You're a Good Man, David Brown!

Life continues on for the Browns. Instead of auditioning for students at PRHS, we've taken our talents (!>?) on the road to Kuwait where we've just finished auditioning for You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown. We will be able to post a cast list soon. We have the talent here,which is very exciting for us. And, there were some little 6th graders who took it upon themselves to try out, which made the teacher in me very happy.

It will be different doing a play here, for many reasons. First, and foremost, we don't know the "ropes" of how this place works yet. Thankfully we've got our BFFs, the Roddicks, who will help us. Daddy-O will be musical director (I'm rehearsal accompaniest and David's right hand) MammaV will be producer which means she'll be doing the things I was used to doing for David (I like that!) We trust them and they have "WASHTA" which means they have "pull" and they know people who know people.

Secondly, the students (for the most part) have never heard of a quarter of the things in the play...Sopwith Camels, Sandlot Baseball Games, Security Blankets,etc. In addition to teaching the words and music, we will also be teaching slangs, giving background behind stories and expressions and in general, "Americanizing" the students. It was a big brain trip to hear the words to a well-known musical coming out of someone's mouth with a distinct Arabic accent (which means that they sometimes misprounounce the words). WAIT--they speak English a WHOLE LOT BETTER than my Arabic, so I am not making fun of or putting them down.

Thirdly, we have to be cautious of making sure that we do things that won't get censored, which could cause the play to be shut down. Sounds funny (yes this is based on the Charles M Schultz cartoon characters so it couldn't be censored right?!) However, we are definately in unchartered waters here. Any form of kissing, affection between boys and girls, etc would be offensive. (NOTE TO SELF: Never perform Romeo and Juliet or Any romance story here) We know the rules and we're trying very hard to not cross the lines. Although I did teach my kids that they should never show their butt on the stage...and they were quite shocked when I first said the word b-u-t-t.

David's up for the adventure and I'm right behind him. We're off and running...Break a leg!