 |
Current mood:  impressed Category: Life
Last week, I returned to more familiar territory when I sang a couple songs for MAAS (Midland Area AIDS Support). It's a local organization dedicated to AIDS education. "Broadway in the Basin" has been a big fund raiser for the organization for the last 8 years. Local types like me take advantage of the opportunity to sing (mostly) show tunes for one night at the Yucca Theatre. My hubby has emceed the event every year and has always done a great job. Midland's own, Eddie Pleasant has been the star for most of those years and it's always a pleasure to work with him!
Aaaaaaaaaanyway… the point of my story is that I'd been in the same theatre a mere week before in a different capacity: director of Trinity School's production of MAN OF LA MANCHA. And although I reveled in the opportunity to belt out some tunes, I was surprised by how much I missed wearing the director "hat."
When Trinity's choir director Darryl Knapp called asking me to step in for our ailing friend, I didn't take long to think about it. Actually I didn't think about it at all, beyond my initial questions about the schedule. I love that show so much: the music, the themes of redemption and eternal optimism, the whole theatricality of the piece… Not to mention that I'd been impressed with other shows I'd seen at Trinity. For a small school they did a nice job with some tough material… I had the time, plus I'd really enjoyed workshopping HAND TO MOUTH with that age group, so why the heck not?
Besides, I needed a distraction. My Uncle John has recently passed away and sitting home at night, feeling depressed seemed too close to how I'd spent the last few Septembers.
So there it is.
We had so many things working against us, chief among them: lack of rehearsal time and my inexperience. And did I mention the fact that I was stepping into another director's place? I'd been rehearsing with them for over a week before I got to see what had been done with act one!
But by god, we pulled it off. It wasn't easy, but I was really proud of how the cast rose to the challenge. I was blessed with a really strong team of leading players – all of whom were fun to work with, talented and dedicated.
And even those who weren't experienced performers dug down and found things within themselves that really added to the story. I'll never forget the fun of those "break through" moments. The muleteers' in "Abduction" scene will always stand out for me, particularly because the guys playing the muleteers had to come such a long way to pull it off. How does one explain to such nice people that they have to look believable while their pretending to kick the **** out of a girl?! LOL
I'll never forget the looks on their faces as I got increasingly animated about the importance of this scene. "Your characters are kicking the crap out of her! We have to believe that after you drag her off stage you're going to RAPE HER! The story falls FLAT if we don't BELIEVE this!!!"
LOL!
Well, because of or in spite of me, they got there. And I'm so proud of them.
Still basking in that afterglow, I returned to my familiar turf onstage. And while I had a blast singing my rendition of "Diva's Lament" from SPAMALOT, I missed the MOLM cast and reflected back fondly on their achievement from the previous weekend.
11:57 AM
Powered by  | | English | | Albanian | | Arabic | | Bulgarian | | Catalan | | Chinese | | Croatian | | Czech | | Danish | | Dutch | | Estonian | | Filipino | | Finnish | | French | | Galician | | German | | Greek | | Hebrew | | Hindi | | Hungarian | | Indonesian | | Italian | | Japanese | | Korean | | Latvian | | Lithuanian | | Maltese | | Norwegian | | Polish | | Portuguese | | Romanian | | Russian | | Serbian | | Slovak | | Slovenian | | Spanish | | Swedish | | Thai | | Turkish | | Ukrainian | | Vietnamese |
|