So a while back, when I was in about 3rd grade, I was in a production of Oliver. For those people who don't know musicals, Oliver is about a boy who lives in an orphanage where they treat him badly and give him cold gruel. One day he asks for more food and the orphanage people send him away (don't ask me why, I don't know). He goes to live with a man who is raising other children to be thieves. Then this woman comes along. She is in an abusive relationship but yet still loves the guy that beats her. Anyway, Oliver gets adopted by a rich guy and the woman gets murdered. Musicals can be sort of messed up sometimes. Also, on an unrelated note, I explained this play in vivid detail to a bunch of my 3rd grade classmates. In hindsight maybe it wasn't such a good idea.

Anyway, back to the play, I was one of the orphans and one of the thief children. We did maybe 20 performances. But there is one that sticks out in my mind more than any of them. My mom and brother came to see my show one night. My little brother was four at the time, and he was in the phase where he would always ask questions. During the play those questions sounded something like this:
"Is that the good guy?"
"Is that the bad guy?"
"What is this show about?"
"Why are they singing?"
"Where's Sissy?" (His nickname for me)
"I need to go to the bathroom!"
"Why did all the lights go out?"

My mom was trying to make him be quiet until intermission when she could answer his questions without disturbing the rest off the audience. And then all the lights went out so the crew could change the set. During the scene change, my brother loudly asked my mom "MAMA, WHATS A HANGNAIL?". It was so loud that not only the audience could hear it, but all of the cast could hear it backstage. The funniest part was that there was nothing about a hangnail in the play.

The rest of my family still make fun of him to this day. I still think it's hilarious. I tell most of my friends about it. Btw, I have so many more stories from shows, some of them very embarrassing. I want to thank my brother for giving me inspiration to write this. Thank you for providing me with funny stories to tell my friends and anyone else who will listen.
-Sophie