For the next few minutes...

After 4 months, 2 plays & a relationship, I'm finally back! I'm tired, but it's been an exciting, heartbreaking & wonderful few months. January through March was spent in practices twice a week for our Stake Melodrama "Shiver Me Timbers." Quick overview: In 1710, the governor of Panama's daughter sets sail to Spain to find a husband. (Perhaps I should try this method.)
The ship's captain has sworn to protect her & of course falls in love with her. Meanwhile, a pirate ship captures them & the pirate captain, who has decided to retire & settle down with a respectable wife, wants to marry the governor's daughter also. Somehow, though it is never explained, along the way the pirates have also captured Gilligan, Ginger & Maryann. This is where I came in. I played the part of Maryann, complete with ponytails, gingham-tied shirts & jean shorts. It was extremely cheesy, with lots of song & dance numbers & the audience was encouraged to boo the villain & cheer for the hero. Our performances were March 11, 13-14, & 16. I had a wonderful time & came to be good friends with a lot of my fellow branch members. (How could you not when you've been acting like a fool in front of them for the past 3 months?) In fact, 7 of us decided to audition the week after the melodrama was over for Guys & Dolls at the Sugar Factory Playhouse. This is the theatre where I had performed State Fair the year before & I was excited. Auditions went well & during callbacks I was even asked to read & sing with a few other girls for the lead role of Sergeant Sarah Brown. I was pleased, but I am an alto & her songs are definitely not. When all was said & done, all 7 of us had gotten parts & I was now switching from a sweet, coconut cream pie making pirate, yelling arghhhh all the time, to a prim & proper "mission doll." Rehearsals started the first part of April & I forgot that in community theatre your life becomes the play. Night after night of rehearsal & my part grew from not only a mission doll, but also a streetwalker, (oh believe me, I got teased mercilessly about this) a jealous wife at one of the HotBox (or nightclub) scenes & a tourist in Havana that ends up in a brawl at the local cabana & decks her husband by mistake. The cast became extremely close & with nearly 25 cast members out of 30 being single, we have all still stayed in touch. Speaking of which, there was one young man named Jonathan Ross, that had been flirting with me a bit during rehearsals & into the show. One night as were standing at the doors of the theatre, greeting our audience as they came out, I saw my great aunt. I had not seen her in over 10 years & she asked if I knew Jonathan, who happened to be standing by me. I said yes & she then informed me that he was my 2nd cousin. You should have seen the look on both of our faces! We both blushed quite red & started laughing. Being close was not always a good thing, however. Colds, pneumonia & flu (dare I say Swine flu?) ran rampant through our cast. Of our 2 week performance run, there were only a few days when the entire cast was together. It seemed like someone was always out sick, or confined to their house by doctor's orders. Fortunately, I was one of the few that did not get sick. Bragging rights, I suppose, but not too loudly. We also had monsoonal weather to deal with almost every evening of our performances. The dressing rooms are not attached to the theatre, so dashing back & forth in the rain, changing costumes & sets & trying not to look like a drowned rat in the process, was quite challenging. I had one costume change that almost killed me every night. In the opening scene I am a streetwalker & somehow ended up being one of the last ones off the stage. A one-minute song later & I am supposed to be in my mission costume & ready at the front doors to enter singing & playing my tamborine for the next scene. I still have dreams about running in my high heels around the building while pulling on my mission jacket & then pretending to sing as I gasp for breath. As for my favorite scenes, I love Havana where I get in the middle of the brawl, but I also really liked the HotBox scene where I play a jealous wife. After hours of sitting at a table during rehearsals watching the HotBox dancers practice, my second husband Mike (my first husband, Dave, was in Havana) & I came up with the plot that he had taken me to this club for my birthday or anniversary (it depended on the night). Unbeknownst to me, it's a strip show & as my enjoyment of the show drops, his increases. After one too many hoots & whistles, he is definitely in the doghouse & his attempts to make amends as we leave, fail miserably. On most nights we got a lot of laughs from the audience. I loved it, even with the rain & everyone being sick, & the crazy costume changes & the one night that I biffed it back stage & blackened both knees. The rough times & pulling together are usually what make the best memories. I take that back, at least a little. I mentioned at the beginning of this post a relationship in amongst all this chaos. Let's just say I learned a lot. If you really want to know what I'm talking about, just listen to #7 on my "Songs I'm Listening To" playlist. Nearly word for word it describes what happened & how I feel about it. And there's my life, at least for the next few minutes.