Hello, everyone!

This is a personal narrative that I wrote myself (and yes, it is a true story), and I’d like to share it with you all! I hope that you enjoy it!

Lights, Camera, Charlie Brown!

 

By: Stephenie

 

        Let’s hope those rehearsals paid off, I thought. I crouched down on my hands and knees and peeked through the cracks of the stage where the sets meet the floor. Because of the dimmed lights, I could hardly see the faces of the audience. I squinted and scanned the crowd for anyone I knew.

“Shh!” Mrs. Floris hushed us. Even if you’re only backstage for 5 seconds, it’s hard not to chat with the people around you.

        Stop talking, or we’ll NEVER start, I thought. I could tell that the people around me were thinking the same thing just from the look in their eyes. Also, we were just about to start the play on opening night! Who wouldn’t want to start?

Suddenly, Mrs. Floris started to play that quite familiar song that we’d been rehearsing for months!  All we had to do now was wait for the cue.  I waited quietly to hear those magical words come out of Charlie Brown’s mouth. The suspense was killing me! Say it, I thought.

This part of the play was odd because we had to sing little tiny sentences at a time… while we were still backstage! I listened dramatically for those words…

“You’re a good man, Charlie Brown!” We sang eagerly. “We have a liftoff,” I whispered quietly to myself as I felt a smile slowly forming on my face.

All of the sudden, it was time to leap into the scene. We all flowed onto the stage like a somehow very organized flash flood.  My first time onstage? No way! I thought. Then another voice popped into my head. Way, my friend! It said.

I got caught in a snowstorm of emotions as I danced along with the group. I gulped. I could see so many people, but I couldn’t see who they were, because it was way too dark. Well, aside from the big, blinding spotlight that was pointed directly at us. But even just knowing that people were here to watch us was… crazy! Who’s staring at me? I thought. I’d better work hard and (please God) not mess up, ’cause that would just be embarrassing. How am I going to handle all these emotions onstage? I can’t just throw them into the crowd!

Some thoughts like this entered my head; What if I mess up? I hope my hair’s okay… Don’t slip! I really don’t want to disappoint! Yet somehow, I overcame it all.

Just have fun on the stage! I thought. But even more than that… I wanted to impress! I knew it came with pressure, but I wanted at least some eyes on me. (Hey, I was star struck!)

What?! The final part?!!! I thought. I shifted over to my spot on the stage. Oh yeah, freestyle! I thought as I kept up with the wild dance that I was doing, that I choreographed. I found myself gazing down at the crowd from the tall, black stage that I was dancing on.

The end was near. Final pose… NOW! I thought as I struck a fierce pose gesturing to Charlie Brown.

        Now, there was just one teensy-weensy, itty-bitty dilemma… I had to force myself off the stage. I didn’t want to get off! I’ll bet no-one did.

“Go down to the library and wait to be called back down!” Brenia (one of the assisting gr.8s) Whisper- hollered as she herded people down the halls.

When we got to the library, the librarian set up some activities for us to do while we waited for our next turns on the stage.

“Ok. We’ll put up a movie on the TV that you can watch if you want to. The others can read silently or chat quietly with friends.” Mrs. Hughes (the librarian) said. I chose to watch the movie (while I was listening to the conversations happening around me).

“Woodstocks!” Brenia called. Did I say I was a Woodstock? Anyways, it was my time to shine! Well, along with a few other girls… We were going to do our Woodstock dance!

“I’m so excited!” Julia yelled as we dashed down the halls.

We waited (a little bit) patiently for our turn on the stage. We whispered with glee in our last few seconds behind the scenes.

We pranced onto the immense black floors of the stage, and into the shining spotlights. Before we knew it, we were doing the Woodstock dance!

Our smiles could have blinded someone for the rest of their lives! I gazed down at the seemingly sweet little girl that was staring right up at me. I kept dancing, winked, then danced some more. I looked back up into the lights and remembered back to when we first started to practice the Woodstock dance.

 

Miss B choreographed the dance for us. I have to admit, I was terrible at first.  But then… A miracle occurred.

When we presented our dance to Dale, The director, I finally did it right! After we showed him, he called one of my fellow Woodstocks, Emma, and myself over to have a little “chat”.

He basically told us that… Well, we were the best! After I finally awoke from my daydream, I found myself walking across and off the stage. After the gym doors quietly and actually quite slowly closed behind us, we (the Woodstocks) squealed with joy as we skipped down the halls back to the waiting room. (AKA the library.)

 

 

 

Then, I had a few quick little conversations, and it wasn’t long before it was time for the baseball game scene.

 

“Everyone!”  Brenia hollered. There was a flood of people in costumes as we all quickly scurried to the gym, where we all waited quietly to hop into character. On cue, we leaped right into the scene, and chatted about the baseball game. It was all part of the drama being stirred up in the pot.

 

“Ooh, I hope we win!” said one person.

 

“I love the hotdogs we get after,” said another.

 

Then, we sang all about the baseball game! Then came my favourite part of it…

 

“I GOT IT! I GOT IT!” We all shouted, as we scrambled on the stage.

 

The ball dropped… no-one got it. We drifted off the stage in a sad mob. Some of them just went backstage because they were next onstage. The rest of us strolled down the halls back to the library.

 

 

 

I lounged around in the library with my friends for a while until intermission.

