“安妮”——四场表演

Susan著 小哭译

参加“安妮”是我人生中美好的经历之一。其中我最喜欢的部分、愿意日复一日不断地重复着的部分是表演。不管演出了多少场，我也永不会厌倦，我发誓。

周四：上演的第一夜。那天，整个学校里到处充满了“安妮”的气氛。“安妮”的演员及剧组的每一个成员都穿上了他们的“安妮”T恤衫。那是一件灰色的T恤衫，胸前有“安妮”的标志，袖子上有我们学校的名字。我以前从来没有过团体T恤衫，所以这件“安妮”的T恤衫对我来讲很特别。穿着这件衣服我很自豪，与走廊上的人们不断地伸手高击掌。成为比自己大的某件事的一部分很有趣儿，特别当我还是其中的一个重要组成时（我是三个副导演之一）。我们一直很努力，三个半月以来在放学后数小时地排练着。而这个周四，我们的辛苦工作终于要拿出来展示了。

那天下午，我坐校车回家。因为“安妮”排练恰好在放学后，我已经很长时间没有坐校车回家了。重新再做某件常规的事情很奇怪似的，在家等待的三个小时很痛苦。最后，六点钟的时候，我回到学校，为即将在一个小时后开演的第一场表演做准备。

有很长的一段走廊被封起来留给演员和剧组，还有五块告示牌，上面写着“仅演员和剧组成员可进入”，另外还有一个孩子站在入口那儿阻挡家长。你可能会认为五块告示板，足够让人们明白这事儿了，但是显然每一个家长都认为他/她很特别。在走廊的远外、观众看不到的地方，演员在那儿换装及化妆。开始的四十五分钟我们主要就是做这事儿。由于我不是演员 ，我就只站在边上看。我多么希望自己带了相机来！在这四十五分钟的时间里，演员们变了个样儿。戏服、假发、化妆品和一些婴儿粉将每个演员从现代的青少年变成了二十世纪三十年代的孤儿、仆人还有成年人。男生们甚至也得化妆！

当每个人都搞好了后，我们在T老师的教室里开了一个会。导演们提醒我们要声音响亮并且充满活力，突出我们的声音。C老师发表了一个非常动情的讲演，说她是如何地为我们自豪，对她来讲我们有多么地特别。她说她家的其它每个成员都在他们的房间里展示一些令他们骄傲的纪念品或证书，而她则是唯一什么都没有的人——因为她引以自豪的是我们，是“安妮”的演员和剧组。那晚她的家人都在外面，她真的是很激动，想给他们看看我们有多么地棒。我们用响亮的掌声回应了她。之后W老师把我们带回了现实中，她说：请将手机关闭，后台不能吃东西，声音要响亮，吐字要清晰等等。就那些，然后……就到点了。

我们晚了几分钟开始。等到J、G和我（三个副导演）跑到舞台上时，灯已经暗了。我们快速地致了欢迎辞，并提醒大家关闭手机以及类似的例行常规。我努力地微笑着直面观众，以便让观众觉得我们的欢迎很有诚意，而不是像J一样地只是机械地读着稿子上的文字。在三百人左右的观众面前，我一点也不紧张。我是提台词儿的（以防演员忘记了他们的台词），所以我有最好的座位：就在所有人前面的第一排，舞台的最边边上。这么好的位置竟然不用买票：）

我的任务是提台词儿，但是演员们根本就没需要我！！当男管家错误地把夹克上下颠倒着穿在沃巴克斯爸爸身上时，出现了一点点小小的错误，然而他们自己就搞定了。当男管家说“对不起”时，沃巴克斯爸爸说“没关系，每个人都会犯错误。”，观众席上爆发出了一阵笑声，因为每个人都知道那不是计划中的部分。开演夜的另一个错误是当我跑到舞台上帮助剧组收拾时，被一个搬桌子的人绊倒了！她没有看见我伏在她后面清理地板，所以她几乎倒在了我身上。我很高兴那时灯处于半暗状态，否则别人会看到我因为难堪而羞红的脸！

除了那两个小小的失误，我们的开演夜很棒！表演还是有些生疏：有演员跳过了几句台词，舞台剧组在转换布景时花的时间过长，我觉得歌唱者有时没精神。然而，对于开演夜来讲，这已经是相当地精彩了！观众看不出来有多少错误，就算是看出来了，他们也非常地包容，在我们弄错的地方大笑。因为他们知道那是我们第一场表演，所以他们一点也没有为难我们。

