These are so few and far between now that they’re older, I must post them when they appear!
My daughter was convinced to stage manage her college theatre production because she would share the duty with a friend as co-managers. As the weeks of rehearsal went by, we didn’t hear much about the co. As they approach production this week, they’re in something called “cue to cue,” which is apparently a grueling amount of work.
“Weren’t you supposed to have a co-stage manager?” I asked.
“Funny story,” she said, “turns out she had an operation on her knee. So she, like, basically can’t move.”
Now, you might think you know me, and you might think my following line as a Dad indeed had to have been, “Tell her that’s not what break a leg means.”
But that’s not what I said! Mostly because I thought of it too late. What I said was this. I took the Facetime call from my wife’s hand, turned the screen to face my geeklet, and said, “Well, you tell her that in the 1935 Max Reinhardt film adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, a 14yr old Mickey Rooney played Puck with a broken leg and had to be wheeled around the set!”
I got back a blank stare. “Why,” she said, “do you just know that off the top of your head?”
“I didn’t,” I say, “I just watched it this weekend.“