boogie

First day of "The Emperor's New Clothes" by act3 theatrics! It feels strange because for once it's not me having to worry about the quick costume changes and the wig that refuses to stay on and the eyeliner getting into my eyes. I have, instead, the most un-job like jobs -- that of babysitting the child actors. Basically I put on their makeup, make sure they don't forget to bring their props, bring them around the esplanade when they want to go to the chocolate shop, and make sure they don't get lost, don't run and fall, don't lick off the lipstick, don't spill milo over their costumes etc. It's really really fun and funny. Below are excerpts from today's classic moments. To protect their identity, they shall be known by their stage names: eenie, meenie, minie, mo. Respective ages, 9, 10, 8, 7.

When putting on makeup:
Minie (who can never keep her lips still and thus gets lipstick all over her chin): "Why can't we have Hilary Duff lipstick? It's my favourite lipstick"
(blur look) "Hilary Duff lipstick?"
"Yes yes it's good to eat, I lick it all off after I put it on!"
"..... ....."

With the exception of Meenie who is a boy, their favourite movie is "A Cinderella Story" by guess who? Hilary Duff.

What goes on between shows when they get a break and I bring them out and they step into the huge lift:
(all dashing around from corner to corner haphazardly not unlike the motion of air molecules)
(screaming)
"You're IT! you're IT!"
And the lift doors open to an awesomely quiet backstage of the spiky place's theatre where the Mamma Mia cast hang out. They have one dressing room per person. And they have signs to show the cast around to the rehearsal room in case they get lost. Example of a sign would be
"Yes this is the lift!" next to the lift buttons.
Wow.

Mo (who incidentally reminds me a lot of Po of Teletubbies) is writing a book called "The Three Friends". about a purple string, a blue string, and a red string.

When I take orders for food:
Eenie: "I want a cheeseburger without pickles"
and today "I want a fish burger because I'm Catholic and we're not supposed to eat meat on Fridays"
Meenie: " I want McCrispy and if they don't have that I want McWings and if not I'll have McNuggets"
Minie: McNuggets! (for 2 days in a row already)
Mo: "I want Cheese Fries"
Eenie: "Yes I want Cheese Fries too!"
Me: "Cheese Fries can only be found at KFC and we're going to Mcdonalds.."
Meenie: "My mum says KFC is the worst fast food and we can only eat it 4 times a year..wait i think now it's less times" (despairing look)

When they've found out about the ugly truth of the world - that people smoke. *collective gasp* (Eenie and Mo are siblings, so is Meenie and Minie)
(Eenie and Minie whisper in the corner)
Me being the one that's dying to be filled in on the gossip goes "tell me tell me!"
(Minie whispers) "XXX smokes"
Mo, being the young and innocently ignorant one goes: "What what?"
(aside: I've just realised the emergence of teletubbie-speak i.e. repeat every word among our group! like "again, again!"
Minie: "We just found out that XXX had an operation"
Me: "And which part of the body got taken out?"
(general silence as they try to find a namable internal organ which can be taken out without having XXX die.)
Mo, being astute and sensing something amiss: "Don't bluff! tell me tell me!"
She pouts, then promptly forgets having asked the question, and proceeds to continue writing her book.