This past weekend was the culmination of several months work and practice as my daughters' 4H club held its annual Music and Drama competition. Every year the kids get together and create an original musical which showcases both their talents and the spirit of 4H. Our production was a fun piece about the 1970's.
The play started off with a fun scene between a Grandmother and her Granddaughter talking about the difference between BEING 70 and the 1970's.
From there we had a John Travolta look-a-like strutting to "stayin alive", skits with Sonny and Cher, Princess Leia and even the unknown comic and Chuck Barris from the "Gong Show".
The kids put on an excellent show with "The Streak" and "It's Fun to stay at the F-A-I-R" as the highlights. Watching the kids learn the basics of Disco was by far the best part of my Spring.
Unfortunately the judging came next.
After a fantastic show, we were all convinced we had secured a First Place blue Ribbon. But that was not the case. The judges complemented everyone in the group and pointed out what they called "truly amazing" bits. However at the end of the day they gave us a Second Place Red Ribbon due to what they claimed was poor diction and bad flow. Keep in mind that the average age of our acting group was 11 years old. It is my opinion that to mark down 11 year olds for "diction" and Comedic timing being somewhat off is overly harsh.
It was not until later that I found the real reason for the harsh judgement. Our kids had been in watching another show, when they were told by one of the older kids it was time to go. They got up noisily and exited the theater, while another performance was still in progress. They did this while in costume and in full view of the judges. This was what secured our Red Ribbon instead of the Blue.
The moral of the story is manners count. I am reminded of the words of Shepard Book from "Firefly" pointing out that there is a "Special place in Hell reserved for Child molesters and people who talk in the theater" While I do not think my kids have been damned for the rudeness, they were condemned to a Red Ribbon.
Hey Fish - manners do count, but I suspect they are hard to find among a group of 11 year ! In fact, I'd bet the eleven year old kids were only slightly better mannered than union members at a union hall!!
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Cute story, but the moral is quite correct: talking and creating, even unintentionally, disruption during someone Else's time on stage is a "no-no".
Oh, yes, btw, this is realwest commenting anonymously again!!