 

“Woodstocks, and Snoopys!” Brenia called. But this time, Mrs. Floris, the music director came with her to give us a pep talk before the play started up again.

 

“Ok, guys! Marvelous job on the 1st act! Good luck on the 2nd. The librarian said that you guys were noisy in here, so keep it down! Now Woodstocks, Snoopys, let’s get going!” Mrs. Floris said in her very loud voice.

 

We strutted down the halls and made sure not to squeal, because there was a teacher casually walking right in front of us.

 

We were surprised to find all of the lights on.

 

“I guess intermission must still be going,” I said to my fellow Woodstocks as we boarded the same tall, black stage as before.

 

As the Snoopys pounced up onto their big red dog house, we lined up in front of them. I had a very good reason to be up there. I was going to sing with the gr.3s!

 

The gr.3s formed a line beside the Woodstocks.

 

“Aww, they’re so cute!” I heard moms and dads saying rather noisily. I found myself gazing at them. They were dressed quite formally in ties and dresses.

 

Finally, the lights dimmed. The spotlights were now directed at us. The gr.3s pulled out their shockingly good voices. We started to sing.

 

“Happiness is; finding a pencil, pizza with sausage, telling the time,” we sang. The crowd thought that we were cuter than a puppy. I loved this song because it was sweet, silly, and somehow… soothing!

 

The gr.3s hit a sour note every once in a while, but the crowd didn’t mind. However, I did. Geez, I thought. Sing right!

 

        By the last line of the song, I’d entirely gotten into it!

 

“For happiness is anyone, and anything at all that’s loved by you!” We sang sweetly.

 

I skipped off the stage quite cheerfully. I hummed the song ‘happiness’ (the one we were just singing) as soft as a whisper all the way back to the library.

 

 

 

When I got back, I chatted with my friends, watched bits and pieces of the movie, and chatted some more.

 

“I’m glad that they chose me for such an opportunity,” I said with stars in my eyes. I was daydreaming about the times I was onstage.

 

I wondered, who was looking at me? Then, I imagined if a paparazzi showed up and started snapping photos wildly like a madman of the actors/actresses. Then, someone popped my thought bubble. How long was I daydreaming?

 

“Everyone! Come for the last song!” Brenia hollered with a bit more thrill in her voice than usual.  Long enough… I thought as I rushed down the halls.

 

Everyone but Charlie Browns & Sallys were backstage.

 

This last song was my supreme favourite. It was a rare sort of song where everyone had a cue to show up onstage sometime during the song. Woodstocks went on last.

 

It’s a bit squishy… I thought. Slowly but surely, people started to drift onto the stage.

 

I kept making actions that went with the song (and some that didn’t) as I waited for the cue. My fellow Woodstocks giggled at my silly actions, but just loud enough to be hear a single meter away.

 

Finally, we heard the cue, and pranced onto the stage and into the scene. I started to sing. No holding back, I thought. We, the cast, worked hard to make it sound beautiful. And beautiful it sounded.

 

“And when all those people believe in you, deep enough and strong enough, believe in you, hard enough, and long enough, it’s bound to be…” We sang. I listened to us.

 

I thought, this is an astonishing group of people. Mrs. Floris and Dale, You chose right!

 

After the song ended, the spotlights dimmed.

 

Could it be? No, it has to be, I thought. Everyone did a flash flood off the stage while the lights were still off. Everyone but the Woodstocks.

 

We got into a horizontal line and shuffled into front and center of the stage. My heart raced. This is it, I thought. We groped at each other’s hands.

 

The spotlight fired up again, and was pointing directly at us, as blinding as ever. We grinned as we sent each other joyful glances. We bowed in complete sync.

 

The audience roared!

 

We waved and took out our blinding smiles again. We shuffled back while the crowd was still clapping. One role at a time, they appeared onstage, and bowed. It wasn’t long until the whole cast was onstage.

 

I snuck a peek at my surroundings and smiled to myself. Am I dreaming? I thought. I swear, in that moment in time, I couldn’t breathe! I’d done it! My first play ever! Me!

 

I felt so accomplished. I felt like… I’d just won the fifa world cup or something!

 

I mended the memories from that night. I thought back to the practices. Wow… I thought. Too many memories, I can’t be dreaming!

 

I glanced behind me at the beautifully painted sets. Blue sky, White clouds, Red doghouse… I thought it looked pretty… awesome!

 

At this point in my life, I envied no one! I listened to the continuous applause. I mentally shed tears at the fact of this most magnificent, most fabulous thing I’ve ever done in my whole life. If I hadn’t been so excited, the tears would’ve just flown out and filled up the audience. I found the tears about to come out, but they froze.

 

I paused. We wrapped up the play in a snap and the audience poured out of the gym, out of the school, and into their vehicles.

 

Sadness pricked at my heart as the last few people left. But my happiness of this achievement overcame the sadness in my heart as I quickly changed back from Woodstock to Stephenie, currently the happiest person on earth.

 

I ran back onto the stage to listen to Dale, the director, speak. He congratulated us for this wonderful joy called opening night.

 

I mentally congratulated myself, and glowed with joy. Wow, I thought. I’ll cherish these memories  for the rest of my life! And so, this promise being kept, I have still cherished these enchanting memories.

How would YOU feel in a play? What emotions might you have?

Please don’t be shy to leave me some feedback in the comments below!