If you prick us, do we not bleed?

So I can’t give blood anymore. But a new donor has stepped forward to replace me. Ruth donated blood for the first time today. That means that while my personal contribution to the blood supply has ceased, our family’s remains unchanged. Thus is the balance of the universe maintained. Needless to say, I am very proud of her. I didn’t begin donating until I was two years older than Ruth is, and I gave infrequently for the first decade or so. As a result, it took me almost a quarter century to reach the five-gallon mark. I’m sure Ruth will beat that record.
She and I have something else in common; we’re both waiting to find out the result of our auditions at Raleigh Little Theatre this week. Ruth’s audition was for StoryTellers, an intensive workshop performance class for ages 13-18 that will perform Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead. She won’t know until Sunday which role she’ll be playing, but we already know that her initial audition (a monologue from The Never-Ending Story — the book, not the movie) got her into the class. So she’s definitely in the cast. I’m proud of her for that, too.
My audition was for Cinderella , which is gearing up for its twentieth season. Tryouts were held on Monday and Tuesday. I sang “Oh, What a Beautiful Morning” from Oklahoma on Tuesday, and it seemed to go well. I’ll find out on Monday whether I’m in the ensemble again. (I’m not in the running for any of the major roles, which is fine with me. I’m quite familiar with them from last year, and I know that I wouldn’t be a good fit for any of them even if I were considerably more experienced.) Either outcome is okay with me; if I’m not cast, I’ll volunteer for the running crew. That will still let me be a part of the show, but I won’t have to spend my evenings and weekends at the theatre for the next two months — the technical crews don’t have to do anything until the last week of rehearsals, and they don’t have to work at every show. So not being cast would be a relief in that sense. But we’ll see.
Marie will also probably be working on Cinderella. The six children playing the mice who become ponies, and the boy who plays the Young Prince in one scene, have to be supervised when they are not on stage. The traditional job title for this is Mouse Nanny (although I think Mouse Wrangler would be more accurate). The woman who has been the Mouse Nanny for the last several years is not available this time around, and Marie has offered to do it. (She and Ruth actually served as substitute nannies last year on a couple of occasions when the regular nanny couldn’t make it, so she knows what to expect.)
I’ll post updates here when the cast lists are announced.

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