The 4th Grade at my children's school always performs a Shakespearean play. This year, it's "Hamlet". Dane has one of the leading parts - the King/Hamlet's uncle and father's murderer. The performance is scheduled for 10 a.m. Friday.
Dane is pretty sick but he drug himself out of bed today and down to the Gym for the Dress Rehearsal. He had his lines well-memorized, even though he has the most lines in the play. He wasn't perfect, but did amazingly well.
The funniest part was that I've worked really hard with him on dynamics. I've explained each line and what it means and helped him with hand motions and voice inflection to make his parts more expressive and meaningful. It's kind of funny, in comparison to the other children who deliver each and every line in a monotone. (The little girl that plays the Queen gave a fabulous performance on her final line - the scene where she's dying!) The Director and Producer of the play is the retired 4th grade teacher who left at the end of last year. She also happens to be the person with whose family I lived during college and she knows me VERY well. At one particularly expressive line, she cracked up and turned around from her "Director's chair", where she sat with a copy of the Script giving prompts, and gave me "that look"!
The apple doesn't fall very far from the tree. And she's watched the tree from the time it was a thin, green sapling. She recognizes the apple and can clearly identify the tree from which it fell.
Anyway, the play ought to be wonderful, if the Dress Rehearsal was any indication. I'm looking forward to the full production. But I'm especially looking forward to the King of Denmark's death scene. He ought to steal the show if the Queen doesn't beat him to it.
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