周五：第二场。座无虚席，每张票都卖了出去，每一个座位都有人。令人伤心地是，那是我们四场表演中最糟糕的一场。除了麦克风出了很多的问题，其余的情况和前一天一样。麦克时有时无，有时好用有时不好用，有时还发出吓人的箫叫。这真的让每个歌唱演员都很担心，而且因为很担心，他们失去了很多快乐的能量。M的声音紧张得发抖，一点也没有信心，很不自然。开始我以为那是麦克的原因，后来我发现她病得很厉害。那天要不是不得不演“安妮”，她根本就不用到学校来。

因为麦克的原因和M的病，我们表演得不是很好，观众的反应也不怎么好。然而，他们还是认为表演真的很不错，尽管搞砸了那么多。我想我觉得那么糟糕只是因为我知道它应该有多好。做为一个常规的表演，这已经相当地好了，它只是没有达到应有的高度而已。唯一让我振奋的事儿是我带了相机，照了很多照片。

周六下午：我们的下午场演出，是所有四场中最好的一场。这也是我父母来观看的一场，所以我相当地激动。表演前，导演们对我们发表了鼓舞士气的讲话，关于要我们保持像前天晚上一样的精力和可信度是多么地重要。他们说，通常第三场表演是最没力气也是出错最多的一场，因为大家都认为他们已经很熟练了，就不再像前两场那样认真对待。首演夜，每一个人都很激动；周五晚上，因为观众最多，每一个都很专心；但是下午场通常人们会懈怠下来。导演表扬了每一个人，说他们在周五做得有多好，并且鼓励他们这个下午场也要如同周五一样。然而，我有不同看法。我真的想对每一个人大声喊：大声点儿，更有精神点儿，在枕头大战那场戏，要更好斗一些。然而，我只是副导演，不是老师，我不能发表意见。

后来，看到我们在那个下午表演得那么好时，大家都很吃惊，甚至导演们也很吃惊。他们以为下午场会是最糟糕的一场，结果竟然是最好的。根本就没有出现任何失误；每一个人都充满了活力；所有的演员都声音宏亮；麦克风也没有出现故障。每一件事儿都那么完美，真是一场顺利与漂亮的表演。我妈妈完全被征服了。她本以为是一场粗糙的、初中生的表演而已，结果她看到了精彩的、专业的、有趣儿的表演。我妈妈不是很容易被打动的，所以我们的“安妮”能让她感到惊讶就像是赢得了奥斯卡奖一样。

周六晚上：最后一场，我所有的朋友们都来看的一场。这一场相当地不错！只是在刚开始第一幕时有一点儿麦克故障，但是很快就修好了。其它的每一件事儿都很完美。唯一不好的是观众没有下午场反应那么热烈。在下午场期间，不只是我们表演得好，观众也是最好的。他们在所有的笑点大笑，对所有令人吃惊的地方感到震惊。他们的反应和我们想要的正正好。周六晚，观众有点太安静了。然而，还是相当地不错！依我的看法，这是我们第二好的一场表演。

当表演快要结束时，演员和剧组的情绪开始低落。我们都知道“安妮”就要画上一个句号了。那些从六年级开始就参加HMS所有表演的八年级生开始有点泪眼朦胧，因为这是我们在HMS的最后一场表演。当开始谢幕时，扮演安妮的女孩出来鞠躬，我们能看到她的眼里泪光闪闪。然后，谢幕结束了，观众散了，我们回到后台走廊，换下演出服。在女更衣室，每个人都在哭。我没有哭，但是当我进去时，她们开始跟我拥抱，我的眼底也开始有刺痛的感觉。所以我快速地离开了女更衣室，我不想在大家面前哭泣。

我们花了这么多的时间排练和表演，我们为这些表演投入了这么多的精力，表演是这段时间以来最好的事情，能给观众带来开心和快乐是一件令人喜悦的事情。但是然后，“呯”地一声就结束了。结束得如此之快！我愿意用所有的一切去换得以后每晚房子里的灯都暗下、舞台上的灯光亮起来、夜复一夜地经历那种兴奋的表演状态。但是不可能。我是一个学生，不是一个专业的副导演。现在，是时间重回正常的学生生活中来了。

【小哭介绍背景】 译过上一篇聚会的文章，关于表演的这篇小文就显得缺少了很多令人感动的内容。也许是那个聚会上发生的事情太特别了吧，受到感动的不只是Susan他们这一群孩子，一些读者也告诉我他们被那个聚会感动了。然而，之所以有那个感人的聚会，是因为孩子们在四场表演之后对整个活动的留恋与不舍。在孩子们眼里，这四场表演，太难忘了。

