Hello

I'm back. Uncle Tom had some bleeding around his brain and had to be hospitalized. Mom and I went up yesterday morning and got back today around noon. He was heavily sedated when we saw him yesterday, but he was moving today! He opened his eyes and physically responded whe prompted to squeeze someone's hand as a 'yes' or 'no' sort of thing. For a man who's in the Neuro ICU ward of a hospital, he looks pretty healthy (if you ignore the machines and tubes in the room with him).

So, I said that I had played Mr. Mushnik in Little Shop. The week after spring break we started after-school rehearsals. As the understudy, it was my job to know everything about my character and be ready to jump in when needed. Well, after observing about three rehearsals, Mr. Feldman called me over to him at the beginning of class one day to tell me that Paul (the principal performer for Mushnik) had been suspended for about two weeks and that I would be covering for him at rehearsal, and possibly the show itself. I didn't really know how to feel. Inside, I was very excited at the prospect of possibly playing what became my first major role in a show, yet I knew it would've been horribly rude to act that way on the outside, so I kept it all in and just went hom that night and grinned until my face hurt.

You probably want to know exactly why Paul had been punished so severely. I'll tell you in the fewest possible words (because the wheol story is really quite stupid and even I don't know all the details). Ready?

You sure...?

Okay...

He exposed himself. Not mooned someone, but EXPOSED himself. Apparently that's worth a week of OSS (out-of-school-suspension) and an additional week of ISS (in-school-suspension). actually, he only ended up serving the week of OSS and maybe a day of ISS. No idea why he didn't serve the whole punishment, but the bitter side of me wants to think it had something to do with him being a senior. Think about it: how many freshman/sophomores/juniors would've been allowed to come back a week early from something like that? I'm sort of surprised nobody said anything (well...nothing that Paul or Mr. Feldman could hear...)

Anyway, rehearsals were so much fun. The plant puppets arrived on a Tuesday afternoon and we started working with them at that nights's rehearsal. The plant was awesome! All four of the puppets (each one quite larger than the last) were designed using the original designs done for the Off-Broadway production by Martin P. Robinson, yet were made with modern-day, sturdy, lightweight materials so that the puppeteer didn't need to be a weightlifter to move them (even though the little bastards were pretty heavy...) All of them were covered with red fuzzy stuff on the inside that made death a little softer than if there hadn't been something soft to slide on. I have to applaud Preston for his puppeteering skills. He worked his ass off moving those things around, and even did the last three performances with a practically broken leg (he had injured himself the night before by not being exactly centered during Seymour's death and moving the wrong way when Seymour died). He really was a trooper.

So, opening day comes (we do day shows for the nearby middle-school kids) and the kids were, to completely honest, a sucky audience. They didn't get the jokes, they didn't applaud until the curtain call, and they voiced their opinions whenever they felt like it. opening night audience wasn't very big (Thursday night never is a big crowd) but they were a great audience. Friday day show went much better (this set of kids actually got most of the jokes!) and Friday night had a great, entusiastic crowd.

Saturday. The best night for last season's Grease and the same for this season's Little Shop of Horrors. They were the best crowd I think any of us had ever played to (though only 7 tickets away from a sell-out) and they actually cheered during the song Mushnik and Son after I had finished this one part that was "very Jewish" as one audience member put it (she herself is Jewish and complemented me on my accent and mannerisms, both of which, she said, were frequent in her household). Sunday wasn't the best performance, but we had a great audience who loved it nonetheless (even though I pretty much dropped Tyler at the end of our song).

Everyone has said such things to me/my family like "This was Sam's part from the start" "Paul got the part because he looked it more and because he's a senior" "Thank God we got a Mushnik that can actually sing!" etc. They make me feel good, and at the same time kind of sorry for Paul. However, I remind myself that he brought this upon himself and that in the real world if you take over a role, there's no time for being sympathetic towards the person who lost it. I know it sounds cruel, but it's true. If you just go around being the understudy who feels bad when you have to step in, you won't get anywhere!

But enough ranting. The show was a real treat to do and I am honored that Mr. Feldman even considered me for the part of Mushnik, let alone let me take over the role. Elizabeth said that it was very rare for Mr. Feldman to have the understudy take over premamently unless the principal performer was really gone until day before opening (which is what was supposed to happen with Paul) and that he wouldn't have done it unless he liked what he saw and really thought that I could pull it off. Elizabeth Telford is the best person I know, and I really hope that I can work with her again during, and beyond, high school. God bless her.

Anyway, the people who actually read this thing (whoever you are) now know that I haven't given up on my blog and that I'm still alive. Dad needs the computer (brand new, BTW) to do his paperwork, so I'm gonna go catch up on my geometry (...whee....) so that I don't get a zero on my take-home test (which is actually over a very easy topic).

Wish me luck at the Leo Banquet this year!