The Tragic Story of the Stage Left Three

Annie has been the most exciting thing in my life for the past while (except for the whole falling off a bunk bed thing) but I always seem to be too tired to post about it. Sorry. I will now proceed to tell you the tragic story of the Stage Left Three. Me, Michael, and Ellie.

It started at the third practice. I, while normally on stage right, went to stage left to get ready for a quick costume change. Ellie, the 11-year-old prop mistress was there, and so was this kid in a green shirt who acted in a few scenes and had gotten bored. I wrote about it here.

We acted crazy and had a great time, but I totally thought it was a one time thing. The kid in the green shirt wasn’t even supposed to be back there. I didn’t say anything that time, cause we were having so much fun, but when I got to practice the next day and saw that he was there, on stage left, I figured it was my duty to say something. But when I did, the lady I told said, “you mean Michael? The kid who’s doing the curtain?”

He was doing the curtain? And his name was Michael?

That was also the day when I got everything figured out and realized that I would have to stay on stage left. So for three whole dress rehearsals and four whole shows that’s the way it was. Me, Ellie, and Michael on stage left, goofing off and having the most amazing time.

For example, Friday Michael was strutting around like a model. Now while it may seem odd that a 12 year old boy would want to strut around like a model, it is just exactly the kind of thing that Michael does. He is a bit of an odd fish. Actually we are all odd fish. Ellie is bursting at the seams with energy, and Michael is OCD, and things just got extremely strange at times.

So anyway, Michael is strutting around like a model, and I whisper to Ellie, “when he get’s back, just talk to me like you didn’t notice his model bit, and he’ll get all ticked.” So we tried, but Ellie just couldn’t help but laugh and laugh and laugh.

Me: Gah! It’s no wonder you work backstage, you can’t act!

Ellie: Give me a line, and I’ll come in and act it.

Me: Why did you stick the cherry pie in the drier?

Ellie went behind the tormentor. Then she strode back in.

Ellie: Why did you stick the cherry pie hahahahhahah!!!

Me: I’ll show you how it’s done.

I went behind the tormentor. Then I strode back in.

Me: Why did you stick the cherry pie in the drier?

Michael: I didn’t do it! You did.

Me: What are you talking about? I saw you put it in the drier!

Michael: Well fine, but you dared me to do it!

Ellie: He wanted to make his socks red for valentines day.

We continued on like this, but presently we decided to do something new. I would be the big sister, Ellie would be the little sister, and Michael would be the dad. Ellie would come in and say that I had hit her.

That one lasted until Michael and Ellie were ganging up on me so much that I stomped off saying “nobody understands me!” and they totally cracked up.

That is just a sample, the tiniest of samples, of the things that went on on stage left. And then, yesterday, I got to the theater and was told that Michael was no longer doing the curtain.

WHAT?!??!

Yeah. He had been fired.

Well. I wasn’t too happy about that, and neither was Ellie. But it was hard to get a clear idea of what he had done wrong. I mean, we knew that the night before he hadn’t closed the curtain quite quickly enough but it didn’t seem like a big enough thing to fire him for.

We went to see him at intermission and he did the classic Michael babble. Half the time me and Ellie have no clue what he’s saying. So it was hard to get a clear idea why he was gone, but he mostly blamed it on other people anyway. And then today he said that people complained about how much we were goofing off backstage, and so they took him off.

Well that scared me cause I knew we goofed off a lot, but I thought we were always very aware of our duties, and made sure that they came first. It made me annoyed that no one ever said anything to us before pulling him off, because I think I, as the oldest by far, could have settled things down more if I knew we were any sort of problem. But when I talked to Marcy about it she said that only one complaint had included me so she didn’t think I needed to be told. But I guess Michael had more complaints and so they decided that it was a mistake to get someone so young to do it.

And Ellie, being young too, was in danger of being dismissed as well. I think she did well enough today that she’s still on, but man. Things can be so great and you can be so close to people, and then bam, they are gone forever. It is freaky.

Especially because of the increasing possibility that I’ll move to back to Oregon shortly and never ever see these people again.