The Guthrie

The summer before fifth grade, I decided to audition for A Christmas Carol at the Guthrie Theater. I went to the audition, and did rather well. I got called back, which was a good sign, however, I was still surprised when I actually got the part of Tiny Tim. It was a rather small role (I only had eight lines throughout the play), so it was easy for me to memorize my lines. I was onstage a lot, though, and it was an extremely good experience. It was a large cast (42 people) and there were twelve children. Everybody involved was extremely kind, which, in retrospect, isn't too surprising. There aren't any jerks in theater. They wouldn't survive. Actors spend several hours a day with each other, crowded in backstage, wearing sweaty costumes, for several months. Actors have to be able to get along with each other.
Later that year, I was in All My Sons. It was a smaller cast, and there were only two kids, and we had the same roll, alternating performances. I had more lines, but I wasn't onstage for very long.
The next year, I auditioned for Christmas Carol again, and got the part of Tiny Tim again. It was just as fun, except for the guy who played Scrooge. He kept (only half jokingly) complaining about how much I weighed, because he had to pick me up at the end of every show.

Kered The Manraf

Hello. I am Kered the Manraf. If you couldn't tell from the previous posts (and you probably couldn't) I am a self-described intellectual. That means that I live in the world of the mind, which means that I would rather trust the evidence of my Mind than the evidence presented to me by my material senses. It also means that I am always mulling over the big questions in my mind. I am always thinking about concepts beyond the edge of my little world, but often not paying attention to the things underneath my nose.
I have been this way for even longer than I can remember, which is quite a long time. When I was only one and a half, my parents tell me, I spoke my first word. Most people's first words are something simple and easy to pronounce, like dada or mama. Mine was "moon." It was late in the evening, and the moon was almost full. My grandparents were visiting, and they kept pointing out the moon to me. My dad come home, and I pulled him over towards the window, pointing at the moon. I was saying the whole time, "Moon! Moon!" It is interesting that my first word was the name of one of the furthest visible objects in this world.
I have also always been rather philosophical. One of my earliest memories, from when I was about two or three, is of feeding the geese at the lake. It was in the afternoon, and I had been having lots of fun that day. I had had ice cream (with sprinkles), I had played in the park, and now I got to feed the geese. What funny creatures these geese were. They were almost as large, if not larger than me! I was tossing bread crumbs, as happy as could be, when one of the larger geese walked right up to me and bit me on the nose! It didn't really hurt, so after I got over the initial amazement, I just went on tossing bread. Later, when we were getting in the car, I told Mom what happened, and she laughed.
P.S. For those who were wondering, Oogamagook may very well continue to be a feature in this blog, if he is needed to help explore any strange concepts.