One of my favorite exchanges of the last few months took place on Election Night between Andrea Burns (Danielle in the Tony-award-winning In the Heights) and her son, Hudson, who appeared in several Little Bytes videos when he was three. (He plays the eponymous Little Tourist Who Could in the Bowling Green tour.)
(This picture was taken of the family one year before the 2008 debate.)
Hudson was kneeling behind a chair in the living room, putting on a puppet show for his parents and me, but he was four and I'm not afraid to say that the narrative was all over the place--the characters were inconsistent, the voice work muddy, the themes carelessly established and then just as carelessly abandoned.
Besides, Andrea and I hadn't seen each other in a while and we were trying to catch up. When the constant chatter became too much for the puppetmaster, he stood up from behind the chair and scolded us for not paying attention.
"Hudson," Andrea stopped him, declaiming: "The number one rule in the Theater: Never bully your audience."
Hudson, who's been attending the theater since he was less than a year old, replied: "I thought the number one rule was: The audience has to be quiet."
Touche.
The puppet show resumed.
Love the video of the Canal Robert! I had never seen it before. Thanks, been there, done that.
Hudson's puppet shows sound a little like my tours on those 6am mornings/Empire State Building nights.
Posted by: Elizabeth | March 14, 2009 at 10:52 AM
Thanks for that laugh :) As the mother of a three year old, I can attest to the fact that kids will always come up with something that will leave you stumbling for a good comeback...and failing miserably. Out of the blue the other day I got "Hey mommy, look..." and was promptly mooned. Can't even begin to tell you where that one came from!
Posted by: Alyssa | March 16, 2009 at 01:45 PM