probably had no idea why they bow. So I asked. The first response was...
‘To stretch our backs after a rough performance!!!!!
This student was so confident in his answer. I mean, really confident. I of course, didn’t have the heart to say, ‘what? No!’. I took a pause, smiled, took a snapshot of this moment in my mind and then said ‘Well, yes… and what else’.
None of the students understood that a bow signifies a thank you. Thank you for coming. Thank you for applauding. Thank you mom and dad for paying for this program. I learned that day that most students, no matter the age, don’t really understand the significance of a bow. So now I make sure to go over it for every show and I say both reasons, to thank the audience AND to stretch your back!
