October, 2015
My mom sometimes plays an old song by Carole somebody. It might be Carole King. She sings, “I feel the earth move under my feet…” Well I experienced that first hand this week. The earth has been moving under my feet and bumping my chair and rolling underneath our house and our school and the rehearsal room. It rolled right through our scene.
The earth moved right in the middle of a scene I was doing from Our Town, which is about a hundred years old, but Mrs. G says it’s a classic, and we were doing classic American scenes. So this guy named Chaz and I were onstage doing the soda fountain scene where we first find out we’re in love, and believe me that took some acting with Chaz for a partner. I probably shouldn’t say that with this going on line, but I don’t think he’ll ever see this.
Anyway, the curtain opens and we’re about a minute into the scene when there’s a terrible shaking and I thought the floor was going to open up and swallow us. Everybody in the audience was screaming, and Mrs. G said, “It’s just an earthquake,” but her face went all pale and she had these wide, terrified eyes, and nobody was listening to her.
Dr. Henderson came over the loudspeaker and he told us we needed to move to the parking lot in an orderly fashion, but kids were already racing through the door, and it felt like the end of the world until the shaking stopped.
We get to do the scene again, and that’s a good thing, because Chaz couldn’t remember his lines once the shaking started. Neither could I.
Dad made me watch the news tonight. We’re having earthquake swarms in San Ramos. He says that means that the faults are releasing pressure. He says it puts off the big one. I hope he’s right, but I also hope they stop soon.
If you’ve ever been in an earthquake, write back and tell me what it felt like to you, okay? Thanks!
Sandee Mason– 10/15
B. Lynn Goodwin 