Adam's adventures in theater - summary

[Guest guest]

My son Adam, who just turned 8, is played Prince Mamillius in " The Winter's

Tale " by Shakespeare these past 2 weeks. It was his first speaking

part and first real play (i.e., not a school show) and he was the only

child in the production.

FIRST WEEK:

Opening Night (9/18/06): Another actor makes a mistake in Adam's first

scene, he has a tantrum offstage, calms down somewhat and goes onstage late

for his second scene, is acting badly so we take him offstage before his

exit, then there is an intervening scene during which he pulls himself

together in time for his third scene (fourth scene in the show), his most

important scene, in which he does well.

At intermission the director says that it was the right decision to take

him offstage when he started " getting weird. "

Adam had been acting almost normal lately and had been passing for

normal/ADHD among those not in the know, so perhaps I got lulled into a

false sense of security about his autism/progress. I guess he still has a

long way to go.

Second Night (9/19/06): No mishaps or mistakes, Adam remembers and delivers

all of his lines, most of them loudly and toward the audience. All is well.

Third Night (9/20/06): All is well except in his third scene Adam discovers

the baby monitor antenna/transmitter onstage that is being used to transmit

what is going on onstage to the backstage area, and leans down and shouts

his lines directly into the antenna, thus doing his best to " say his lines

loud enough for the walkie-talkie to pick it up " ). Afterwards the director

says that it was the funniest thing she's ever seen in her 37 years in theater.

Fourth Night (9/21/06): All is well. Adam is particularly charming in the

second scene. Without being directed to do so, he goes over and hugs each

of his stage parents when he arrives onstage. In the third scene he pays no

undue attention to the antenna, but still tends to overshout his lines.

However, that is better than not saying them loudly enough. All in all,

another good night.

Fifth Night (9/22/06): The show is cancelled because one of the leading

ladies is ill and there is no understudy. Adam is heartbroken and cries.

SECOND WEEK:

Sixth Night (9/25/06): After a long weekend away from the show and a

less-than-full-night of sleep, Adam does better than Opening Night (no

major mishaps) but not as well as the previous Tuesday and Thursday. He

does better than the previous Wednesday, as he was distracted only

momentarily by the baby monitor antenna, and pulled away after a brief

struggle of less than one spoken line.

Seventh Night (9/26/06): Another of the actors is unable to make it and

there is a cast mutiny ( " If X isn't coming, I'm not coming either, " etc.),

with no one knowing that the director had found a replacement this time

(but didn't tell anyone), which leads the director to announce that she

will dissolve the company after the final performance on Friday. Adam is

upset about the performance being cancelled but not as upset as he was the

previous Friday.

Eighth Night (9/27/06): I was worried about how Adam would do being away

from the show the previous night but it was his best performance

ever. Several cast members remarked upon it and went out of their way to

compliment him. Also a friend who was in the audience praised him

highly. Being able to get a good night's sleep (as he was not out late at

a performance the previous night) apparently helped a lot.

Ninth Night (9/28/06): Another good performance! Adam's godmother is

there to see his performance and gives him his birthday present at

intermission after his scenes are over, and he literally jumps for joy!

Tenth Night (9/30/06): Adam's final night was his worst or second worst

(if you think Opening Night was the worst) performance, but it seems to be

due to dietary infractions. I had stopped buying oranges or giving him

orange juice when he had thrush at the beginning of September because they

feed yeast (taking antibiotics for Lyme made him more

yeast-prone). Unknown to me at the time, his teacher had given him an

orange and nonorganic aged cheese in the afternoon, and then his

grandmother gave him a huge orange after school before the performance, so

he had a large yeast-feeding influx of sugar. Also he avoided all his food

items that had goat milk yogurt in them at lunchtime and snacktime,

presumably because of the extra food being offered at school, so he was

also bereft of probiotics (particularly vital since he is on antibiotics

for Lyme). So he was very yeasty and badly behaved. He tried to stab the

King his stage father with his play sword and he left the stage in the

wrong direction before it was time for him to leave the stage, and his

movements while on stage were odd (noticeably autistic to me) in

general. Unfortunately it is also the night I had the most family and

friends there so most of them only saw his worst performance. Adam had a

nosebleed after the show, thus further confirming his lack of probiotics

that day (beneficial bacteria make vitamin K) and the effects on his system.

mother of Adam (8.0, PDD-NOS, Lyme, asthma, SCD 7/06)