Self Portrait Tuesday ~ April Fool!

This month's Self-Portrait Tuesday's theme is April Fools. Well, this is definitely me playing the fool!

This a rehearsal for a children's show called The Plain Gromboolian based on the work of Edward Lear. Our theatre company, Stubborn Muses, put on the show for the Fringe Festival here in Toronto. This was the first time that I had ever done a kids show and wow, it was great. Kids are the toughest crowd. If they're bored, you know it (during your monologue you hear, "Mom, this is SO boring.") They move. They wiggle. They cry. They whine. But if you can get them, really get them, they look at you with eyes like saucers, their mouths slightly open and they are with you every step of the way. It's an amazing experience.

This picture is of me playing Imogen Nation, the plucky, optimistic girl who knows things will all work out. I'm rehearsing the most amazing poem called The Dong with the Luminous Nose. Yes, you did read that correctly. I'll leave you with a sampling because I know you're wildly curious now, aren't you?

The Dong with the Luminous Nose
Edward Lear
(A selection. View the whole piece here)

When awful darkness and silence reign
Over the great Gromboolian plain,
Through the long, long wintry nights;
When the angry breakers roar,
As they beat on the rocky shore;
When Storm-clouds brood on the towering heights
Of the Hills on the Chankly Bore:

Then, through the vast and gloomy dark,
There moves what seems a fiery spark,
A lonely spark with silvery rays
Piercing the coal-black night,
A meteor strange and bright:
Hither and thither the vision strays,
A single lurid light.

Slowly it wanders - pauses - creeps -
Anon it sparkles - flashes and leaps;
And ever as onward it gleaming goes
A light on the Bong-tree stem it throws.
And those who watch at that midnight hour
From Hall or Terrace, or lofty Tower,
Cry, as the wild light passes along,
"The Dong! - the Dong!
The wandering Dong through the forest goes!
The Dong! the Dong!
The Dong with a luminous Nose!"