Taking Center Stage
The Bus Marm Takes Over
Our story begins at the end, and we’ll work our way back to the beginning from there.
On the day after Little Bean’s elementary school’s big Palace Theatre show, Smyth Across America, she was greeted that morning with high fives and back pats from her teachers, and even some friends. In fact I even saw her hug one teacher.
I ran into the principal of her school who went out of her way to whisper in my ear, “She’s something else!” She most certainly is, I confirmed!
When, months ago, she had broken the news to us that she had been awarded one of the two Narrator Parts in the play, I’m not sure if it quite dawned on us that her’s was essentially the staring role (along with a classmate from down the street who we know well). She knew of course.
The play, which the principal told me only happens every four year or so, involves all four classes, plus Kindergarten. The premise is simple. The narrators usher the school classes through a series of bus trips around America with stops in places like Philadelphia, Boston, Colorado and… Oklahoma? No offense Oklahoma.
The two narrators play off each other, with Little Bean being the sort of bus marm, keeping the kids in line, chiding them about taking the Statue of Liberty with them on the bus (“Her pointy hat will stab you!”) and basically keeping everybody in line.
Her co-narrative plays off her as the more chill, don’t worry we can fit everybody and it’s ok to be a little late, guy. “Get on the bus everybody,” Little Bean shouts in exasperation.
That Little Bean doesn’t need to be that close to the mic to be heard was, I’m certain, not lost on her teacher play organizers. Also, the fact that her role was basically a field organizer and head rounder-up in chief, considering her - ahem - lineage, was also not lost on me :)
The play went well. All the classes represented. A minimum of lines were forgotten. Only a few hats went flying off heads and nobody fell off the stage.
And the Oklahoma stop turned out to be a really great segment, with the fourth grade doing a ho-down to some Miley Cyrus song which the fake country band air-played up a storm on stage. Even Little Bean stepped into the fray for that number, picked up a violin and got into some vigorous fake playing!
Here’s the thing. I know my daughter can do stuff like this. I know she’s capable of it. And I find it all sort of surreal. In elementary school, I’d have never been able to perform in front of 800 people - all the outgoing parts of me that exist today came much, much later in my life. Reading lines or playing an instrument in a crowd like that back then would have absolutely terrified me.
But her? I don’t know how she became fearless, and entirely unselfconscious, but I hope that sticks. During the early part of the presentation, she did scan the crowd and I jumped up and waved my arms like a maniac. (I’m a dad after all, that’s what I do.) She did see me and smiled, so I hope that helped her.
Later, even she admitted to having a sore throat and not expecting that huge of a crowd.
“But once it all started, I just had to keep going,” she said.
Spoken like a true professional.
Housekeeping: Hi everyone! Yesterday, you all should have gotten a personal email from myself and Uma. We’re so close to 600 subscribers and we were hoping you could help us reach our goals. Please reach out one on on to friends and family. Help us my sharing Day By Day with social media pages that might have an interest. If each of you shared with JUST ONE friend, I know we’d hit out goal. Can you help us? Thanks so much for coming along on this strange ride with us!
I think she's fearless because you've encouraged her to be herself, regardless of what anyone else thinks. She has a loving, supportive, accepting (emphasis on accepting) set of parents who she knows has her back, no matter what.
She's got grit!!