It all started when my older cousins, Mia and Maggie, decided to be in the Boulder Performing Arts production of The Jungle Book. The main roles were reserved for big kids like them, but they also needed 3 to 5 year olds to play the very important role of bumblebees. Aunt Jen signed my cousin Olivia and her friend Delilah up, and even though I was only about 2 1/2 when rehearsals started, Mom and Dad thought it would be fun for me to be a bee, too, so they bumped my age up by a few months and we went to the first rehearsal. The role was pretty straightforward -- we were just supposed to go out on stage during two songs, and then at the end of the second song each of us would step forward and say our names: "I'm Buzzy Bee Mazie!!" At the end of the show we went back on stage to bow. We practiced 3 Saturdays in a row, then had a dress rehearsal the Thursday before the Saturday of the performances. Throughout these 3-4 weeks we listened to our Jungle Book CD CONSTANTLY and I practiced my arm movements and buzzing. Mom and Dad hummed "The Bare Necessities" non-stop, and I shouted out, "I'M BUZZY BEE MAZIE!!!" over and over and over. We were all ready for the big day.
Two days before the big performance I came down with a fever after school, but it went away in less than a day and by Friday I seemed mostly back to my normal self. On Saturday the 12th, we showed up at the theater as instructed at 11 am for our 12 pm performance. Mom came back stage and me, Livi, and the other bees got our costumes and make-up on along with Mowgli, Baloo, Bagheera, Shere Khan, and all of the other jungle characters. We did a short run-through of our two songs on the stage, and I danced along and said my line perfectly. Then Mom went out to sit with Dad in the front row, and all of the other guests (including my Nana and Ahya) arrived and filled the theater.
As the lights went down, Mom heard a loud wailing backstage and Aunt Jen said, "I think that's Mazie." So Mom came backstage and found me hysterically insisting that I did not want to be in the play. Mom tried to calm me down and said she'd stay backstage with me. For the first number, she held my hand while I stood right at the edge of the curtain, just barely on stage, with a big frown on my face and refusing to dance. For the second song, The Bare Necessities, I wouldn't go on the stage -- Mom and I watched from the side. At the end of the song, I watched as all the other bees said their names, and suddenly I was conflicted -- I was supposed to be out there, too! Mia, playing Shere Khan, was backstage with us and offered to bring me out with her, so I walked out holding hands with her. But when it was time for me to say my name, I just crossed my arms and pouted. So that was that. Mom and I watched the rest of the play from backstage and I never went back out.
BUT that wasn't the end of the story, because performance #2 was coming up at 4 pm! Mom thought that maybe if I got some food in my belly and took a nap, I'd be fresh and ready to give it another shot. So we left and grabbed a sandwich... but I refused to eat, AND I refused to sleep, AND I kept insisting that I didn't want to go back or be in the play anymore. And now Mom and Dad were conflicted, because this was just for fun and they didn't want to be that kind of pushy parents, BUT we'd spent so much time building up to this and, to make matters worse, Grandpa, Grandma, and my three GREAT grandparents were all on their way to the show! So Mom and Dad decided we'd go back and give it a shot. On the way to the theater my attitude improved and I started saying that I WAS going to be in the play... sure enough, when we got to the theater, I got my costume back on and went backstage, letting Mom and Dad stay in their front row seats.
As the lights blacked out and the play started, there was silence back stage. The opening number began in a blackout, with a spotlight on two singers on the opposite side of the stage from where the bees were... Mom and Dad squinted trying to count the bees on stage. Were there six, or only five? The lights came up revealing... five bees. Buzzy Bee Mazie was missing once again. A few minutes later one of the stage hands quietly brought me out to sit with Mom and Dad, and I watched the rest of the play on Dad's lap. Then, as the closing number ended and the bees came out on stage, I suddenly decided that I DID want to be in the play! So Dad quickly put my wings back on, and I scrambled up the steps and across the stage and got to Livi and the other bees just in time to hold hand and, with a big smile on my face, take a big bow with my fellow performers!
And thus begineth my illustrious career as a thespian.... On the up side, Mom doesn't think the experience was too scarring for me... I still talk about how "I'm going to be in the Jungle Book!" and I wanted to listen to the CD again on the way home that day (Mom and Dad said no). Everyone is curious to see how our very informal dance performance goes in a couple of weeks... will stage fright strike again?? Or will I be a star performer?? Stay tuned....
Buzzy Bee Mazie, center, before the first performance with the rest of the Jungle Book cast
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