Susan说“安妮”T恤衫是她头一件团队活动队服，这一点我并不同意。至少在一个盒子里，我保存了从波士顿搬家过来时整理出来的一系列T恤衫，其中就有我们全家在波士顿连续三年参加的“为饥饿而走”活动的志愿者T恤衫，每年都是不同的颜色；而她的女童子军和游泳队的队服，也都应该和“安妮”T恤衫属于同类性质的。只是，她太热爱“安妮”这个活动了，把其余的都忘记了似的。但“安妮”T恤衫确实是唯一一件关于学校活动的队服。

在下发的一叠购物清单中，T恤衫是必买的，而演员们还要租服装，所以Susan不用租服装这事儿帮我们节省了几十块钱。这对于处于经济低谷中的我们，确实是一个好消息：）当时的订单上还有大合照以及表演光盘，都在四、五十块钱以上一份，想了半天后告诉Susan，妈妈现在没有能力支持这部分，Susan虽然有些失望但表示理解。还有抽奖票，我们更是没有买的念头。看来看去，可选项只有观看演出和参加周五晚上的演员与剧组聚会门票少于十块钱一张，最后就支持了这部分，可连给小宝单独买个座位都没舍得。后来看到表演那么精彩，知道就算是演员们的服装租金高达60美元还是80美元，其实还是有缺口，所以活动才会卖那些纪念品筹钱，心里也有一丝难过。但愿“穷人的孩子早当家”吧。

想当年，为了Susan在幼儿园毕业典礼上主持人的裙装，没时间管孩子的我们，一听说孩子竟然获得了主持人一角儿，老师要家长给孩子送舞台上用的裙子，兴奋加上感谢，还有也不知道哪条裙子正正好符合老师的那些要求，我于是和恰巧从工地返家的Susan爸冲到店里一口气买了四、五条公主裙送到学校让老师去选，那时对Susan参加活动的经济支持从来就没有让我们为难过，但那时我们没有时间陪着孩子长大，让她小小年纪就吃在学校睡在学校，而我们还在为自己有能力花钱买教育服务而沾沾自喜。

出国前后经济条件巨大的落差，似乎并没有很影响Susan的心情，特别是在Susan有了信仰之后。对于钱带来的困窘Susan基本上都能够泰然处之，倒是我有时会在心里生出丝丝的难过。我一直希望孩子在经济上的感觉会是所处群体的中等状态，可是在这个学区大概这小小的愿望只能停留在梦想的阶段了。不过Susan在聚会后回来说，相比于多数同学们富裕但并不那么温馨的家庭，我们家虽然清贫了点，可是我们很相爱，家庭气氛好，她更喜欢。她非常害怕失去我们现在所拥有的一切，觉得现在这些就已经足够了。每晚的饭前祷告，她常常都是感谢上帝赐给了我们家这么多的祝福，这让我相对安心不少。

周五晚场生病的那个孩子，为了表演硬撑着，Susan说这个孩子跟她一个校车，周五都没上学。她说她们每个人都确实太热爱表演了！后来我跟一个爸爸说起这个事儿，那个爸爸说好像要参加课后活动的话，至少得在放学前到校上一节课！这个规矩我还真的没听过，到现在为止也没有去落实过。那个爸爸说，他的孩子有的时候不想上学，但是想参加课后活动，所以就在快要放学的时候说他的病好了可以去上学了：）然后推测说这个生病的孩子估计那天还是去上了最后一节课了，否则学校应该不会同意她参加表演的。

Susan因为不用表演，有机会拍了不少后台照，加上周五、周六两个晚上的聚会照，她手上有很多非常有趣儿的照片。大导演T老师听说后，感到非常地意外，让Susan把照片传给他，而演员们则说这些照片应该上学校年度纪念册。这让Susan又着实兴奋了一下。在我眼里极不会分类整理的她，竟然把照片整理得井井有条，也传了一份儿给我欣赏，这事儿让我对她又刮目相看了一下。孩子在活动中好像就这么慢慢地成长了？！Susan一直都说，她是克拉林老师选中的副导演，三个副导演似乎是分属于三个老师的，T老师有事儿从来不先找她，哪怕T老师的“专属”副导演不在场，这让Susan很失落。直到最后当T老师发现Susan在画表演所需的两个画板后，才把另外的画画儿任务也交给她，让她觉得自己在T老师眼里有了用处。

