The Princess Bride

Tonight was the Memorial Middle School 8th grade drama performance of "The Princess Bride". Nick had the role of Fezzick, the giant. When a student overheard me congratulating him for getting the role two months ago, she was aghast that I told him he was perfect for the role because he was big and ugly. I think his self esteem survived it. He wanted to get "in character" and dye his hair black. We did that Monday night, and what a startling sight he has been since then.

He had to carry Westley/the Dread Pirate Robert around quite a bit. Tonight was the third performance in two days, and perhaps he had become a bit tired. Crash! Actually the robe got in the way as he was carrying him up the stairs.

It was a rather long, ambitous play for an after school group to do, and they realized they could not do it justice, so they cut some scenes and made up an alternate ending. People were shocked when Miracle Max was trying to bring Westley back to life and he sat up to answer his cell phone when it rang. He told the caller he was in the middle of performing in a play and he'd be there as soon as he could. He apologized to the audience, lay back down, and the scene proceeded. A few minutes later, the phone rang again. He sat up, agreed that he would come right away and said, sorry folks, I really have to go. His cast mates protested. Nick said, "But you haven't had the kissing scene yet! You have to do the kissing scene!" The Director shouted out at him, "Nick, there is no kissing in middle school!" Then another cast member said, "What time is it? Oh, no, I have to get to my baseball game!" He took off as well. Pandemonium ensued. The scene switched below to where the grandmother is reading the book to the grandchild and she said, this is really odd, the end of the story is missing. The remaining cast members on stage chorused together, "I guess you'll have to watch the movie to see how it ends." So there you have it. They did a good job and there were lots of laughs.

The best part of my day came after we got home. The beasts of burden removed the drift boat from my back yard forever! Tomorrow it will take a trip to Gold Beach to it's new home! Halleluia!