My first public performance was on national television.
Our kindergarten teacher managed to get us a spot on the television show called "Cabby". We performed a puppet show of "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" with the song "If you go down to the woods today". My role was prop manager. I set out the tables and chairs and removed them. It was a very responsible position. I did not have stage fright, and somehow did not even connect that I was on national television, and being watched by thousands of people.
That was a hard act to follow. The next year in Junior school, we performed "The Little Red Hen" and I was the duck. I held a duck mask up in front of my face, which meant I did not see the audience. This meant I was again without fear. When the little red hen asked us who would help her make her bread, the lazy dog, the sleepy cat and the noisy yellow duck would each reply in turn, "Not I". I couldn't figure out why each time I answered, the audience roared with laughter. It was only afterwards that I learned that I had been saying "Not-tie!" with two syllables on the "tie". Ah well, my career as an entertainer was launched.
The following year, under my mother's tutelage, I wrote a play, which was subsequently acted by our class. I helped make the props, and had the role of narrator. Imagine my surprise when the teacher introduced it, saying, "This play was written, produced and narrated by one of our own pupils." Wow. I had no idea! So now my career had blossomed into production!
My mother also tried her hand at writing plays, and wrote one for my sister and I to perform. We acted as "Noddy and Bigears" holding a conversation about the teachers in our school, making puns out of their names. They had such colorful names as Mrs Flanders (a poppy), Mrs Bell, Mrs Archer, Mr Fish, Mr Crabbe and Mr Schooler. Seems like these names just lent themselves to such puns! I remember it being a great success.
In High School I was becoming positively cocky about my acting ability. I performed several dialogue parts, until the inevitable happened. I was getting so confident, I made the mistake of not allowing myself to feel nervous before the performance. I thought I had totally conquered my fears. So when I got out on the stage, the nerves hit full force - and I went down in a cloud of humiliation! Unfortunately I did not climb back on that horse, and that pretty much spelled the end of my glorious acting career. I still wonder where I would be today if I had not given up so easily.
