Premier Performance

Emily was all smiles after her first public performance.

It's called "A Midsummer Night in the OC," but you might as well have dubbed it, "Watch For Emily In The One-Act Play" Thursday night. That's because I didn't understand much of the plot, had a hard time hearing some of the dialogue, and spent the entire 29 minutes of the performance at Omaha Central High School focusing on Emily.

Emily is officially listed as a "Surfer Girl."

She was there right off the top, holding a surf board. She had a few lines – I believe one included the word, "Totally" (in Big 80s fashion). She traversed the stage a bunch of times – once in slow motion. And she was front and center when the cast did a bow to a nice ovation. I couldn't have been more proud.

There was one startling moment, though. It came early on, just after one of the well-muscled and shirtless male characters mightily did a bunch of push-ups. Moments later, Emily was walking off the stage arm-in-arm with him. I hope she's not so easily impressed with boys like that in real life!

Perhaps Emily has a future on the stage instead of the track. We'll see. It's certainly a different environment. The acting was good overall and the production values were solid. I wish the program listing of characters would have included grade levels. It's always nice to see who is doing well early on (freshmen and sophomores) and who should be doing well (juniors and seniors).

Grandma Weide accompanied me to the performance, which was at the Central High Auditorium. The seats were comfortable and we sat in the front row, off to the side, with Lauren. On Saturday, Emily and the 28 other actors will be perform this again at district competition at Lincoln North Star. If they win, they will be off to the state competition next month in Kearney.

So what's the scoop on this guy? He was the victim of a shark attack.