You heard about him here first

It's been an interesting week.

Last Saturday, of course, was the wedding, with its attendant excitement. There were various in-laws and other friends around till Monday, and since then I've been on holiday, just getting things back to normal. But meanwhile, in New York, Daughter 2's boyfriend has had a rather startling time.

He's in New York, studying at a theatre school - or I suppose a theater school - called The Circle in the Square. We had never heard of this, but it's evidently quite prestigious. He's doing musical theatre: he has a lovely voice and was one of the stars of the unversity theatre group which Daughter 2, and then Son, and for one season Daughter 1, belonged to. For most of her time at Edinburgh University, Daughter 2 was going out with a young man that we weren't terribly keen on (but that's another story). However, towards the end of her time there, that young man decided that he wanted to be free to fall in love with a variety of people. (Which made her very sad. Her father and I wanted to throw tomatoes at him. Very soft ones. With big fluffy mouldy bits.) But after a while, Daughter 2 got together with the much nicer Boyfriend 2, who was just finishing a degree in English Literature.

However, Boyfriend 2 had by then applied to this theatre school, was offered a place and has spent most of the past two years there, while she did her Master's in England. The romance has survived and he and his class are now doing shows to which agents and casting directors are coming along. And he seems to be doing well so far. He has 2 agents and several casting directors interested in him, and has been asked to audition for the LEAD in a touring production of one of his favourite musicals. He didn't apply for the part (because he saw the advert in "Backstage" - "World class comic actor required" and didn't think this was him) and therefore didn't go through the first two rounds of auditions. He's going straight into the third round. He doesn't really think that there's the slightest chance of his actually getting the part, even if the "world class" bit was something of an exaggeration. Apart from anything else, this part calls for a 50-year-old and he's 24.

But still, it's encouraging. And I, who have been assuming that he would go through a few years of unemployment and then give up and become a teacher or something, am beginning to wonder if I might be - gasp - wrong.

It's impossible not to feel anxious, though. Would you want your daughter to - marry? maybe? - an actor? He's a really nice chap, as far as we can see. But ... hmm. Yes, yes, I know: it's her life. It's just that - we want her life to be perfect. Of course.

All the same, it's undoubtedly exciting, isn't it? Let's stick with that thought as a conclusion for today's blog.