Thursday Evening Theatre

Last night was the school play Y was in. Turns out it was a combination of short performances from all the 8th grade theatre classes. It was a night of Edgar Allen Poe. There were five of them; each one around twenty minutes each. There was a fifteen minute intermission between the third and fourth performance. The one Y was in went on third and it was the longest.

The evening began at 7:00 and ended at 9:00. This was a long time for J to sit still, a very long time. But he did! He made it through the entire evening without any problem at all. No fidgeting, no whining, no need to make random noises. He never once asked me when it was going to be over. I got a lot of "When is Y going to be on?" but that was it. Other than sitting through a movie, J has never done anything like this. And according to J sitting through a movie is easy for him. He's told me the action and movement of the people in it keep him going. They keep his attention. He likes watching the characters too. I have a feeling this was the same thing with last night. Though the action wasn't the same I have a feeling the movement of the people were, as well as the idea that he was watching characters.

The only time he got up at all was during intermission. My parents and brother came to see the performances and J walked around outside with my brother for a little while. Then he came back in and sat through another hour of short plays.

I do think the night wore him out though. He was very tired and cranky when we were leaving and couldn't wait to get home. He fell asleep in the car, that's how exhausted he was. Looking back, I have to wonder if he was focusing so hard on being quiet and still, as well as working to enjoy the performances that he mentally wore himself out. I know every time I looked at him his eyes were locked on the actors on the stage. I'd see his eyes darting about taking everything in. He has such a look of concentration to him that I don't think anything would have disturbed him.

I know part of it was he was watching his big sister perform in a short play and he was very excited about this. He also saw several of her other friends that he knows too. (Interestingly enough, I realized almost all of Y's friends are theatre and art geeks. Nothing wrong with that.) When he wasn't fully focused on the plays he'd point out Y's friends every time he saw one. And all these kids get along great with him.

All in all, I think J had a great evening. An exhausting one, but still a great one.

And Y was fantastic. I think so anyways. She's my daughter and my opinion is going to be biased, but I can do that. ;p

She's taken theatre classes off and on for several years. She hasn't been in any plays because the theatre company here has a requirement of good grades to be in one of their performances. Well, her grades aren't that great. They're better than they have been in the past but not good enough to get any parts. She loves the audition process though. She learns from it.

Anyway, this was Y's first time in stage performance and I have to say I forgot I was watching my daughter act. I wasn't seeing her; I was seeing the character she was playing. Which was good, very good. I had to remind myself, "Oh yeah, that's my daughter." All those acting classes she took came in handy. She did a great job. We're both looking to next year when she has theatre again.

So the evening was great. Both kids did very well and I couldn't have been happier - except J when his head hit the pillow, cuddled up with his stuffed mandrill and fell back to sleep.