A Mintie Moment
Sep. 28th, 2001 06:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
logansrogueI got my periods in the middle of watching my nephew's play last night. No pad or anything. I ran around like a cat with it's ass on fire congratulating the little kids for their performances, trying to get out of the theatre quick shit so I didn't bleed through my pants, and then hugged and said hi to my old music teacher Mr. Heyworth.
Let me tell you about Mr. Heyworth. The guy is an old hippie, basically. A little balding, a long beard (I mean LONG). He was my music teacher for seven years of my life, and considering that music IS my life, this sort of made him my mentor. Music was my FAVOURITE subject, along with art. I loved it. I loved singing. I tried harmonizing with music for the first time during one of his classes. It was kind of funny because I think the girls next to me thought I was off my face or something cause I was singing so badly!! I used to play music to him after class and he'd kindly nod and tell me how good I was getting. He's *that* nice.
In my sixth year of primary school, he cast me as the lead in the school musical, 'Bear'. I was *so* excited. This started my love of acting. He was giving out the roles, and then it came to me. He turned around, grabbed this HUUUUGE teddy bear, and dumped it in my lap, with an envelope telling me what role I got.
I squealed, I was so happy! And the class clapped and laughed and the girls were excited. It was amazing. The girl that had no friends for the first four or five years of primary school makes good. Like a hollywood movie.
I did an awesome job too, if I do say so myself. I mean hey, line delivery was a bit put on and I over-acted here and there, but I was only 11 man! And hey - my singing was excellent!
Mr. Heyworth wrote this play, and some of the music for it. He writes great musicals for kids, they're really wonderful. I mean, critics would probably think he's no Lloyd-Webber, but hey, I think Lloyd-Webber sucks now-a-days anyway. He knows intimately what kids can do, how they act, and he makes the plays so that they're fun for the kids to do. I think what he does is pretty phenomenal.
In my seventh year, it was time for auditioning for the school band. I got to be lead singer, and boy, wasy I happy. I practiced hard, I worked on my voice, I did my best. We needed to find a name for the band... I borrowed one of my brother's discarded band names... Technical Hitch. That band was the deciding factor in my life purpose. As I was in the last gig for that band, a hall full of children screaming and cheering for me and my band-members, it was clear what I was meant to do in my life. Music. Singing. It was what I was about.
It was an experience that never would have happened without Mr. Heyworth and the amazing work he puts in to his classes.
I have endless amounts of love and gratitude for him, as he was my first mentor in music and introduced me to an art that is integral to who I am.
Fast forward to three years later-ish. I'm in high school, and my sister Tina is in a play. She went to the same primary school as I did, and had Mr. Heyworth as a teacher too. It's called "The Search for the Lost Chord", and one of the main character's name is "Susie."
It's the same character, the same Susie I played in Bear. Mr. Heyworth had continued the story of Susie, and had written a story of her being a teenager starting a band with friends. It's a great little play, again with music he's written, and Tina does a great job in her role. I kinda enjoyed the play, was chuffed at the fact that he kept the Susie character going, and then went on with life as usual.
The play that my nephew did last night was the same play my sister did. So it was an interesting experience for my sister and I. I was there, watching a girl play my blessed Susie (She did SUCH a great job too), and there was Tina, watching a girl play her much loved Ms. Treble (That girl was awesome too).
I went up, told Mr. Heyworth how I was doing, hugged and said goodbye, and then went home to make myself a LOT more comfortable with some industrial strength sanitary pads and pain-killers. (Yarrow tea is the best btw).
I was sitting there, slowly recovering, when I opened the programme for the play my nephew was in. I opened it up, and there's a synopsis, and it reads as follows:
Prologue:
Suzie, Steve, Matt and Roseanna have formed a rock band called "The Technical Hitch", but they are having problems ending their songs. That elusive last chord is lost.
Will they ever find that lost chord?
Can Matt's mystic insight help?
Join the four teenagers as they explore a musical fantasy land In Search of The Lost Chord! Or is it a lost cause?
I double took. Hang on... Technical Hitch?!
After all the pains I'd been through recently, after my massive fuck up at the Wax Lyrical night the other day... he used our band's name...
I started thinking... did my enthuseasm and love of music ever inspire him? I thought back to when I first talked to him about this play, and he said that he deliberately kept Susie in the play, and that he liked my performance. Perhaps he liked our band too.
It meant everything, seeing that name there. My heart swelled. I felt lighter. I felt damned good.
I guess I always thought that my music and my abilities there-of meant nothing to the world. That I've left no mark and that'll I'll be a fleeting sound and then nothing. I guess that's wrong. People remember, I suppose. It means a lot to me to be proved wrong on that, because I have been beating myself up and self-depreciating myself over the fact that my art is something that can get me great success but also great failure.
