16 Orange You Having Fun

CHAPTER SIXTEEN ORANGE YOU HAVING FUN? Surface Tension (noun). That's when molecules cling to each other, sometimes pulling inward at the surface and making a bubble. THE NEXT MORNING, on Wednesday, despite the blow-up with Avery, I couldn't wait for theater camp to begin. I had on my pink cowboy boots that my grandparents in Texas got me for my last birthday, so I felt more jazzy. But I was mostly jazzed because of a big problem I had to solve. Would my fire breathing plan actually work? The show was Saturday afternoon, only three days away. It was the tech rehearsal. This meant all of the lighting, the set, and the props had to be in place. It was very busy. Parents lugged in pieces of scenery, including giant fake boulders, a rainbow banner, and dragon treasure. After everything was set up, Mrs. Hansberry gathered us together in front of the stage.

第十六章橘色你玩得开心吗？ 表面张力（名词）。当分子相互粘在一起时，有时会在表面向内拉，形成气泡。 第二天早上，星期三，尽管我和艾弗里吵了一架，我还是迫不及待地想去参加戏剧夏令营。 我穿着粉红色的牛仔靴，那是我在德克萨斯州的祖父母在我上次生日时送给我的，所以我感觉更有爵士风格。 但最让我兴奋的是一个我必须解决的大问题。 我的喷火计划真的管用吗？ 演出时间是周六下午，离演出只有三天了。 这是技术彩排。 这意味着所有的灯光、布景和道具都必须到位。 那里非常繁忙。家长们拖来了一些风景，包括巨大的假巨石、彩虹旗和龙宝。 一切准备就绪后，汉斯伯里夫人把我们召集到舞台前。

"Though this isn't a full-dress rehearsal, please put on your costumes so we can make sure everything is working and looks good under the lights." Mrs. Hansberry pointed to a fake volcano and giant tarp painted to look like a cave. "Didn't the crew do a marvelous job with our lovely set?" A bunch of kids clapped, and I thought about how amazing it was that everything was coming together. "I want to acknowledge our volunteer parents who dragged in all sorts of props today," continued Mrs. Hansberry. "I'm afraid most of them have left, but we want to offer our heartfelt thanks." There were more cheers and hoots, and about fifteen minutes later, everyone had on their costumes. The dragons wore bodysuits with their long tails. The unicorns all wore white shirts and their horns. With the house lights down and the spotlight making a large circle of light on center stage, everything did look very different. Almost professional-looking. The volcanos in the set

“虽然这不是一次全套彩排，但请穿上你们的服装，这样我们才能确保一切正常，在灯光下看起来很好。” 汉斯伯里太太指着一座假火山和一块漆得像洞穴的巨大篷布。 “工作人员在我们可爱的布景上做得不是很好吗？”一群孩子鼓掌，我想这是多么神奇的事情，一切都走到了一起。 “我要感谢我们的志愿者父母，他们今天带来了各种各样的道具，”汉斯伯里夫人继续说。 “恐怕他们中的大多数人已经离开了，但我们要向他们表示衷心的感谢。” 接着是更多的欢呼声和嘘声，大约十五分钟后，每个人都穿上了戏服。 龙穿着有长尾巴的紧身衣。 独角兽都穿着白衬衫，戴着角。 随着室内灯光的熄灭，聚光灯在舞台中央形成一个大圆圈，一切看起来都很不一样。 几乎看起来很职业。 火山在集合中

seemed as though they were about to rumble. I thought for a moment about asking if I could make them erupt—Dr. Caroline had a great demo for that —but decided it was more important to focus on the dragons. Mrs. Hansberry strolled down the aisle and clasped her hands together to greet me. "Kate, I'm quite eager to test out the smoking Cheetos." Like my mom, she seemed to have mind reading abilities. "I'm particularly pleased that Ms. Daly will be joining us this afternoon to help you out." "Me too!" Mrs. Hansberry told me that Ms. Daly was back from her trip to St. Paul. She said Ms. Daly would take care of the liquid nitrogen if I could take care of the rest. "I've brought the Cheetos, like I promised," I said. "Excellent. I knew you would. We'll just roll up our proverbial sleeves and see what sort of dragon magic we can cook up." "Awesome!" "While I tend to some backstage issues," said Mrs. Hansberry, "can you make sure the unicorns go over their dance finale? I'm especially concerned that the lead roles remember all of their cues. It's not easy dancing and remembering lines." "Sure thing!"

似乎他们就要轰鸣了。 我想了一会儿，想问问自己能不能让它们爆发出来。 Caroline为此做了一个很棒的演示，但她决定更重要的是专注于龙。 汉斯伯里太太踱过过道，双手合十向我致意。 “凯特，我很想尝尝可吸烟的奇多。” 就像我妈妈一样，她似乎有读心术。 “我特别高兴的是。 戴利今天下午会来帮你。” “我也是!”汉斯伯里太太告诉我。 戴利刚从圣。 保罗。她说如果我能处理其他的事情，戴利女士会处理液氮。 “我把奇多带来了，我答应过的，”我说。 “太好了。我知道你会的。 我们只要卷起袖子，看看能变出什么龙的魔法来。” “棒极了!”“我在处理后台的一些事情，”汉斯伯里太太说，“你能确保独角兽们排练完他们的最后一曲吗？” 我特别担心的是主角会记住他们所有的暗示。 跳舞和记住台词并不容易。” “肯定的!”

