Playbill

We are deep into the Wizard of Oz days, having just celebrated a month of Mary Poppins. Completing the repertoire, Tom Sawyer, Swan Lake, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and The Sound of Music.

Really, I want to encourage them, to foster their creative efforts. Being a bit of a theatre geek myself, spending long days as a tragically talented but completely underused back up player in the high school repertory theater, I know how important it is to feel valued in your theatrical endeavors. But ladies, this is painful. Every day there is a new performance, now divided into acts. Today was Act I of Tom Sawyer, tomorrow we return to the Wizard of Oz, and then Act II of Tom Sawyer.

In theory, I support them, as I try to do in most of their youthful pursuits, however theatre at four is not for the faint of heart. Cocktails need be served not only at intermission but before the opening curtain, reading material should be distributed as part of audience participation with timers set to go off after 1o minutes. Like being prepared for a blind date, it's best to set up a phone call to whisk you away should Tom and Becky forget, yet again, that they are actors in a play and not dressed up in those wild outfits to try out the new crayons left on the table.

The principle problem being that four year old children are easily distracted and as Jack and I take our seats for the start of Act II of Maria and Leisl Take a Walk, take 24, Mary and Kate have forgotten that they have asked us to sit just once more for this musical extravaganza; instead they are busying themselves trying on hats for tomorrow night's presentation, Dorothy and the Scarecrow Go To The Beach. Thus we are privy to all the preparation, the wall being shattered, all dreams of theatrical entertainment gone with one Leisl costumed Mary in a lederhosen and a Scarecrow hat. Disappointing at best, really.

Of course if we slip away we are captured and returned so as not to miss the exciting ending of Mary Poppins and Burt Make Cookies. Next up, theatre fusion: Truly Scrumptious and Aunt Polly Get Caught in a Tornado, we'd hate to miss that.