Susan八年级前半年的戏剧课是由克拉林老师上的，后半年的由T老师上，T老师还不熟悉她，似乎还没觉得她是一个“好学生”。通过这次画画儿，估计会有一些了解了吧？戏剧课本是一门选修课，可是Susan喜欢，所以她就在乎，祝愿她在T老师的课堂上收获到和克拉林老师的课堂一样的快乐和自信吧！而T老师，是一个快退休的男老师，其组织能力，让我惊讶到“掉到下巴”的程度，超强！Susan爸说你得见识到一些强人，否则你太骄傲了：（

关于这个活动，前前后后三、四个月的时间，我有太多的感想想写了。可是限于篇幅，就到此为止吧。从我见证到的过程来看，如果有可能，哪怕辛苦点儿，家长也应该支持孩子参加学校组织的这类大型活动。原因？值得啊！孩子会对学校有强烈的归属感啊！当Susan觉得她属于HMS后，每天就很渴望去上学了，就不再说搬家搬得学校里没有人和事儿让她期待了。属于一个集体的感觉很好。

附上英文原文：

Annie—The Four Shows

Being in Annie has been one of the best experiences of my life. My favorite part of the whole thing, the part that I would love to live through again and again, day after day, is the performance. No matter how many times we perform the show, I swear, I will never get tired of it.

Thursday: opening night. That day, the whole school was filled with Annie spirit. Everyone who was on the Annie cast or crew wore their Annie t-shirts. It was a gray t-shirt with the Annie design on the front and our school name on the sleeve. I have never had a group t-shirt before, so the Annie shirt was special to me. I proudly wore it and high-fived people around the hallways. It was fun being part of something that was bigger than myself, especially when I was an important part of that “something” (I was one of the three Assistant Director).We had been working hard, rehearsing for hours and hours after school for three and a half months. And that Thursday, our hard work would finally pay off!

That afternoon, I rode the bus home. I had not riden the bus home for such a long time due to Annie rehearsals right after school. It was strange, doing something normal again. The three-hour wait at home was agony. Finally, at 6:00 PM, I went back to the school to prepare for our first show that was going to start in an hour.

There was a long hallway blocked off for just the cast and crew. There were five sings posted saying “CAST AND CREW ONLY BEYOND THIS POINT”, and a kid stationed there to keep the parents out. You’d think that with the five signs, people would get the point, but apparently every parent thought he/she was special. At the far end of that hallway, hidden from the audience, the cast put on their costumes and make-up. That was basically all we did for the first forty-five minutes. Since I wasn’t in the cast, I just stood by and watched. How I wish I had brought a camera! During that forty-five minutes, a transformation occurred. Costumes, wigs, and make-up, and some baby powder turned everybody in the cast from modern-day teenagers into orphans, servants, and adults living in the 1930’s. Even the boys had to put on make-up!

When everybody was done, we had a meeting in Mr. T’s room. The directors reminded us to be loud and energetic, to project our voices. Mrs. C gave a a really emotional speech about how she is so proud of us, and how special we are to her. She said that every other member of her family had some sort of trophy or certificate on display in their house, something they were proud of. She was the only one who didn't have anything—because what she was proud of was us, the Annie cast and crew. Her family was out there that night, and she was really excited to show them how amazing we would be. After we all gave her a big round of applause, Mrs. W brought us back down to earth with her speech: turn off all cell phones, no food in the backstage area, be loud and articulate, ect. That was all. And then….it was time.

We were a few minutes late. By the time J---, G---, and I (the three Assistant Directors) ran up to the stage, the lights were already down. We gave a quick announcement welcoming everybody and reminding them to turn off their phones and routine things like that. I tried to sound welcoming by smiling and looking directly at the audience, instead of just reading monotonously from the sheet like J--- did. I felt not the least bit nervous, up there in front of almost three hundred people. The audience clapped, the introductory music started, and we all went to our assigned places. I was prompting (just in case the actors forget their lines), so I had the best seat: right in front of the people in the first row, at the very edge of the stage. And I didn’t even have to buy a ticket!

My job was to prompt, but the actors didn’t need me at all! There was a little slip-up when the butler accidentaly put the jacket on Daddy Warbucks upside-down. They fixed it, though, with the butler saying “sorry” and Daddy Warbucks saying “It’s alright, Drake. Everybody make mistakes.” That got a laugh out of the audience, because everybody knew that wasn't planned. Another opening-night mistake was when I went to help the stage crew, somebody else tripped over me. Carrying a table! She didn’t see me crouched behind her cleaning up the floor, so she almost fell on top of me. I was glad it was semi-dark because or else everybody would have seen me turn beet red in embarassment.

