My first acting role

My first acting role

The first time I acted in a play was when I was in Standard Three. Come to think of it, it was the only time I acted in a play. I was chosen to play the role of a farmer. Rathi, the prettiest girl in class, played the role of the farmer's wife. So I felt a little elated about my role. We spent a whole week rehearsing the play. Learning the lines by heart was tedious. The first rehearsal was a disaster as we fumbled our lines again and again. After half a dozen rehearsals we managed to get things right. It was all very tiring. The script required me to climb up a mango tree to pluck some mangoes. Obviously we could not put a mango tree in the classroom. So we improvised by hanging a mango by a string from the ceiling with a ladder below it. Those were the props, placed right in front of the blackboard. Finally the day of the play came. I went on stage, rather, in front of the classroom, with my fellow actors and actresses and performed our parts. Everything went smoothly. We never got stage-fright, thanks to our rehearsals and familiar audience of fifteen children. About half the class were the performers, the rest audience. Now, a few years later, I cannot remember a single line of the play. The only thing I remember clearly is that I enjoyed eating the mango during the play.

elated extremely happy and excited fumble to do something awkwardly improvise When actors or musicians improvise, they perform without fixed speech or music, making it up as they perform it