My theatrical debut – Only in China

Thursday night is our plant's 10th year anniversary. A big occasion and it is being treated that way. The entire plant staff is having a dinner in a nice restaurant in the downtown area. Prior to dinner, there will be some entertainment. Some groups are singing traditional Chinese songs. Our Purchasing group is putting on a skit. I don’t understand the skit yet but it involves the Monkey King. The Monkey King is a famous historical character within the Chinese Culture. To play him would be a great honor. Thanks goodness I am not playing him. Instead I am playing the mentor of the Monkey King. I have two lines. The first one is Chinese. I can’t write it but I will write it down phonetically. My line is “Da Lay La – Sha You La – Sho E Fu La”. They told me that it says something about the rain. Today I asked another girl, not part of the play, what it meant and she rambled on for about 1 minute about what the three words mean. She did mention rain so I think the explanation is legit – or so I think. This might be the biggest conspiracy I have been involved in. The “director” of the play (one of my admins – Mina) had me rehearse my line and my stage acting. I have to wear this big yellow robe and use a twirling drum. A twirling drum is basically a drum head on a stick. There are two stings with a ball on the end of each string. One rotates the handle of the drum causing the strings to swing back and forth beating the drum heads. I actually think this was a prop in the Karate Kid movie – imagine that! When I am done then I walk to the side of the stage and “strike a pose”. They did not care for my Goldberg WWE wrestling pose so they asked me to perform a more traditional pose – hands together in a praying position at my chest with my head bowed.

I nailed it during rehearsal but the reaction was “odd”. When I said my line, some clapped because I knew my line and said it correctly but the majority of the reaction was giggles from the girls and laughing from the guys. Yes, even the guy wearing angel wings and a lone ranger mask. The laughing and giggling makes me think they aren’t telling me everything.

Oh, I almost forgot. My second line is when I am “striking my pose”, I then look up and say “Where is the pig?”. It is in English – probably for my benefit. After the line I walk off the stage (and I’m heading straight for the bar)

Well tomorrow is the big rehearsal with all characters. On the way to work tomorrow I will probably drop my line on my driver to see what his reaction is. It will be odd since it will be our first communication in 2 weeks. You see, I speak no Chinese and he speaks no English. If only marriages had this arrangement.

More on my driver later.

Good night!