Audition Five: The Industrial Video

Well, the DB did not get the Role of the Bully.  But he did look pretty mean, with his hair all greased back and his jeans rolled at the cuff, 1960's style.   Today, we got a call from the Agency asking him to audition for an Industrial Video for a company that is locally based and that is all about advancing a kind of philosophy that seems to me, loosely based on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Concepts.   There isn't much to the script.  It's him and another kid, fighting over a piece of pie, and then coming up with a way to make the piece of pie bigger, so that they can both have enough.  

Hmm.  At least he likes pie.  So no memorization of lines or anything.  He continues to take all of this in stride.  Right now, as I write this, he is - where else - at ballet class.  When he gets home at about 9 PM he has a BOOK REPORT that is DUE TOMORROW (yes, he has known about this all term.  Of course he has.)  The Book is "1984" by George Orwell.  As you may know, it's a slog of a read with a totally buzz kill ending as Winston Smith takes it on the jaw, so to speak.  He has three pages left and was mad at the book as we went to ballet class tonight at 5.  So when he gets home he has to write the book report  - but wait! That's not all!  He also has to write an email to his choir teacher, explaining that despite his telling her about it last week, someone played a joke on him and removed his Choir Folder from its slot.  He was bummed and I am bummed because of course, I think he's known about this longer than he admits - and of course, the End of Term is Friday and of course, all of the Choir Assignments were in said folder.   Sometimes I think we need to try to stop him - to keep him home and have him just be a Regular High School Kid - but the ballet is something he's good at and he loves.  But it takes SO. MUCH. TIME.  And then there's rehearsals to boot for Nutcracker, and Sleeping Beauty and and and.  This Ballet Company really uses the boys and I worry that they are going to use him up sometimes.  But he doesn't complain and so maybe I'm just projecting my own worry onto him.  I need to knock that off.

And then this audition thing for Friday.   He looked tired and bummed tonight on the way to class.  Perhaps the thought of an audition will perk him up.  I have to ask my secretary (whom I love and adore) to take him to this one - and he will miss school for it.  I wish I was a stay at home mom and that I could just take him to everything.  But things didn't work out that way and my job is to make sure there is a home and a roof and so forth.   Besides.   Honestly, I think it's easier for him when I'm not the driver and the Person Who Waits.  My dear friend/secretary Janet (who is more like a family member than many family members) took him last time.  The audition lasted all of 90 seconds - he was in and out.  So perhaps he won't miss too much school this time.

We are ticking them off, one by one, these auditions.  Watch this space.

Audition Four: The Bully

Today, the Talent Agency Called.  Huzzah! Darling Boy's photo is finally up on their website, and they are sending him on an audition at 9 AM TOMORROW (which by the way, is During School and also During a Time that Neither His Father Nor His Mother can make sure he Gets There).   This audition is for a small part as A Bully in a local television series.

If you knew DB, you would know that he is the farthest thing from a Bully there ever was.  Ever.  He's never been very big and he's not very - lurchy, I guess is how you'd say it, and he's a really nice kid.  He also is a soft hearted guy.  When he was little, I took him to see one of the Harry Potter movies - the one where Cedric Diggory gets killed.  He was about what, 8?  It just KILLED him.  

This is the kid who, like his mother, tears up when happy, sad, or angry.  He hates it and doesn't want you to see it, not to mentioned TALK to him about it.  He's a kind kid who has been known to tell the School Bully to lay off the kid who's kindof weird.  But he's not a suck up and he certainly doesn't always tell me what he's doing.   If he DOES tell me, he usually prefaces it with "Now, don't get all upset.." which of course, makes me a) defensive, b) suspicious and c) sortof upset but then paradoxed so I can't BE upset - at least not outwardly.  He is in the ninth grade and is in high school.  He loves it.  He has made friends with these older boys who, as I learned recently, take him in their car and they all go out for lunch.   I learned this and of course, peppered him with questions, e.g. "Whoaretheseboyswhataretheirnamesdidyouwearseatbeltsdon'tlietomeaboutthatwhopaidwheredidyougo?" and on and on.   He was all smiley- reassurances that these are "Good Boys, mom, they are the President and Vice President of Choir!"

I went to Parent Teacher Conference and asked the Choir Teacher about them.  They are good boys. Phew.

So how can my DB play a bully?  The Talent Agency thinks he's a "good actor - he'll be perfect for it."

I am to make him look like someone from the 1960's.  I think I will wet his hair back and put him in a white tee shirt and jeans.

Bully? Hmm.   As he reminds me, "I'm gonna go on a hundred of these before I ever get anything, Mom, so just Chill."  (I didn't think I was acting "UnChill.")

Maybe I'll push him around a little when he gets home from Ballet Class, just to get him in the Bully Mood. Heh.

Audition Three: The Nutcracker, Again.

For the seventh year in a row, DB has auditioned for the Nutcracker that our professional ballet puts on.  He has always been "The Fritz" which for this company is the Main Boy Role and he's loved it.  He got to dance it in Washington DC at the Kennedy Center when The Ballet Company travelled there.  They call him "The Workhorse" or "Old Reliable" or something like that because he knows every part in the ballet, save one (The Nephew, which he has not done yet - too short in years past) and he works like a dog.   So, Darling Boy auditions for Nutcracker again this year.

The first year we did this, he was eight years old.  We went to the Ballet Audition not knowing a thing.  He was wearing bike shorts and a white tee shirt.  He looked at the Big Boys who were in "real tights, Mom" and who were jumping and spinning and just looking cool as hell.  He was impressed.   He was cast as the "Spank Boy" that year - the smallest boy in the production who is called Spank Boy (Weird, I know, right?) because at one point he goes through the Grandfather's legs, gets hauled up, and then gets a spank.  The next year, he got the Fritz.  He was shocked.  We all were.  It was a thrill.  He remained the Fritz for six more years.  He was a really good Fritz.  They told me he could really act the part and that he crafted it to make it his own, layering it year after year.   When you watch your kid in something like this, a real production, you truly can't look at anyone else, ever.  I've seen The Nutcracker fifty times but I've never really seen it - I've only had eyes for Darling Boy.

Well Darling Boy is 14 now.  And this year he finally was cast in the only role that would allow someone who is a teensy bit under five feet to do:  He got the Nephew.   This means he gets to wear this totally Liberace Purple Cape and Top Hat.  It's an acting role more than a dancing role.  He is thrilled because "Now I think I beat the record for being in Nutcracker the longest."  And because it's the only kid role in the whole thing that he hasn't done before.

He has been assisting a little bit with the teaching of the Young Fritzes.  They need help and the lovely ballet staff are stretched very thin.  They know they can count on him and he really and truly likes it that they do.

I love the Nutcracker, because that is what made him fall in love with the stage.  I will always love it.  I wonder what it will be like, the day I watch it, and he is too old to be in it - until he is about 18 and then Voila - he can be in it again!  As it is, he has Fourteen Shows to deal with in December.  (Last winter because of the Kennedy Center, it was over 20).  As I type this, I realize that I need to get him his flu shot. Pronto!