“i hope i get my raisins from fresno!”

We went to see Original Banshee in The Music Man on Saturday night. Now, last year, she was Gretl in The Sound of Music and this year she was a River City Kid — basically the chorus — and that was a bit hard for her, initially, going from a bigger part to a smaller part. Then again, that’s the nature of the game. You don’t always get the big part. There’s not always even a big part FOR you. There are really only 2 small non-chorus parts for little kids in The Music Man — one is for a little boy and one is for a girl, about 11 or 12 years old. Original Banshee is an 8-year-old girl. So wrong gender, wrong age. But what are you gonna do? You want to be in the show, you play the part they give you. That’s the way it works.

And she did, that girl. She played it to the bone. She did so well in rehearsals, the director ended up giving her a few extra lines, a few extra “bits,” and a tiny solo in “The Wells Fargo Wagon” — which she belted to the rafters — “I hope I get my raisins from Fresno!!!”

Which is clearly why she looks so manic here. She is hoping for her raisins from Fresno, pippa! No one could possibly be calm in the face of such anticipation!

She jumped up and belted out that solo and the audience laughed and laughed, I think because she’s just so little and just so LOUD.

We did catch her, once, scanning the audience, looking for us it turns out. (I mean, she is only 8, after all.) But that one glance was all it took. She went backstage and announced to her dad/my brother, “Tee Tee and Uncle Beloved are 4th row center.” And we were. She’s a smart little stinker.

But, you know, it’s good for her to learn at this early age that the theatre world is fraught with joys and disappointments, highs and lows, and what you think should obviously come to you may not actually come to you and that you sometimes have to make the most of something less than hoped for or something less than what you had the last time. You will be passed over for valid reasons or stupid reasons. You won’t always get what you believe you deserve.

Just play it to the bone, leave nothing in the green room, and you will shine; big light or small light, you will shine.

With or without your raisins from Fresno.

That’s what ol’ Tee Tee will tell her.