2021-09-27
35 分钟Pushkin.
I'm about to watch a VHS tape that I haven't seen for more than 35 years.
It's the dress rehearsal of a play I took part in when I was 10 years old.
The 1985 New Bedford High School Drama Club's performance of Peter Pan the Musical.
My mom somehow finagled away for me to audition, even though I was only in fourth grade,
and I didn't really know how to act or sing or dance.
But I got to star as the rabbit.
If you've seen the play and don't remember a rabbit being involved, that is because,
as far as I can tell, the rabbit is not an actual role in Peter Pan the musical.
I think the directors just made it up.
My entire part involved hanging out on the back of the stage silently,
pretty much blending into the Neverland background.
Why would any self-respecting high school drama teacher go to all that trouble for a talentless 10-year-old kid?
I think it's because after meeting me, they couldn't really say no.
You see, back then, I was obsessed with Peter Pan.
My family had the album, which I had worn out by listening to it over and over and over again.
Our home movies are filled with me forcing my older cousins to take part in impromptu performances,
always with me playing Peter Pan.
When I was four,
my mom left my newborn brother at home in Massachusetts to take me to Broadway to see the play.