I am a Prankster.....

Hard to believe, I know.

When I lived in rural NC I participated in nearly every production of the Community Theatre. My usual place during the productions was behind the scenes: stage manager, light board, soundboard, prop mistress. You get the idea. Steel Magnolias was our dinner theatre production held at the one and only restaurant in town. It was a given that every production would sell out. It was a town of 5 thousand folks and they all knew each other, very quaint.

My task for this show was prop mistress. Our main character's part was being played by one of the town's young elementary school teachers. Your typical prissy, southern gal. She had a bad habit of not checking her props before each show and she had many props. During one of our pre-productions meetings, I kindly reminded everyone to make sure they checked their props before curtain. Miss Priss told me that was my job and walked off to prepare for the evening. Alrighty then. I decided it was time to teach the teacher a lesson.

Miss Priss has a scene where she opens up a gift box in the beauty shop. In the box is a cute, pink, floor length satin nightgown. Her place on the stage during this scene is facing the audience. The remaining characters are facing her with their backs to the audience. I cannot remember her lines word for word but they went something like this...."Look what Mama bought me to wear while I am in the hospital, isn't it the sweetest thing you've ever seen?" While delivering her lines she is opening the box and holding the nightgown up against her body as if to model it. This particular show, when she opened up the box, out came a red and black satin, open tip, crotch less teddy. I wish I could have snapped a picture of the look on her face when she realized exactly what she was modeling. It was priceless.

Believe it or not, the Community Theatre group continued to ask me back for future shows. Even more surprising, the teacher and I became good friends.