PERFORMANCE

Performance Title:
The name of the performance : Return to Memories of Innocents

Genre:
Opening act for a larger band

Starring:
Khahlela Umfula

Description:
Lela sings a song written by someone else. A song of new beginnings and ends. Return to Innocence by Enigma. Here, the emotions will be portrayed as she's singing.

The song lyrics:
That's not the beginning of the end
That's the return to yourself
The return to innocence
Love - Devotion
Feeling - Emotion
Love - Devotion
Feeling - Emotion
Don't be afraid to be weak
Don't be too proud to be strong
Just look into your heart my friend
That will be the return to yourself
The return to innocence
If you want, then start to laugh
If you must, then start to cry
Be yourself don't hide
Just believe in destiny
Don't care what people say
Just follow your own way
Don't give up and use the chance
To return to innocence
That's not the beginning of the end
That's the return to yourself
The return to innocence
Don't care what people say
Follow just your own way Follow just your own way
Don't give up, don't give up
To return, to return to innocence.
If you want then laugh
If you must then cry
Be yourself don't hide
Just believe in destiny.




The stage was set. The date was here, and all the practice she'd done should pay off on this performance. The performance of a life time. "Make it or break it," she murmured to herself, closing her eyes as she stood in front of the mirror in the girls restroom back stage. She wore dark red lip stick, blue eyeshadow and mascarra. With a heavy sigh, she looked up at her reflection and gave herself a once over. Her hair had been curled and gelled, hairsprayed and even had beads weaved into it, her signature look. Only on this day, Khahlela wore a blue floral print dress with a keyhole between her breasts, her ever present bangles lacing her arms, multi-colored finger nails were longer, polished and had jewels on them.

"Miss? It's your chance to shine, suga," a man called when he opened the door and gave her a wink. He adjusted his headset and handed her headset microphone. "You look fabulous! Nice figure. Single?" Of course, the flirting was to calm her down. They'd already talked earlier that day and that's when she discovered he had a boyfriend. It was cute to her, how a gay man would flirt to calm her. Going up to Nico, she'd learned his name a few hours ago, she hugged him tightly around his neck and sighed when he gave her middle a squeeze. "Knock 'em dead, beautiful."

With a smile upon her lips, she moved to the stage, feeling the gold wood on her bare feet, oh how she loved the feeling of this stage. Just as she came behind the blue curtain, a spot light hit her, causing her to close her eyes and open them, blinking back tears from the sudden change. When she got to her mic, she tried to look out to the stage and couldn't see anyone. It calmed her down, to not see anyone. She could pretend she was all alone and not care if she was perfect or not.

Steeling her nerves, the woman took a deep breath and greeted the crowd that was to a hushed roar.

"Good evening everyone. I know you came here to see a great band, and I realize that you don't know who I am. So, I'll introduce myself for you." Her voice flowed like hot whiskey over the air waves, slightly rough, but accented. She was getting a better handle on how to control her accent so everyone can undersand her. "I am Khahlela Umfula. I'm from Africa. The song I'm about to sing, you all probably know. It means a great deal to me, considering I had to go home to Africa for personal reasons. And now that I'm back... Well, I'll let my singing do the rest, alright?"

She stepped back from the floor mic as they swapped on her headset and turned her back. Taking a few deep breaths, she let the music fill her ears and she turned around and began to sing. Her voice was tight with emotion at first, she was nervous because it was her first live performance in front of anyone besides the judges from the audition two years ago. Her hips swayed with the music and ran a hand through her fixed hair, which wasn't that hard. While Lela sang, one hardly noticed how accented she was.

Now, by the end ofher song, Lela had gotten off the stage and was walking down the isle, tears pouring down her cheeks, looking at all the couples there, all the singles. She was looking at all of the audience and shook her head. She couldn't do it. She couldn't make a whole opening. How was she supposed to do fifteen minutes when she hurt like this? Sitting down right there, in the isle, the band behind her striked up another song, but Lela whispered for them to stop into the mic.

Taking a few minutes to gather herself up, the African woman stood up, looked proud and held her head up high before moving back to the stage, up the stairs and put the headset on the microphone stand, glad the mic had been turned off so there was no feed back.

She blew it. Lela blew her first concert. Walking back stage, she was greeted by the faces of the band she was opening for and just shook her head. That song reminded her of the poor girl that was sent to jail because of her and Recks, the dog that was kill because she chased it. She hadn't gotten over it and it had been a few days. Maybe she wasn't cut out to be a singer after all.

Nico came up to her and hugged her tightly, stroking her hair. "Hey, chick. It's alright. Shh.. calm down, calm down. You were great out there, really..."

But she wasn't listening. His voice was muffled and all she heard was the pounding of her own heart as she stood there, feeling raw and miserable.