Not A Lousy Pick Up Line

"Err, have I seen you from somewhere before?"

What I used to think was a lousy (and over-used) pick-up line is now being treated as a genuine question.

Since last Christmas' production, it's quite normal to receive knowing smiles from friendly strangers in church. To me, Forgiven was quite a thing in the past, although I still get the 'Hey, I saw you in Forgiven!' or 'Hey, where's Ryan?'

There was this cute boy, Matthias (Angie's son) who beamed shyly at me today after church celebrations. According to Angie, Matthias recognises me as Claire and is very thrilled to meet me. He does look thrilled but I'm not sure about the 'very' part, heh. Still, it's just so nice to have such a young fan smiling adoringly at me.

I asked Angie if he'll be confused with when I appear on stage again in August as someone else. She assured me that he now understands that on stage, we are just acting out roles.

It seems that poor Matthias was traumatised when Angie acted in Shanghai Reborn as Lola. Lola was kept and abused by an evil man played by Sam. Matthias bawled whenever the parts where Sam shouted and hit Lola were acted out. And for months after that, he refused to talk to Sam, who is actually a decent guy in real life.

"But now, you are ok with Uncle Sam, aren't you, Matthias?" Angie asked him.

Matthias just flashed another one of his brilliant smiles at her and nodded shyly. Heh, charming kid.

My zone leader, Kelvin's son - Benjy - also kept calling me Claire for months after Forgiven was staged. He, too, was traumatised when Kelvin played the role of a businessman who was tortured by demons in some other church's play. At that point, he cried out for his father to be released. The poor thing...

I don't know, but going by those real-life examples, maybe it's not such a good idea to bring very young kids to watch plays which their parents are acting in.