Conner's Performance

Chapter 2 - First Rehearsal

Conner was walking to school with his sister Jessica. "So are you ready for the first rehearsal?" Conner asked his sister.

"I'm looking forward to it, I want to meet the other members of the cast. Did you read the play?" Jessica questioned him.

Conner had read over the play many times, except for a few, Toto was in every scene that Dorothy was in, this meant that he would have almost as much stage time as his sister. In this version of the play Toto did have some actions to take, however they were pretty simple. "Yeah, I read it over a couple of times. We will probably be at rehearsal together for most of the term." Conner said.

The two of them got to school and went to their individual classes, Conner went inside and sat next to Brian.

"Hey Toto, today is your first rehearsal, hopefully you don't mess up any lines." Brian teased Conner. Conner faced flushed red, he hadn't planned on telling Brian that he was Toto but his teacher had announced it to the class. His classmates had taken to calling him Toto instead of Conner.

"Yeah, that's today after school, and don't call me Toto." Conner said quietly.

"Let me know how it goes, I am interested in what lines you have to remember." Brian giggled to himself. Conner just rolled his eyes and started pulling out supplies he would need for the first class.

The rest of the day flew by as the rehearsal got closer Conner got more nervous, he knew it was just the first of many and there weren't really any expectations but he would still be the youngest one there. The bell rang and Conner packed up his homework, he now realized he would need to do rehearsal, then homework all in the same day.

Conner walked to the drama room, there were already many people there including his sister. Some of them were reading through the play, he just grabbed a chair and sat down. Mrs Bell, Ms Gray and Mr Farley walked into the room together, Ms Gray was carrying a clipboard.

"Attention everyone, I think some introductions are in order." Ms Gray announced. "I'm going to go through the cast list, please stand up and wave when your name is called.

Everyone sat in a chair and waited for their name.

"Starting with the main cast Jessica Reid will be Dorothy." Jessica stood up. "Jamie Booth will be the Scarecrow" Jamie stood up. "The Tin Man will be played by Tom Foley" Tom Stood up and waved, "The Lion will be played by Madison Grant" Madison stood up and waved, "The Wicked Witch will be Rayna Barnes" Rayna stood up, "Last in the main cast will be Conner Reid who will be playing Toto" Conner stood up and waved to everyone, his cheeks blushing red. "For supporting cast we have Sara Fox as Glinda" Sara stood up, "Harvey Barret as Oz" Harvey waved to everyone, "The Flying Monkey will be Billy Lee" Billy stood up, "Liam Walsh will be playing the talking tree" Liam stood up. Mrs Gray then went through many more names around secondary cast members. "That just leaves the Munchkins of Muchnkinland which will be played by Mr. Farley's first grade class." Everyone sat down again.

"Thank you Ms Gray. The first graders will be practicing separately during class, every so often we will pull some students out of class to join us in rehearsing." Mr. Farley told the students.

Conner was having trouble remembering the flurry of names he had just been told, many of these students take classes together and were already familiar with each other.

"Now then let's start with some scenes since we have everyone here." Mrs Bell announced. "We will be going through a few scenes today, Please bring your scripts up and we will practice. Remember this is an opportunity to not only memorize your lines, which you need to practice at home, but also get a feel for being on stage and acting the scenes out."