Incredibly Alice by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Author:Phyllis Reynolds Naylor [Naylor, Phyllis Reynolds]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: fiction, GR
ISBN: 9781416975533
Goodreads: 8765923
Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

16

OPENING NIGHT

It helped that everyone else in the cast seemed as jumpy and excited and nervous as I was on Friday. Even more so. Angela confessed she really had been sick and lost her breakfast shortly after she got to school that morning. I found myself comforting her.

“Break a leg,” people kept saying to us in the halls.

The short guy who played Jackie had a breakout of acne, not quite what you’d expect on the youngest son in the play. But when we got ready for the performance that evening, Mrs. Cary covered his face liberally with makeup and gave him rosy red cheeks. Unless you were in the first three rows of the audience, you wouldn’t have noticed.

Some of the ushers were stage crew members, selected to give out programs at the door, and Amy was one of them. I passed her briefly in the hall, and she looked rather elegant in black jeans and a black turtleneck with dangling silver earrings.

Because this wasn’t a musical, there was no orchestra. But when the houselights dimmed, the chatter and laughter in the auditorium died down, then stopped abruptly as a recording began of “Love’s Old Sweet Song.”

There were not only butterflies in my stomach, there were horses galloping and gorillas in hiking boots. My heart pounded, even though I didn’t make an appearance until page 12 in the script.

Ryan saw me hyperventilating back in the wings. He smiled and came over to give me a quick back rub, and that helped. His fingers lingered up around my neck and cheek. Whoa! I thought. Too much coming at me at once. I was both relieved and sorry when he moved away.

I couldn’t see the stage from where I was standing, but I saw Pamela and Jay move toward the front of the curtain where the spotlight would find them. And finally, when I heard Pamela’s voice, as Ernestine, saying, “Can you hear the music, Frank?” I knew that the performance had begun.

I had an easier entrance than some, because I came on with the rest of the Gilbreth clan when Brad blew the whistle and we all lined up to have our fingernails inspected. By the time I did get some lines, I was eager for my part, more than ready to show how Anne was changing from a dutiful daughter to a more adventurous girl, ready for a boyfriend.

Mr. Ellis had told us to expect it, but I was still surprised at how the audience reaction helped us along. When “Dad” announces that he has bought two Victrolas—one for the boys’ bathroom and one for the girls’—the subject of dance music comes up. And the father admits that the Victrolas are not for music, but for language lessons, French and German.

“Just play them, and finally they’ll make an impression,” he pleaded.

And when I cried, “Not every morning in the bathroom!” the audience broke into laughter. We’d never laughed at that line before.

One of my favorite parts comes halfway through the first act.

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