Aside from those two tiny slip-ups, our opening night went great! It was a little rusty: the actors skipped a few lines, the stage crew took a little too long between the transitions, and I sometimes felt that the singers weren’t energetic enough. However, for opening night, it was amazing! The audience didn’t see a lot of the mistakes, and with the ones they did see, they were very generous. They laughed during the parts that went wrong, because they knew it was our first time performing, so they weren’t too hard on us.

Friday: second show. The show with a full house, meaning every ticket was sold out. Every seat was filled. And sadly, it was our worst show out of all four. Things went the same as the day before, except we experienced lots of microphone trouble. The mikes were going on and off, sometimes working, sometimes not, and sometimes producing weird noises. That made everyone really worried, and because they were worried, they lost a lot of their happy energy. M---’s voice was shaky and nervous instead of confident and welcoming. At first, I thought it was just because of the mike trouble, but later I found out that she was really, really sick. She would nott have went to school that day if she did not have to perform in Annie.

Because of the mike trouble and M---’s sickness, we didn’t perform very well. The audience did not responde as well either. However, they still thought it was a really good show, despite all the mess-ups. I guess I just felt that it was really bad because I knew how good it could be. For a regular show, it was pretty good. Just not as good as it could’ve been. The only up side was that I brought a camera and took lots of pictures.

Saturday afternoon: our matinee performance. Our best performance out of all four. It was also the peformance that my parents attended so I was very excited. Before the show, the directors gave us a pep talk about how important it was for us to keep that energy and believability as all the other night. They said that usually, the third performance is the one with least energy and most mistakes, because people think they’re already really good at it and don’t pay as much attention to their acting as before. Opening night, everyone is excited. Friday night, because there was a big audience, everybody paid attention. But the matinee show is usually where people loose their spark. The directors praised everyone about how well they did on Friday, and said that they need to be exactly like Friday that afternoon. However, I disagreed. I really wanted to shout at everyone to be louder, have more energy, and during the pillow fight scene, to be more aggressive. However, being only an Assistant Director and not a teacher, I could not voice my valuable opinions.

It came as a big surprise, then, when we did so well that afternoon. Even the directors were surprised. They had expected the matinee show to be the worst, and it turned out to be the best. No slip ups occurred at all. Everybody was so energetic. All the actors were loud. The mikes gave us no trouble. Everything was perfect. It was a really smooth and clean performance. My mom was completely blown away. She had expected a crappy, middle-school show, and instead, she saw this amazing, professional, and intriguing performance. My mom does not get amazed very easily, so having her be amazed by our Annie performance was like being declared the winners of the Oscars.

Saturday night: last show. The show that all my friends came to. And it went pretty well! There was a tiny bit of mike trouble at the beginning of Act 1, but it quickly got fixed. Everything else was perfect. The only down part was that the audience was not as responsive as that afternoon. During the matinee show, not only did we perform well, our audience was the best. They laughed at all the jokes, and gasped at all the surprises. They responded exactly how we wanted them to. That night, they were a bit more silent. However, it was still pretty good! Our second best performance, by my opinion.

As we approached the end of the show, the mood within the cast and crew shifted. We were all aware that Annie was drawing to a close. Some of the 8^th graders who had been in all of our HMS productions since 6^th grade were getting a little teary-eyed, because it was our last year at HMS. When the bows started and the girl who played Annie came out to take a bow, we could see that her eyes were glittering with tears. Then, the bows were over. The audience dissipated. We went back to our “Cast and Crew Only” hallway, and changed out of our Annie costumes. In the girl’s changing room, everybody was crying. I wasn’t, but when I went in there and people started asking me for hugs, I started getting a stinging feeling behind my eyes too. So I quickly left the girl’s room, not wanting to cry in front of everyone.

We spent so much time rehearsing and practicing. We put so much energy into the shows. Performing them was the best thing ever. It was amazing being able to bring joy and entertainment to our audience. And then, BOOM, it was over. It was done so fast! What I wouldn’t give to live through those nights over and over again, to expereince that perfomance high I get whenever the house lights go down the stage light come on every night. But that wasn’t possible. I’m a student, not a professing Assistant Director. And now it’s time to go back to the normal student life again.