Sure, it's not much, but it's nice to know that Mr. Heyworth thought I was something special. I will always treasure my lessons with him as the start of something that made me who I am today.
Let me tell you about Mr. Heyworth. The guy is an old hippie, basically. A little balding, a long beard (I mean LONG). He was my music teacher for seven years of my life, and considering that music IS my life, this sort of made him my mentor. Music was my FAVOURITE subject, along with art. I loved it. I loved singing. I tried harmonizing with music for the first time during one of his classes. It was kind of funny because I think the girls next to me thought I was off my face or something cause I was singing so badly!! I used to play music to him after class and he'd kindly nod and tell me how good I was getting. He's *that* nice.
In my sixth year of primary school, he cast me as the lead in the school musical, 'Bear'. I was *so* excited. This started my love of acting. He was giving out the roles, and then it came to me. He turned around, grabbed this HUUUUGE teddy bear, and dumped it in my lap, with an envelope telling me what role I got.
I squealed, I was so happy! And the class clapped and laughed and the girls were excited. It was amazing. The girl that had no friends for the first four or five years of primary school makes good. Like a hollywood movie.
I did an awesome job too, if I do say so myself. I mean hey, line delivery was a bit put on and I over-acted here and there, but I was only 11 man! And hey - my singing was excellent!
Mr. Heyworth wrote this play, and some of the music for it. He writes great musicals for kids, they're really wonderful. I mean, critics would probably think he's no Lloyd-Webber, but hey, I think Lloyd-Webber sucks now-a-days anyway. He knows intimately what kids can do, how they act, and he makes the plays so that they're fun for the kids to do. I think what he does is pretty phenomenal.
In my seventh year, it was time for auditioning for the school band. I got to be lead singer, and boy, wasy I happy. I practiced hard, I worked on my voice, I did my best. We needed to find a name for the band... I borrowed one of my brother's discarded band names... Technical Hitch. That band was the deciding factor in my life purpose. As I was in the last gig for that band, a hall full of children screaming and cheering for me and my band-members, it was clear what I was meant to do in my life. Music. Singing. It was what I was about.
It was an experience that never would have happened without Mr. Heyworth and the amazing work he puts in to his classes.
I have endless amounts of love and gratitude for him, as he was my first mentor in music and introduced me to an art that is integral to who I am.
Fast forward to three years later-ish. I'm in high school, and my sister Tina is in a play. She went to the same primary school as I did, and had Mr. Heyworth as a teacher too. It's called "The Search for the Lost Chord", and one of the main character's name is "Susie."
It's the same character, the same Susie I played in Bear. Mr. Heyworth had continued the story of Susie, and had written a story of her being a teenager starting a band with friends. It's a great little play, again with music he's written, and Tina does a great job in her role. I kinda enjoyed the play, was chuffed at the fact that he kept the Susie character going, and then went on with life as usual.
The play that my nephew did last night was the same play my sister did. So it was an interesting experience for my sister and I. I was there, watching a girl play my blessed Susie (She did SUCH a great job too), and there was Tina, watching a girl play her much loved Ms. Treble (That girl was awesome too).
I went up, told Mr. Heyworth how I was doing, hugged and said goodbye, and then went home to make myself a LOT more comfortable with some industrial strength sanitary pads and pain-killers. (Yarrow tea is the best btw).
I was sitting there, slowly recovering, when I opened the programme for the play my nephew was in. I opened it up, and there's a synopsis, and it reads as follows:
Prologue:
Suzie, Steve, Matt and Roseanna have formed a rock band called "The Technical Hitch", but they are having problems ending their songs. That elusive last chord is lost.
Will they ever find that lost chord?
Can Matt's mystic insight help?
Join the four teenagers as they explore a musical fantasy land In Search of The Lost Chord! Or is it a lost cause?
I double took. Hang on... Technical Hitch?!
After all the pains I'd been through recently, after my massive fuck up at the Wax Lyrical night the other day... he used our band's name...
I started thinking... did my enthuseasm and love of music ever inspire him? I thought back to when I first talked to him about this play, and he said that he deliberately kept Susie in the play, and that he liked my performance. Perhaps he liked our band too.
It meant everything, seeing that name there. My heart swelled. I felt lighter. I felt damned good.
I guess I always thought that my music and my abilities there-of meant nothing to the world. That I've left no mark and that'll I'll be a fleeting sound and then nothing. I guess that's wrong. People remember, I suppose. It means a lot to me to be proved wrong on that, because I have been beating myself up and self-depreciating myself over the fact that my art is something that can get me great success but also great failure.
Sure, it's not much, but it's nice to know that Mr. Heyworth thought I was something special. I will always treasure my lessons with him as the start of something that made me who I am today.
