The Kiss

Drama Daughter has wrapped up her stint as Ariel in The Little Mermaid - it was four weeks of fun, frustration, fame, and, well, DRAMA - onstage and off. Drama Daughter and her BFF - who also played Ariel in a different cast - learned a lot of lessons in this past month. They learned about acting, projecting their voices, how to run the lights and sound and how to pull the curtain. They learned that some actors may not have as much devotion to their part as others, and that despite having missing cast-members, the show must go on. And they learned that sometimes it is difficult to stay in character - to pretend that you are hopelessly in love with someone that in real life, you can't stand.

This is where The Kiss became a problem.

As the story goes, Ariel falls in love with a human prince. She swoons over him and sings to him - none of which were a problem for the girls, despite the fact that they found their "princes" completely unattractive and rather obnoxious. But at the end, Ariel marries the prince, which means....a kiss. Now, these are kids putting on this production, so no real kissing was expected of them. The first plan was to have them lean in for a kiss, but have a blackout just before their lips met. But the lighting crew was a little slow with the blackout, and the leaning in but not connecting became awkward. Giggling ensued. Character broken. This was not going to work.

While driving the girls home one day, Daughter's BFF was explaining how they were instructed to try the "French kiss". Whoa! I almost drove off the road! French kissing?!?!? But what they meant was the European style of kissing each cheek. Whew! So they tried that. It was silly, too. No good.

The final plan worked wonderfully - Prince Eric would hold up his cape to cover their faces and they would lean in and pretend to kiss behind the cape. Very cute! Worked like a charm and went over well with the audience. Success! Until the final performance. It seems Drama Daughter's prince - who really seemed like a nice guy but she assured me was an obnoxious boor - decided to go for a REAL kiss on the last show. The cape went up, they leaned in, then Daughter's head jerked back quickly! Not exactly the reaction of a smitten bride, was it?

As infuriated as she was, she did not break character and all ended well. Bravo!