I must be a good boy

Yesterday I got a call from Chris Carter, one of the founders of the Northwest Puppet Center. This family-run theater presents a full season of six shows a year, covering the range of puppetry arts, from Balinese shadow puppets to the Carter’s handmade marionettes. And every year, their final show is an opera! We saw “The Dragon of Wantley” a few years ago and loved it. In keeping with the traditions of puppetry, it was a silly, fun, bawdy evening that incorporated commentary on current events into the story! Very fun. (We also saw “The Hobbit” that same season; so delightful. Early on, when Bilbo is alone in his hobbit hole, we see a shadow go by the window and then hear a knock on the door. Bilbo said “Who could that be?” A small voice from the front row cried out, “It’s Gandalf!”)

I submitted a tape to them last year around this time, after working with David Stutz, a bass whom they hire often, who encouraged me to contact them. They offered me the role of Pamina in their Magic Flute adaptation, but I sadly had to turn it down. In the end it was best, as my spring was WAY overbooked this year!

One of my many spring projects was the role of Cupid in Venus & Adonis with the Seattle Early Music Guild. My first pants role! I had a great time acting the mischievous boy. Chris and her husband, Stephen, saw a performance, and loved me as a boy so much that they’ve asked me to sing Tom Thumb in Arne’s Opera of Operas, or Tom Thumb the Great, this year’s Marionette Opera! How cool is that? Granted, in a puppet opera, I’ll be sitting on the side of the stage while my marionette gets all the action (including falling in love with a giantess, sung by my friend David!), but I will have a blast. It will interesting – and fun, I think – to only have to sing a role, not to have to be onstage doing the actions.

So that makes two “boys” on my resume; anybody want to hire me to sing Oscar?

My mom always said that I was “incorrigible,” at least in the way Maria described it to Fredrich: “it means you want to be treated like a boy.” I was a bit of a tomboy in jr. high, preferring to ford streams with my brother and “the guys” than to practice putting on makeup with my girlfriends from school. I still appreciate being treated not so much like a boy, but certainly not like I’m helpless. I hate having a fuss made over me, believe it or not. I can do my own wash and get my own coffee, and if I know where something is, I’ll help myself, thank you very much. I know people think I can be pushy, but I’m not going to waste time hemming and hawing and waiting for you to notice that my cup is empty or that the light is shining in my face (yes, there's a story there, not one for the blog!). I'll get up and take care of it. I would want you to feel comfortable enough to do the same at my house. (I’ll do my best to notice first, though!)

But, of course, I also enjoy being a girl: today I came home with $80 worth of MAC cosmetics (thanks to a gift card from Erik!) and teal pumps with an adorable D-ring detail. Then there are the new sweaters and scented powders and a plush white robe from Christmas, all reminding me that not only am I a girl, I’m a Diva!