<p>I have a similar disaster to the Peter Pan story. Just this past March, D was cast as Marian in The Music Man - started showing early signs of illness during tech week, dosed her up with Umka, and Ginger Tea, and Singer’s Saving Grace. The morning of the first performance, she walked into our kitchen, said, “Mom, I feel funny” and passed out cold. Long story short - she had no understudy - first performance was cancelled, turned into an emergency dress, where an understudy was rehearsed. Like tracyvp’s daughter - she did recover enough to attend and assist at some performances, but did not recover enough to perform the role she had rehearsed! We refer to it as the “Musical that Wasn’t”. </p>
<p>Again, my kiddo was completely impressive in her support to the understudy and the rest of the cast - and the cast was wonderful in turn. It was very difficult for her to go the first time after the cancelled performance. She felt she had let everyone down, and was afraid that they would hold it against her… quite the contrary - she was swarmed by the cast upon her arrival, who all expressed concern for her well being and told her how much they had missed her, and how sorry they were that she wasn’t able to perform!</p>
<p>Most touching was one mom who approached her. Backstory on this mom - her youngest son was in the production. Her oldest son had done productions with this same Youth Theater in the past, until his MT dreams were cut short by a devastating car accident that left him paralyzed and brain injured. This mom came up to D in tears about what an inspiration SHE was to all these other kids. It completely floored my D, she was so incredibly humbled.</p>
<p>So, all in all, despite the missed performance opportunity, it was still an experience that I’m sure has shaped her.</p>