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Impressionable Years
Impressionable Years
"Everything
starts with a thought. What is yours today?" cyb
"We were given the power ...use it! You can choose to be happy or unhappy." cyb
"Patience is the ability to sustain an intention until it's realized" deepak chopra
When I was seven years old I saw my uncle Bruno Barroso perform in a play at my school. My school would bring theater groups to perform educational children's plays. My uncle was part of such a group (Grupo de Teatro Timol), I don't remember the details of the play, only that he played “The Red Telephone”. He wore a red Lycra body suit and over it a telephone costume made out of red foam! I knew that the person on stage was my uncle, however, he was not acting like my uncle, but another person. I remember being fascinated with the idea that my uncle was playing “make believe”. I remember looking around seeing other children and adults paying full attention to what he was doing. How everyone was so well behaved, and completely quite.I didn't pay much attention to the story; I was consumed by the fantasy like world that he was experiencing, and for that moment he wasn't my uncle; he was “The Red Telephone”. The feelings and emotions I felt that day were embedded in my mind forever. When it was over I was startled by the noise I was hearing; everyone was applauding him. All of the sudden, a whole bunch of girls from junior high rushed to the stage to talk to him. I remember being confused, and I didn't like that fact that the girls where surrounding him; I was quite jealous. He emerged from the crowd picked me up in his arms, and he was his old self again! Others where coming up to him as well; thanking him, congratulating him and appraising him.
I didn't know what the fuss was all about, but I though it was pretty cool. For the following week I became the most popular 7 year old at my school. The girls from junior high would come over to my side of the school (we were separate from the other grades); they kept bugging me, asking me questions about him, and his phone number! What a drag, but he was always like that; he was like a magnet. Everyone would flock to him. If I had to compare him to somebody, to try to describe what he was like, I would have to say that he had the same energy that Jim Morrison from the Doors had. Nobody could resist him, he was the perfect Star; when he walked into a room you noticed him.
I didn't know then, but that's when I fell in love with acting. I didn't understand how something so easy as "playing" could make people feel good, laugh and praise you for it. Being an only child and living in a huge cosmopolitan city
I couldn't go outside to play. So believe me I knew how to entertain myself; I always played “make believe”. Eventually I moved to San Francisco, CA and lived there for the better part of my life, until recent years, but when I would visit Sao Paulo I would always try to see my uncle in one of his plays. It was always fun to see my uncle act, and he always made me feel special.
Impressionable Years and this website is dedicated to this little girl.
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