So, That's How They Do It

I got the great idea this summer of having my nine year old son (well, eight at the time) join the cast of Miracle on 34th Street.  I mean, how hard can it be, right?  They have four months to rehearse and get everything set up.  This is going to be one of the easiest things I've done! Ha! Ha! Ha!

I learned several very important lessons and I'm going to do you a favor and share them with you, because I don't want you to make the same mistakes I did.

First of all, don't sign your kid up for a play that your friend's children are also in.  When friends know certain things, like you have taken a couple of cake classes, maybe, you end up getting signed up to do certain things, like make a giant four foot prop cake for example.  When asked to make this four foot prop cake, I thought, no problem, I can do this.  20 hours later with the help of my step-mom, we had a beautiful four foot (OK, maybe five) pink and white very sparkly birthday cake.  Phew!  My part is done (and I learned a ton about paper mâché and tissue paper flowers!)

Oh, wait, what's that?  Full dress rehearsal is in six days and half of the actors don't have costumes?  Oh, of course I'll stay and spend seven hours (along with my step-mom) to make costumes.  I mean, really, I'm not going to leave my nine year old son at sixteen hours of rehearsal this weekend by himself (second mistake...leave him there!), so what else do I have to do?

Third mistake..."Oh, you're a teacher?  Great!  We could really use your help backstage to help keep the kids quiet.  Wear all black to the final dress rehearsal."  Um, oh, OK.  This is the part that I think is actually going to be the hardest, but it hasn't happened yet.  Try keeping thirty children ranging in age from nine to 65 quiet for five hours.  Yay!  That's going to be fun!  (Insert sarcastic face here.)

Fourth mistake (and this is just reiterating the third mistake), staying with said nine year old son at every dress rehearsal (they started at four hours once a weekend, ended with eight hours twice a weekend).  "We need a gavel, can you make one?"  "Does anyone have stuff for the three men in a tub?"  "These red suspenders are too long...can you help shorten them?"  "I can't find my costume!"  "Can you make 14 red envelopes addressed to Santa by tomorrow?"  "Can you help me create a teaching guide for teachers?"

Can you help me find my bottle of wine? 

So, yes, this has been a great experience and my son (and I) has really learned so much.  Being the drama kid that he is, he has had a great time and is excited for show time.  I really have a lot more respect for all of the shows that Tahoe Players has put on in the past...I really had no idea how hard it was!

I can't wait for my son to be the shining star (well, shining support character) in the fourteen (no, that wasn't a typo) shows he's in, I know he'll do great in his first big production!  And truth be told, I secretly hope I hear someone whisper, "Did you see that amazing cake?"  "Look at how cute those letters to Santa are!" or "Wow!  Those red suspenders are amazing!" ;)