The summer between the third and fourth grade, I really wanted to be a part of the local community musical. That year, they happened to be doing Disney's Beauty and the Beast.

I got cast as the salt shaker and was super excited to be a part of it, especially as one of the 'magical' characters.

I had to miss a lot of stuff that summer because the practices were so often and so long and you weren't allowed to miss many of them. I don't remember much that I missed but I know one of the things was a family reunion... that's ok. I saw videos and pictures of what happened. The kids at the reunion had to put on embarrassing costumes and sing some weird song so I think I actually dodged a bullet there.

Thinking back, there weren't many kids in the show. There were quite a few adults, mostly young adults and teens, and then a small handful of kids around my age. I made friends with the director's daughter who played like, the footrest, or something like that. I don't remember. I just remember that the girl who played the pepper shaker was a tween and thought she was the entire world and then some and she was a real jerk. Oh man, how she even had friends is beyond me. Then again, her friends weren't the nicest either. Me and my new friends spent quite a bit of time running from her and her friends, slipping under the gates closing off the rest of the high school we were practicing in. We just wanted to get to the ice cream vending machines. Or A vending machine.

Then there was the night the mountain caught fire. It was pretty close to our performances and it was one of our long rehearsals (9 am to 9 pm). At about 6:00, we had our dinner break and some of the people eating outside noticed copious amounts of smoke rising from the nearby mountains. Rumors soon spread through the cast and crew but our director said we desperately needed practice and weren't stopping unless we were forced to. Which ended up happening. There was a pretty bad forest fire spreading across the mountain and the people living on it had to be evacuated. Where the city decided to put the people was the high school gym and auditorium. Right where we were rehearsing. Our director was furious but gained understanding once he heard cast and crew members on their cell phones, trying to reach their families, saw their tears as they could only hope their home hadn't been taken by flames. Trying to talk to their family, to hear that they are alright, that they were evacuated before the fire reached them. I got picked up before the bulk of the crowd came to safety. They didn't want us little ones getting lost.

We had originally started the show by pulling the projector down and showing the beginning clip of the actual movie as the introduction and then moving on to Belle with the opening number in the town. Opening night went well but apparently someone who represents Disney or someone affiliated with Disney had come to our opening night show and told us we would be sued for copyright infringement if we kept showing the actual movie as part of our performance. So the next day I came in for call time and heard all about the rush of making costumes and memorizing lines all night long just trying to get something presentable for our next showing.

We managed to pull through and had great performances. I went on to do a few more musicals in my school but my mom never let me participate in the community theatre again. She likes camping too much. I did go see their production of Les Mis a few years ago and it was really good. I'm excited to see Into the Woods at the end of this summer.