My first-first play

Like soap bubbles popping on the water’s surface in a bathtub, random memories appear when I least expect them. So there are times when I must backtrack in my explanations concerning certain things. Several months ago, I had mentioned I had my first part in a high school play. I was the scientist who ended up murdered by my three guinea pig patients (well, they weren’t actual pigs - it’s not like I could bake them in barbeque sauce later).

This, in fact, was NOT my first time walking across the theater boards. My very first time happened in elementary school during the first grade.

“How the Elephant got His Long Trunk.”

This was the name of the play, and all the first grade classes performed it every year. The basic storyline involved an elephant with a stunted nose. All the flamingos and giraffes and hippos made fun of him as they ousted the elephant from playing with them. Then one day, he came upon a crocodile who said he could help the elephant with his problem. The only thing the elephant had to do was lean in close to the crocodile’s open mouth.

SNAP!

With his nose caught in the crocodile’s jaws, the elephant reared back until a long beautiful trunk formed. He freed himself and ran home. Everyone loved him now and treated the elephant normally. The End.

Okay, yeah. As I think about it now, I’m not really fond of the storyline. It teaches young children that to be accepted among the group they must conform to the same ideals and beliefs. Celebrating a person’s uniqueness and individuality seemed absent in this play. Oh, the things done to warp a young child’s mind.

Anyway, everyone was involved in a part. The costumes were leftover from the previous years and patched up on occasion whenever there was a run in the fabric or a busted seam. The teachers handed out parts, although this wasn’t a big Broadway production. We had music played by the piano teacher and a narrator announced most of the dialogue. The kids had one-bit lines. The following paragraphs would have been part of the scene:

The elephant walks up to twenty flamingos standing in a straight line. He stands sideways by the first flamingo.

Elephant: Can I play with you?
1st Flamingo: No!

The flamingo swings its long neck and hits the elephant in the butt. The elephant jumps to the next flamingo in line. This flamingo says the same as the first one and does the same action, smacking the elephant in the butt. Repeat the remaining 18 times.

Okay, we can also gripe about how the play is teaching kids that it’s all right to smack each other if the person is different from you. I think I’ve established that the play had some major flaws.

Moving right along . . .

The teacher handed me a script, but she also said that I might not actually BE in the play. For this school year, they simply had too many actors/actresses and not enough costumes. I was going to be an understudy along with three other students.

Understudy? I scratched my head, wondering what that meant and thinking some big burly student would be sitting on top of me while he read his spelling lessons. I imagined all types of noxious aromas against my squashed head as everybody went on stage and did their parts. Was I disappointed? Well, if you knew all your fellow 6-year-olds would be in a play shown to the rest of the student body and their parents but you couldn’t be in it, how would you feel?

Yes, that’s exactly how I felt.

So the big day approached. The auditorium was packed. The lights dimmed. The stage curtain rose.

I leaned against the wall at the rear of the auditorium. Although quiet sighs rolled from my chest, I watched with interest each part everyone had practiced. Then the curtain lowered during the beginning of the first intermission. I felt a tugging on my sleeve.

It was one of my fellow students named Stacy. “C’mon, Michelle! We need you.”

She dragged me to the back of the stage where the teacher informed the three understudies that they would be in the final act. EVERYONE would have a chance to perform on stage.

Yipee!

Those students playing the parts we had studied took off their costumes as we got dressed. Then we took our positions. The two other students were giraffes and stood at the far end of the stage. I stood at center stage right next to a fake cutout of safari grass and blue fabric depicting a large lagoon.

Oh, I’m sorry. Haven’t I mentioned what my part was? I swear; these random soap bubble memories pop at the oddest of times. My part was the ELEPHANT and the scene was the most pivotal moment.

The curtain rose. Hands clapped. The music played as the narrator directed the little actors about. I took my cue as I strolled up to the alligator and placed the folded crepe paper into his mouth.

SNAP!

I pulled the elephant head back with the paper unfolding like a wrinkled accordion. I swished the giant head until I was free. Then I bopped the crocodile in the head with my now gorgeous trunk and strolled to the front of the stage with the rest of the actors/actresses. I took my bow.

And this was my first-first time in the theater.