Spotlight
Old Fiat
Summary: Little drabbles from each of the characters about being under the spotlight.
Disclaimer: I own lots of High School Musical merchandise, but I do not own the film. That right goes to Disney. I also don't own any of the plays mentioned in this, or any other chapter.
Currently Listening: "We're All In This Together" by the HSM cast from the High School Musical soundtrack. (Two-disc special edition. Woot!)
The Plays: The productions mentioned in this are as follows (these may not be in the correct order):
The Nutcracker (ballet. The Gingerbread woman and children are part of it.)
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (I've actually seen this on stage once. It's beautiful.)
A Christmas Story (I'm sure you could do this on stage somehow.)
My Fair Lady (I haven't seen this on stage, but I love the movie.)
The Music Man (I love this musical. This is referenced when I put 'Professor Harold Hill' in the last 'real' paragraph.)
West Side Story (Not my favorite film, but it's okay. Referenced in the last 'real' paragraph when I put 'the leader of the Jets'.)
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Ryan…
I love the spotlight.
I love its burning heat, the way it blinds you to most of the world, the way it transforms people. I love standing under it, illuminated, to draw the eyes of the whole world. I love the moment when the whole room becomes dark and you're left standing in a pool of light and all the rest of the world has disappeared.
I remember the first time I went under it. I was five and I was one of the gingerbread children in The Nutcracker. Before we went on, I was so nervous I was ready to throw up while one of the older girl painted my face. Sharpay was another one of the gingerbread children and she looked pretty terrified too, until finally the girls painting our faces gave us a trick.
"Imagine the audience members trying to do the dance moves."
It worked, for a while at least. I knew there was no way our father would ever be able to move silently across the stage and the image of our mother under another woman's hoop skirt was so hysterical, Sharpay and I were giggling right up to when we had to go on.
But as I burst out of the skirt with all the other little kids, I suddenly caught sight of the audience. Rows and rows of adults and teens, all staring at me. Well, at least, I thought there were rows of people, I couldn't really see them. Perhaps there was no one there at all. Still, I froze, heart pounding, while the other children twirled around me.
That is until Sharpay hissed in my ear:
"Dance Ryan!"
So I danced. I let my body move as the choreography dictated. I saw one of the girls who had done my make up smiling encouragingly at me, her eyes sparkling. I was really and truly pleased with myself, something that had never happened before.
Over the years I over came my stage fright, so that by the age of eight I could stand in front of a packed auditorium and not freeze. I realized that on stage, people had to look at me and Sharpay, not just Sharpay, (while I love my sister, she does get most of the attention.) and that I ought to give them a good show while I had their attention. It felt fabulous.
At nine though I stopped doing ballet performances for a short amount of time and was cast in a school production of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe as Edmund. Sharpay was cast as Lucy. We were both big successes and decided to go through to musicals and plays and leave ballet behind us. Through the rest of elementary school Sharpay and I were in every production. I heard that the middle school was quite looking forward to having us in their drama club and I'm sure they loved Sharpay, but I got mononucleosis right before the big Christmas play. (I'm serious. It sucked.) And once I got better from that, we moved from lovely Rhode Island where I was known as a Little League champion and a brilliant performer to Albuquerque, where people only knew us because of Granddad's country club.
Sharpay and I assumed people would look up to us for our singing, acting and dancing skills, but nobody looked in our direction, even after we starred in the productions of A Christmas Story (I was sadly cast as Ralphie because I hadn't gotten my growth spurt yet. Sharpay played the mom.) and My Fair Lady (guess who we played.), which were quite popular among many people. However it seemed in Albuquerque that the only people who were treated as people were those who played sports or dated those who played sports. All boys who didn't play sports (I refused to join the baseball team when we moved because I'd promised all of my old teammates that I wouldn't.) were to be beaten up and the girls who didn't date the jocks were resolutely ignored.
But I continued to perform beside Sharpay, because once I was on stage, I was a king, not a human punching bag. Once I was up there everyone looked at me as a different person. I wasn't the guy whose head was jammed in the toilet every Friday by the hockey team. It was like I had a weird control over them once the spotlight switched on. I became Professor Harold Hill, or the leader of the Jets, or anyone else I had to be. Everyone else in the world vanished and I could just pretend that, for a second, I wasn't going to have my arms twisted behind my back the next day. I could dream that everyone wanted to be me and that they were all watching me. That's why I like being on stage.
Scratch that.
I love it.
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Woot! Ryan! I like the way this turned out. The part with The Nutcracker was a little odd, but it worked out okay. I hope you all enjoyed it.
Tell me in your review who you want next in this. I'm going to try and do all the characters. Well, most of the ones who have names any way.
-Old Fiat s. Italy