Jack was a sheep in the school nativity-esque play. They had two performances and the call was an hour before showtime. The kids all hung out in the first row of seats at the front while everyone else filed in and sat down behind them. I am not sure who's bright idea that was. You had 70+ kids all milling around getting antsy. The youngest, Jack's group, were the most rambunctious as you'd expect. The closer they got to showtime, the more insane things got.
The first night's show went very well. Jack knew all of his moves (in fact, he was one of the few sheep who did) and he did quite well. The second night, however, was a completely different story. When the sheep went up on stage, Jack's ears fell off and off the stage. He was worried until he saw that people were laughing because it was cute. I think he was over his nervousness over being on stage and was more relaxed. And he knew I was filming him and he always likes to ham it up for the camera. Take all of that combined with the laughter he got when his ears fell off and you get what happened next. Jack began to ham it up big time. He made faces, he over-exaggerated all of his moves, he pulled his costume over his head, and more. Ann and I sat in the audience with her mother and just looked at each other not knowing what, if anything, we should do. I could not tell if I should be mortified or just amused.
When the show was over, I apologized to the director of the play but she laughed it off. Granted, we're hardly talking professional level theater here and Jack's performance was the least of the many issues they had (all of which added up to a very cute show). The rest of the evening, I kept asking people if they noticed my son on stage. That got laughs. In the end, it was fine. Jack did feel bad later on and I think he learned something about upstaging other people so alls well that ends well.
And I have a fantastic video tape to show the first girlfriend he brings home someday...
Technorati Tags: christmas, family
Posted by andyjw at December 21, 2006 07:25 AM