Monday, June 14, 2004
Wherein the Stage Mom is Upstaged by Joey
The sheet music comes back folded just so
The accompanist couldn't transpose the key
So she sang it (off key I'm sure) accapella
In a snit I think of lost money and time
Tracking down the sheet music and folding and taping it
Just so
Just so she has a better chance of pleasing these directors,
Of passing this audition
Today being done in the "Board Room"
Accustomed to projecting a huge personality into the auditorium
I counseled, tone it done a bit for the smaller space
Don't yell the chorus
She skipped off to the room across the hall
Professional "acting" resume and photo in hand
(Who would have guessed I'd be writing her a resume at age 12?
Objective: A role in a play, any play, please please please
Experience: Played part of Princess Budir.
Education: Findley Elementary)
Minutes later, I hear the bits and pieces of
A dog desperate to go out
A master full of exasperation over a misbehaving pooch
A daughter not heeding her mother's counsel because
Every command, bark and note is leaping out
Through the closed door into the hallway
Amusing two other mother-child pairs waiting their turn
I imagine Simon, Randy and Paula rolling their eyes
from behind their all powerful judges table,
Too many episodes of American Idol
Have turned me audition cynic
But what do I hear next?
Laughter, not the forced kind, or the embarressed kind,
But the genuinely pleased, surprised kind
And she bursts out through the door,
Sure it has gone exceedingly well
They asked her how she perfected the movements of a dog
And she told them it took months of studying our border collie.
Of course the family pet gets all the credit for preparing her
What a fool I am to fret over sheet music
Her stage dog has got it all under control.
The sheet music comes back folded just so
The accompanist couldn't transpose the key
So she sang it (off key I'm sure) accapella
In a snit I think of lost money and time
Tracking down the sheet music and folding and taping it
Just so
Just so she has a better chance of pleasing these directors,
Of passing this audition
Today being done in the "Board Room"
Accustomed to projecting a huge personality into the auditorium
I counseled, tone it done a bit for the smaller space
Don't yell the chorus
She skipped off to the room across the hall
Professional "acting" resume and photo in hand
(Who would have guessed I'd be writing her a resume at age 12?
Objective: A role in a play, any play, please please please
Experience: Played part of Princess Budir.
Education: Findley Elementary)
Minutes later, I hear the bits and pieces of
A dog desperate to go out
A master full of exasperation over a misbehaving pooch
A daughter not heeding her mother's counsel because
Every command, bark and note is leaping out
Through the closed door into the hallway
Amusing two other mother-child pairs waiting their turn
I imagine Simon, Randy and Paula rolling their eyes
from behind their all powerful judges table,
Too many episodes of American Idol
Have turned me audition cynic
But what do I hear next?
Laughter, not the forced kind, or the embarressed kind,
But the genuinely pleased, surprised kind
And she bursts out through the door,
Sure it has gone exceedingly well
They asked her how she perfected the movements of a dog
And she told them it took months of studying our border collie.
Of course the family pet gets all the credit for preparing her
What a fool I am to fret over sheet music
Her stage dog has got it all under control.