Like most fat kids, I didn't enjoy recess in grade school. Especially not when we played dodge ball or kick ball. Namely because of how teams were picked - two popular, athletic kids were always chosen as captains, and they got to choose which kids played on their side. The only kid less popular than me to be picked was (named deleted to protect the innocent) and that kid was a mess!
The only good part about playing dodge ball over kick ball was that in dodge ball the fat kid always got hit first, and then I could just sit on the bleachers - with kick ball, you were stuck in the damned game, no matter how many times you were "out."
I tried to join band in junior high, but I couldn't read music - kinda hard to play a trumpet when you can't read music! So I joined the choir - I could fake it enough to sing! I was cast as the lead in the musical Teen, but because I didn't exactly have leading-man looks, the part had to be re-done for comedic effect. So my love songs could be played for laughs, rather than taken as romantic teen gushes as written.
In high school, I got involved with the drama group - and I was in several plays. I was Dr. William F. Chumley in Harvey, and Editor Webb in Our Town. Interesting fact - Christine from Epiphany Sanctuary played my daughter Emily in Our Town!
In college, I was also involved in drama (I was supposed to be pre-law, but I started working backstage my Freshman year, and the rest is history: I graduated as a Theatre Major!) but instead of being onstage, I got to play with props and actors. I've always been good with visual things, so props (the stuff actors hold in their hands) came naturally to me. Then I got involved with stage management and directing, and found my true calling in the theatre. I loved playing stage manager - such a rush!
For my senior seminar, I wrote and directed my own one-act play: Breakfast At Epiphanys.
Funny, I wrote that play back in 1989 - and it was about how the world would end in 1999. One of the factors of the world ending was that there were no more original thoughts. Now, if you Google for "breakfast at epiphany's" you actually get hits - to other people's work with the same title! Just proves my theory that there are no original thoughts left in the universe.
So for every fat kid out there today who thinks that their angst is original when the PE Teacher says it's time to play dodge ball, trust me - been there, played that.
The Play's The Thing
http://morgenfiles.blogspot.com/2008/05/plays-thing.html
