Conner's Performance

Chapter 3 - Getting into Character

A few weeks had passed and Conner had gone through all the scenes at rehearsal, since he didn't have any lines to really practice. Ms Gray asked him to work on his stage presence, he still wasn't sure what that meant. His mother told him he should think about Toto as his own character and start from there.

Conner was meeting at the park with Brian taking his dog out for a walk, he had asked to join Brian on one of their walks to play with the dog, his dog was a Jack Russell Terrier named Joey. Conner saw Brian throw a stick for Joey to catch and return.

"Hey, Brian thanks for letting me join." Conner said.

"No problem, Toto." Brian said grinning, he knew Conner didn't like the name.

Conner got slightly annoyed with Brian. "You don't need to call me that." He complained.

"Everyone else does, besides it's fitting" Brian continued to tease him.

"Whatever, I just wanted to watch Joey for a bit." Conner said changing the subject.

"You said it had something to do with the play?" Brian asked.

"I don't know, Ms Gray and my mom said I need to stay 'in character' while on stage. I don't really get what they are talking about." Conner explained.

Joey came back and Brian took the stick from him. "Well I don't know how Joey will help you with that." Brian questioned him, handing Conner the stick.

Conner took the stick and looked at Joey, he was a brown and white small dog. Conner held the stick out to him and he took it playfully, eventually throwing it for him to fetch. "I don't know, I just don't have a dog so I thought I should take a look. Can he do any tricks?" Conner asked.

"Only a few, mostly just things like stay, sit, speak, stuff like that." Brian said.

Conner perked up when he said he could speak, his cheeks turned pink. "Actually, I would like to hear him bark if possible." Conner said softly.

"I think I can make that happen, but why? I thought you said you didn't have any lines, you said it was a 'non-speaking role'" Brian questioned him.

Conner's face flushed red, he hadn't really gone into the details of Toto's role in the play. "Well, you see, there are a couple scenes where Toto needs to bark at some things." Conner tried to explain fiddling with his hands.

Brian burst out laughing. "Oh man, I can't wait to see that. So you will be on stage barking at stuff!" Brian shouted.

Conner was getting embarrassed, he hadn't really thought about his whole class seeing his performance yet. "Well it's part of the show, so yeah I will be acting." Conner said, trying to play it off as a normal part of the play.

Joey had returned with the stick. Brian had Joey run through his training, he made him sit, give him his paw, and roll over. Conner sat beside and watched Joey as he did it, he wanted to get a closer look. Conner observed how Joey sat and watched as the dog's tail wagged whenever Brian called him a good boy. Brian then walked around having Joey follow him, he knew this is what he did in the majority of the play and watched carefully, it was most Joey happily following Brian around, stopping and sitting whenever he did. "Okay Joey, speak!" Brian commanded.

"ARF! ARF! WOOF!" Joey barked back.

"There, is that what you wanted." Brian asked.

Conner leaned back in the grass. "I don't know, I suppose. He was louder than I expected." Conner said.

"Well why don't you try to copy him?" Brian suggested.

"Right now?" Conner asked, his cheeks flushed red again, he looked around and they were the only ones in this part of the park.