November 19, 2010

"Mom, I'm off book"

Alex jumped in the car and shouted with glee “Mom, I’m off book”. I could only guess what this means as Alex’s excitement level was so high she was unable to explain to me, an obviously unhip mother, what ‘”off book” meant. Did it mean she decided not to read anymore? Perhaps her teacher moved her to a different reading level? All sorts of negative thoughts swirled around in my overly dramatic brain.

However, I did manage to convince myself it had something to do with the school play, as I was at school picking Alex up from practice. Way to make connections fast! Reminder to myself, Alex reacts immediately to situations in her life; she does not dwell or fret over things that happened in the past. Lesson to myself, practice that strategy and I will sleep better!

Alex has once again managed to get a part in the fall play, “You can’t hurry love”. I wonder about the irony of this title…certainly she can’t hurry her quest to have Justin Bieber date her, she knows that will take a while. As far as her recent marriage proposals(s), she can’t hurry that either, as she told “T”, “we need to date more before we can get married”. But I digress.

Luckily for me, Alex calmed down within a few moments and explained “off book" means she knows her lines by heart. This year’s director worked with Alex’s speech therapist to practice Alex’s lines and diction for her role. I guess when I suggested this two times last year as a way to help Alex learn her lines it was not enough. I now know that I must ask three times and John twice. Five seems to be the magic number. Silly me!

Alex came home every day after play practice, which conflicts with basketball – what a busy 17 year old I have, and practiced her lines. Her director suggested she work in front of the mirror, which she did, learn the line before hers so she would understand her cues, which she did and learn the line two before her in case the person before her missed his/her cue, which she did. She was proud of her accomplishments and so am I.

The play is this weekend, and we will go Friday and Saturday nights, or Alex will be heartbroken. She wants and expects us to be at all her performances, and twice is certainly not a burden. It is the 15 basketball games coming up this winter which I will find challenging, especially after last year’s experience. Wish us luck!

4 comments:

  1. Great to keep up with the theatre vocabulary.

    I had thought, yes, she had finished a book.

    (Yes, we talk about "the book" when we have musicals going on. It is the script the musical is based on, or the opera).

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  2. Most impressive! Break a leg this weekend, Alex!

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  3. That's wonderful! Let us know how she does. I have to interpret for Cassie a lot when she's talking to other people. Most of the time you either have to know what she's talking about or read between the lines (or both)!

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  4. That is amazing! Hope that you get some good video of that play!

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