A Bad Show

Our show on Saturday was bad.

For lots of reasons, here's one:

There's a young 6 year old. The principal was against us casting him from day one. We cast him, because our numbers were right. We probably wouldn't have cast him if we did cuts. But we didn't do cuts, so he got cast.

We handled him pretty well during the break. He quit every day at some point, but Casey and I were able to talk him down. He quit during the dress rehearsal on Saturday, but I talked him back into being in the show.

I'm not sure what he deals with at home, but he's really a sweet kid. I talked to him for a long time as I was convincing him he wanted to be in the show. he told me that he "plays the guitar, and likes to write songs" He explained that he watches movies with songs and then writes new songs for them, and he had written a funny song for the dogs from Fox and the Hound 2...and that he'd also written a new song for the Bees in Rumpelstiltskin.

Its called "Sugar Bee" Lyrics follow:

Sugar Bee
Sugar Bee
Come Dance with me

He said he hadn't written down the rest cause the rest was very long. we had a nice conversation, and I kept him back in the show.

During the show, he quit again, i did my usual, walking up to him, telling him he couldn't quit. Then he tried to run, again normal. But this time, he couldn't go out into the lobby...there was an audience, so I kept him from going there, so he ran somewhere else...almost on stage...but I kept him from there. He tried to jump over the counter in the cafeteria. There was definitely something mentally unstable with him, the boy had snapped. I picked him up to keep him from flying over, and to try to calm him down.

As I set him down he ran through the cafeteria picking up bags with people's clothing in them and yelling at me "bag head!" then he'd throw water bottles "Water head" and lunch boxes "lunch head"

Finally, to keep him from making any more destruction, I picked him up...he began kicking me in the balls, and smacking me, and finally pulling my beard yelling "I got his beard!" Keep in mind, all the bees are laughing at this the whole time...I don't blame them "Bag head!" I'd probably have laughed if I wasn't the bag head.

So I had an AD go get the principal out of the audience. Keep in mind, the principal isn't a very nice woman, and especially not to this little boy. She very forcefully pulled the boy from the cafeteria and sat him in the lobby. He wasn't going to finish the show.

I felt like a failure. I couldn't handle this kid. This is my job.

Mom and Grandma were able to talk him down, and he did eventually finish out the show...thought getting him ready again caused all the bees to be late for their entrance, among other issues.

But...that's a story, isn't it?