Playing around....

My wonderful 12 year old daughter and I are in a community play together. We signed up because we thought it would be fun and it hasn't let us down.

My daughter plays, Ivy, a wacky and colorful character that literally likes to paint people's faces strange colors; it sounds too silly to be fun but she makes it work.

I play the villainous Veronica and it is hard! I'm afraid I don't make it look nearly as easy as my amazing 12 year old!

We only have one itsy-bitsy, teeny-tiny little part that we interact with each other on stage.

It was written like so:

Ivy: Miss Veronica, why does your brother want to find that gold?

Veronica: Oh, Ivy it is gold....who doesn't want to find gold?

So the opening night of the play we performed it straight! And then went about the rest of our business. It was just a part performed as asked.....but I was looking for a little bit of spice for my serious role and, like so often happens in live theater, ad libbing becomes part of the game.

So night 2 went like so:

Ivy: Miss Veronica, why does your brother want to find that gold?

Veronica: Child, what is wrong with you? Did your mother drop you on your head or something?

I hadn't let my daughter know I was going to say that, so she almost laughed out loud when I said that to her. Most of the crowd figured out, if they didn't already know, that she was my child and it was funny. It was a plain part made a little more clever...however, good enough can not be left alone!

That brings us to night 3, it went something like this:

Ivy: Miss Veronica, why does your brother want to find that gold?

Veronica: Child, what is wrong with you? Did your mother drop you on your head or something?

Ivy: Yes!

Oh. my. word! That simple affirmative was so funny. Since it was my turn to be surprised I had to bite my cheek to regain composure and I barely guffawed my next line out. I was tearing up and the audience was laughing so hard. It took quite a few moments to regain order enough to go on with the next line! When the audience quieted down - I practically ran to my next part! I had to escape that funny girl! It was one of those great moments that will be etched forever in my brain. My darling daughter said she won't forget the surprised look on my face and I'm sure I won't forget the delightful hilarity of it either. What a fun play!

That brings us to tomorrow - closing night....let's see what we can cook up!