On the Home Front

by Marlo Benning
marlo@inhnews.com

My daughter was in a one-act play at her school recently. And, I have to admit that I’ve never been into the whole drama scene, and have rarely, at best, attended a play in my life.
So, my “drama queen” child traded out her well-worn basketball shoes to pursue the play and to be on the speech team. My two older children who eat, live and breathe basketball were appalled at this transition and thought she was completely out of her mind. I think the words “nuts” and “crazy” were thrown around a couple times to which she just smiled. She didn’t really care what they thought anyhow! As a family, we have been to date extremely focused and immersed in sports, so this threw us all for a big loop.
So, of course, we attended the play to see her come alive on the stage along with the rest of the cast. One thing is for certain, just as much planning and precision goes into this production as any sport that is played upon the court, mat or field—­if not more.
They must time everything perfectly, while not forgetting their lines. Props have to enter and exit with much thought, costumes have to be just so, the music, lights and sound effects need to be right on cue, makeup has to be applied and the set put in place. And, that’s not even taking into account how much before production effort goes into building props and collecting the appropriate clothing to fit the part of each character. Whew! It’s pretty exhausting just naming all of the things, much less actually doing them.
It’s completely changed my thought on plays as a whole. Kudos to all of you directors out there who take the big picture of a play and make it happen. You truly have a talent! And remembering lines—some of us, won’t mention any names, but some of us, can’t even recall what we just read a minute ago......

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