This time I didn't drop my backpack on a seat in the auditorium. This time I kept my backpack with me. On my shoulders. I wasn't going to let anyone mess up my stuff. But instead of heading backstage, Mrs. Hansberry stepped closer to me and lowered her voice. "Things got a little heated yesterday between you and Avery. I'm hoping things go much smoother today. It's not like you to get into any sort of loud argument. But I know nerves are a little frayed as we get so close to performance time. I appreciate you being calm today." "No problem," I said, picturing my nerves fraying during the fight yesterday. I didn't think that was scientifically possible, but I'd have to look it up. I really couldn't wait to try the Cheeto experiment. My stomach was bubbling with excitement. Bubbles meant lots of carbon dioxide trying to escape. It was mostly a happy bubbly feeling but also made me feel like I had too much energy inside. After lunch, we worked on the second half of the show. Up onstage, the unicorns practiced their finale, and I had the script out with all of the cues marked in red. A cue is the last line before someone new speaks or moves. Actors really need to listen

这次我没有把背包掉在观众席的座位上。 这次我带着背包。 在我的肩膀上。我不会让任何人弄乱我的东西。 但汉斯伯里夫人没有走到后台，而是走近我，压低了声音。 “昨天你和艾弗里之间有点紧张。 我希望今天一切顺利。 大声争吵可不像你的作风。 但我知道，随着演出时间的临近，大家都有点紧张。 我很感激你今天的冷静。” “没问题，”我说，想象着昨天打架时我神经紧张的样子。 我不认为这在科学上是可能的，但我得去查一下。 我真的迫不及待地想尝试奇多的实验。 我的胃兴奋得直冒泡。 气泡意味着大量的二氧化碳试图逃逸。 这主要是一种快乐的感觉，但也让我觉得我内心有太多的能量。 午饭后，我们开始做节目的后半部分。 在舞台上，独角兽们在练习他们的压轴表演，我拿出了剧本，所有的线索都用红色标出。 提示是某人说话或行动前的最后一句话。 演员真的需要倾听

well and say their lines right away, so there's no awkward silence. Birdie never forgot a cue, and she never forgot any of her lines. "The dragons are winging overhead. We should hide," said Mia Wong, who played Birdie's sister unicorn. "If we hide, they will find us," said Steven McFee, a fourth grader, who played their little brother unicorn. "No hiding!" cried Memito Alvarez, a fifth grader playing the grandfather dragon. "We should fly away." "But I'm a unicorn and not Pegasus," said Birdie, not even once looking down at her script. Which was amazing. Everyone had to be completely off-book by Friday for the dress rehearsal, but she'd done it two days early—and she had the most lines. Off-book doesn't literally mean off a real book. It just means that the actors need to have memorized all of their lines, and they can't hold a script in their hands. It was another theater thing I learned from Mrs. Hansberry. I'm really not sure how Birdie memorized everything so quickly. Of course, it was only a twenty-five-minute musical, but still. Mrs. Hansberry said that most plays take weeks and

然后马上念台词，这样就不会出现尴尬的沉默。 小鸟从来没有忘记过一个提示，她从来没有忘记过她的台词。 “龙在头顶上飞翔。 我们应该躲起来，”扮演Birdie独角兽姐姐的Mia Wong说。 “如果我们躲起来，他们会找到我们的，”扮演独角兽小弟弟的四年级学生史蒂文·麦克菲（Steven McFee）说。 “别躲了！”扮演龙爷爷的五年级学生梅梅托·阿尔瓦雷斯（Memito Alvarez）喊道。 “我们应该飞走。”“但我是独角兽，不是帕伽索斯，”伯蒂说，甚至一次也没有低头看她的剧本。 这太神奇了。每个人都必须在周五前完成彩排，但她提前两天完成了彩排，而且她的台词最多。 off -book并不是字面上的意思。 这只是意味着演员需要记住所有的台词，他们不能把剧本拿在手里。 这是我从汉斯伯里太太那里学到的另一个戏剧技巧。 我真不知道伯迪怎么能这么快就记住所有东西。 当然，这只是一个25分钟的音乐剧，但仍然。 汉斯伯里太太说大部分戏都要演几个星期

weeks of rehearsal to get off-book. I was proud of everyone for being willing to learn their lines so fast. Especially my BFF. Looking up from the script, I was surprised to see that Birdie's face had turned strawberry red. Was she overheated? Today, for the first time, the spotlight was on, and Elijah and the lighting crew were working on making sure the rest of the lights ran smoothly. No, Birdie couldn't be hot. I rubbed my arms. That didn't make any sense. If anything, it was chilly in the theater. Instead of keeping her eyes looking straight into the audience during the dance number, Birdie continued to glance at the other performers. With her head turned, Birdie bumped into a fellow unicorn. "Sorry!" Birdie squeaked. As they started again doing a little leap, Birdie missed her cue and fell with a clunk. I rushed toward the stage. "Are you okay?" The other unicorns hovered over her. "No," said Birdie, her cheeks pink and her eyelashes glistening with tears. "It was my fault. I can't keep count of the dance steps while I'm also remembering my lines."

几周的排练来脱离剧本。 我为大家这么快就能学会台词而感到骄傲。 尤其是我最好的朋友。从剧本上抬起头来，我惊讶地看到小鸟的脸已经变成了草莓红。 她是不是过热了？今天，聚光灯第一次亮了起来，以利亚和灯光工作人员正在努力确保其余的灯光正常运行。 不，小鸟不可能很热。 我揉了揉胳膊。这没有任何意义。 如果说有什么不同的话，那就是剧院里很冷。 在舞蹈表演过程中，伯迪的眼睛没有直视观众，而是继续盯着其他表演者看。 小鸟转过头，撞到了一只独角兽同伴。 “对不起!”小鸟吱吱地。当他们再次开始做一个小跳跃时，小鸟没有注意到她的提示，砰的一声掉了下去。 我冲向舞台。 “你还好吗？”其他的独角兽在她上方盘旋。 “不，”小鸟说，她的脸颊红红的，睫毛上闪着泪光。 “这是我的错。我不能一边记着舞步，一边记着台词。”