The rehearsals went relatively well, save for minor diva antics from this 5th grader I'll call Lady Godiva. We had to record our voices on a tape first, so we could focus on manipulating our marionettes during the show and home girl was giving everyone a hard time during the process.
"None of you are ENUNCIATING!" she bellowed as her ponytails swayed back and forth like pendulums. "This will sound terrible if you don't e-nun-ci-ate."
This was the type of kid that people allowed to be an asshole. I'm sure she was Student Body President at her high school. "Just let her act like she has authority and we'll just move on," Animal said as an aside to Polexia.
Polexia: "If she keeps talking, I'll enunciate her freakin' face."
LOVE.
Anywho- the recording process came out relatively well. There was the issue of me realizing that I sounded like a girl on tape. I didn't have the most masculine sounding voice, but for chrissake it never sounded that much like Michelle Tanner.
"Who is that girl speaking my lines?" I asked.
"It's you."
FAIL.
The evening of the performance (or, as I pronounced "perforMANCE" in my faux British-way), all of the families gathered in the performance arena of the Center for Puppetry Arts. Translation: A room with 50 fold able chairs. Classy.
The nerves of the dozen or so campers backstage was palpable. In some way, this was a landmark moment for a few of us. Throughout our unfortunately dorky lives, we had never been center stage and yet here we were, performing a shown to a packed room. Through puppets. At puppet camp.
I turned to Polexia and said, "I guess this is it! Hasn't this been fun?!"
She turned her face towards me with her dark eyeliner and "Jerry Garcia RIP" self-made t-shirt and patted me head. "It sure has squirt."
SQUIRT?! God, I loved her.
All in all, the show ran a total of 15 minutes and there was only one mistake. At one point, Lady Godiva's fairy puppet was supposed to flip through the air and land on a launch-pad (remember, we were in space). Unfortunately, the strings of her legs had somehow been tampered with and when the action was attempted, the legs came clear off.
Lady Godiva screamed. Her parents screamed. I laughed. Polexia showed me a pair of scissors in her pocket and smiled.
After the show, hugs were exchanged between the campers, Animal made a speech about the fun he had with us and how proud he was, and I was rarin' to go to Planet Hollywood. I remember being shuffled off rather quickly by my family so I didn't get to say a proper goodbye to Polexia which left me a little sad. That changed when we got to Planet Hollywood and I saw an actual suit worn by Val Kilmer in "Batman." Remember when he was kind of hot?
Months later, I returned to the Center for Puppetry Arts where a few of the campers came together for a festival. The museum's exhibits were all finished and we were some of the first people to walk through it. From across the room at a reception, I saw Polexia. My heart skipped a beat as I walked briskly towards her. I didn't want to RUSH as to seem desperate, but I'm sure she could tell I was excited to see her.
We exchanged pleasantries and updated each other on our lives. She was detailing the start of her junior year of high school and I was trying to find something exciting to say about 6th grade. All the while she kept her hand on my shoulder, and my little 11 year old heart was just about to melt.
"Where is your Jerry Garcia t-shirt?" I asked.
"It's time to move on, squirt," she said, "Jerry would of liked it that way."
"He would?"
"Do yourself a favor. When you get home, find some way to listen to 'Ripple.'"
"Is that a song?"
"No, squirt. It's a recipe. Of course it's a song."
"OK!"
With that, she patted me on the head once again and winked as she disappeared into the crowd. I never saw Polexia again, but I often to listen to that song and remember that while lots of nerds were at Puppet Camp, there was someone pretty rad.
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When I tell people about Puppet Camp, I'm often met with laughter or an "Are you serious?" attitude. What people don't realize is that I consider it one of the most defining weeks of my childhood. It was an opportunity to do what I loved- use my imagination and create something groups of people could enjoy. There were people around me that got to do this for a living and I decided that somehow, I would be involved in this type of creativity when I reached adulthood.
I realize that it isn't the coolest camp an 11 year old can go to, but hell, I had the time of my life.
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