On pins and needles and nearly a tack

Ken's Korner
by Ken Johnston, Editor

Have you ever been in a situation where you can see something that needs to be attended to but you are not able to do anything about it?

Well I was on pins and needles last Saturday evening early on during the Owl Theatre production of The Diary of Anne Frank.

When the first member of the cast came out on stage he clipped a map on the wall with his arm.

Sproing!

Up in the air flew a thumb tack. The kind with the flat head and sharp pin. It landed smack dab in the middle of the stage area that would be the scene of a great deal of traffic.

As the characters moved into their new home they were instructed to take off their shoes to keep the noise on the floor to a minimum.

While that sat well with the story line, I was not sitting well on the edge of my front row seat. Then when the very energetic Anne Frank decided it was time for someone to dance wither her my stomach balled up in knots as I anticipated her stepping, barefooted on the tack and ruining her stellar performance.

Step stepped over it one way and back another as she danced. I was truly sitting on pins and needles.

She missed it and later was laying on the floor right where it was. Again I thought she was going to get stuck with it. But again she missed it.

I hoped that one of the men still wearing his shoes in the play would step on it and it would stick into the soul and protect those without their feet protected.

Eventually as I began to bite my nails one of them unintentionally kicked it to the back of the stage and out of harms way.

What a relief! Nothing else came close to ruining what was the most enjoyable entertainment RR has seen in a while.

–Until then,

Ken