"A Capella"

Help!  I feel like I have lost my way in Blogland!  It has been weeks since I have posted something fairly regularly.  And I am finding it hard to pick it up again.  There has been a lot going on in my life since before Thanksgiving....Christmas, New Year's, my accident, Mikey's vacation, rehearsals, learning lines, the shows, my sister's visit.  It just seemed like I was always busy doing something else!  Well, its all over now, everything should be back to normal.  Still, I have procrastinated, lured by doing something mindless like computer games!  How ridiculous is that?

Okay, well, I guess the best way to get back to writing is to just start!  Here goes.....



Before I leave my most recent production behind, I want to devote one more post to the marvelous experience that this show provided.

I have had a rocky history in theater recently.  I've written about it a bit, but not in any great depth.  Nor do I intend to do so now.  The bottom line was that I missed being in a show.  All my upset had mainly to do with various personalities (and the people who go with them) that were a problem.  They would have said that I was the problem and for a while I might have believed them.

BUT....I don't think so anymore.

I had the great privilege of working with a truly great cast and crew.  I had only worked with one of them previously, the rest were all new to the theater group since I pulled back a couple of years ago.  Let me tell you about them.

Our Director is a very experienced actor/director with years and years of working in various community theaters all around the country.  She was easy to work with.  She was open to ideas.  She was willing to try different things.  She was supportive.  She was complimentary.  She was capable of giving direction without making a big fuss.  She didn't micro-direct, instead she relied on the actors' instincts when they fit her vision of the show.  She had a sense of humor.  She was knowledgeable and a real pleasure to work with.  There was no tug of war over who was in charge.  She was.  And she deserved to be.

Our Stage Manager was a true gentleman, who knew how to get a point across.  He was on top of things, always where he needed to be, helpful to a fault, supportive, and capable.  He kept us on track without dramatics.  Low-key and laid-back, yet nothing was left undone.  We stayed on schedule and he was responsive to our needs above and beyond what one might normally expect.  He was flexible where he needed to be and not above helping out an actor in a pinch.  He did a professional job, yet he was part of the gang!

Our light and sound guys were a bit removed from us....but that's just the nature of the game.  The sit up in the tech booth performance after performance hitting their cues every time!  Lights came on and went off right on schedule.  Sound effects were never early or late.  I caught no mistakes!  Just as it should be.  And the remarkable thing is they laughed everynight.  After nine performances and lots of rehearsals, they never lost interest is us or the show.  Real troupers!!

As for the actors??  Oh my, what a wonderful cast!  Each perfectly cast, each totally on top of their role, if mistakes were made, they were covered, each one of them very talented and able to bring their characters to life.  They delivered lines with great comedic timing.  They were completely believable in their roles.  And they made the play soar from one laugh line to the next....and there were a lot of laugh lines!  We started as strangers to one another (mostly) and ended as friends! 

We were blessed, too, by wonderful audiences.  Each performance was well attended (70-80 per show for all but one).  There were appreciative and best of all, they laughed when they were supposed to!!  Music to an actor's ears.  Our last audience was the best of them.  They laughed at everything!  They didn't miss once!  Actors respond to a lively audience, they want to do their best and it  turns into a mutual spark!

Of course, we were fortunate to be doing one of the funniest plays I have ever been involved in.  Anna Pie (an accent mark goes in there somewhere, but I can't get my computer to do it), the author, took a somewhat unusual situation and brought out all the humor inherent therein.  She also wrote the funniest line I have ever had in all my years of theater.  Taking it out of context and trying to explain it here would never do it justice and might give you a wrong impression of what kind of play it is.  But let me tell you, it was the longest, loudest laugh in the show....bar none!  

Sometimes in community theatre, there are weak links, someone who is not as talented or who isn't easy to work with, even sometimes one who just never gets it right at all.  But for this show every single person involved was good at what they do.  They were terrific actors/tech staff who made the show work night after night.  And what was the most remarkable of all....no one got mad at anybody else!  There was no angst, no squabbles, no one missing in action, no one who made demands, or was difficult to get along with.  Nobody ended up in tears.  Nobody ended up being an outcast or a diva! To put it simply, they were sane, cooperative, supportive, and good at what they do.  It was lovely to be a part of that cast.  I'd work with any or all of them again in a New York minute!  And unless, I completely misread them, I think they would work with me again too! 

They were theater people of the best kind.  They restored my faith that theater can be done without pain!  And even more, they restored the joy in theatre I have missed so much! 

So Jo, Geoff, Ron, Dale, Mallory, Bradley, Misty, Rina, Tamara, Allen, and Gary, thank you, all!  You are my kind of people!!  And I miss you already!