Learning to Dance, Part 2

John Browne, you'll remember the old auditorium, with its small, curtained stage. They used it mostly for study hall. Real crowded.

I was a Soph, Mark was a Junior, and we'd just performed 3 one-act plays for the general student body. We were excused from our next period's class to help put away props, etc.

So we were just goofing around onstage with the curtain closed.

The next period study hall had already filled the seats.

Packed house. You could hear them out there on the other side of the curtain, shuffling their feet and slapping books down on their desktops. Mark was still in costume, sort of—a pair of gym trunks and T-shirt, barefoot.

He was lounging on an old sofa from the last one-act play. He was on his back, arms behind his head, and one big foot propped up on the back of the sofa. I remember thinking to myself how big his feet were, as I grabbed the pullyrope and yanked open the little curtain.

I'm guessing there were 200 students out there, including Mr.Carlson with his clipboard. And then Mark Browne scrambling across stage in his gym shorts and barefoot.

Standing ovation.

TDK '65''

• Last Time Around
  
• Charlie Nevins
  
• Young Men And Fire
  
• Austin Healy
  
• Cathy
  
• David River's Birthday
  
• Han's Pavilion
  
• Muscles, Our Neighbor
  
• John Browne, Learning to Dance
  
• Your Brother Mark Browne
  
• Buster
  
• Celluloid Lies
  
• Nuked
  
• Learning to Box
  
• Dog and Goose
  
• Buses and Such
  
• Stealing
  
• Hookybobbing
  
• Stiles Old Upstairs Apartment
  
• Sign Of The Time
  
• Learning to Drive