Present Tense

The hardest part of acting is learning not to giggle.

The best part about acting is forgetting your cue and then glancing over at your nine-year old daughter who is raising one eyebrow and waiting patiently for you to deliver your line. Kennedy has actually memorized all of her lines, my lines, and Aaron’s lines, too.

After prayers last night I told her that she was my favorite actress and that I wouldn’t even consider another acting project unless she were in it. We have one more week to go before our performance next weekend. Rehearsals are grueling, but necessary.

I can’t wait until I have free time again.

I am participating in a local Youth Theater production with my nine year old twins. I have never tried to act before, but Kennedy, who has been in three different productions so far and is really coming into her own as an actress, roped me into this.

I couldn’t deny her.

We’re doing the Three Musketeers. There are some very good teenage actors as well as a bunch of children (age 7-10) and a few adults. The play itself is not very much like what Dumas wrote, but it’s filled with intrigue, sword fights, and the occasional damsel in distress.

One interesting thing about this setup is that, on stage, I am on equal footing with my kids. The director is the boss. This is kind of cool if my kids are goofing off because I can just ignore them and let the director be the heavy. If, on the other hand, I’m the one goofing off, then it’s just kind of pathetic. The other thing that’s interesting has to do with relating to teenagers. It’s hard to describe, but I realize I haven’t had much to do with teenagers since I was one.

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