The school play.  Somehow everyone remembers the very first school play they were in and how it impacted their life.  Or at least it did mine.

It was in the third grade, many moons ago.  :)  I was slated to play the part of a sandwich.  That's right: you read right.  A sandwich.  In fact, I played the part of a balogna sandwich.  The play was about nutritious foods verses junk food and how it can make your body do good (or bad) things.

I was all excited.  I couln't wait to learn my lines or try on the costume that my mom was going to make for me.  I knew without a doubt that I was gonna be the star of the show.  I was ready to "strut my stuff", just in case some hot-shot producer or talent scout from Hollywood happened to be in the audience.

Well, the play went pretty good (that is, I remembered all of my lines except for a few minor glitches, but I improvised and somehow made it work).  There were some goof ups, but thank God I wasn't a part of those.  One girl got so scared about being onstage she wet herself ritght there on the floor of the stage; another girl cried her eyes out, and a boy was so nervous he had problems remembering his lines.  I can still remember Mrs. Canavan stage-whispering the boy's lines, so he could stammer through the play.

Most of all, I remember the wild applause (and the laughter when they saw some of the kids' costumes, including my work of art that mom had created), and being under the hot stage lights and wondering if I was gonna sweat so hard my costume would come apart and/or fall right off of me.

I loved it!  I loved everything about it, especially since it wasn't me who had forgotten their lines, cried in front ot the people in the audience, or peed my pants right there on the boards!  

Now I am twelve, going on thirteen, and I have been in several more plays since then.  I played Henry Huggins in grade five when our class did a play about Beverly Cleary's book ("Henry and Ribsy"; I was Henry).  I played a ghost in sixth grade for the Christmas musical, "Scrooge" (I sang, too!).  This past year, I played Romeo in the Shakespeare classic "Romeo And Juliet".  I think I really slayed the audience when I did the all important death scnee.  I really played it to the hilt: the fake seizures, the gasping, the lolling of the tongue, the rolling/crossing my eyes, the whole nine yards.  I think I annoyed my drama teacher, but heck, I didn't care.  I was having fun; I was gonna run with it.

And I did.  I must have done such a good job I even got written up in an article for our local newspaper!  I was officially a star on the rise!

Who knows what eighth grade might hold?  Maybe I could play the part of Harry Potter or maybe even a blood-thirsty zombie!  The possibilities are endless!  And mom and dad both know I am serious about acting, so they have been working hard to get me an agent and get my name/face out there.  Who knows?  I could be another Freddie Highmore (this British kid who played Charlie Bucket in "Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory") or Macaulay Culkin (the former child actor who did several "Home Alone" movies in the 1990's; he made multi-millions of dollars)!

I have the role of a balogna sandwich (and my mom, for making my costume) to thank for that!  Maybe one day you'll be reading about me, Tackett Grisiando, in the Hollywood magazines, about how he became a mega star!!  :)