an onslaught of new posts---to catch up!

where to start where to start

----i'm going to post some relatively-speaking shorter posts to try to catch up with our world travels over the last month---so we'll start with Music Man! The month of June was all performances----there were two casts---so it was probably 3 performances a week.

Ace & I had a great time performing at Artisan Center Theater---there was a great camaraderie with the cast---there was a power outage that postponed the opening for 2 weeks----so we got to perform with a lot of different versions of the cast--- the cast (or one of them--there were lots of inversions of the cast) I'm on the far right on the 2nd row---yeah--in the toga.
This is Chris (one of the quartet) messing with Ace---I think he was goofing around!
Amy & Lori Jones---these beautiful sisters were my daughters in my stage family!
Susan White, Diane Wells, Andrea Thompson, Laura Smalley-Prascher, Chelsea Duncan & Joni Ellis---the PALLs and Marian (Marian was 3 months pregnant thru all this!) we had the best time of all---we got the best costumes and got to goof around backstage and onstage.
David Otteson--my husband in the show! He is also in my ward at church!
Every scene I had to re-curl my hair---not something it does well----this is why i wear my hair short and straight!

..Ace was one of the townspeople/teenagers and I was Maud Dunlop---a Pick-a-little-lady (PALL)...if you havent seen the movie or play, WHAT THE HECK!? ----but rent it---its a classic musical....76 trombones, Gary Indiana, Lida Rose----the thing i love about performing---other than the interaction with the audience (Artisan does theater in the round---so you are knee-to-knee with the audience)---hmmm--thats why i enjoy my ethics performances too---knee to knee with the audience---real eye contact----i love the interaction with the cast---ensembles---I never desire to be the lead/star---too much pressure---we PALLs had a great time onstage and backstage...---we had wonderful camaraderie and i made some wonderful friends.Joni Ellis and I had done Fiddler on the Roof a few years ago together (we were doubles)---add in Susan White for this show---these two made the show and were great backstage to hang with.

this was the barbershop quartet---they were really good---and continued to improve thru the whole show---by far the hardest part of the show was to learn those harmonies---i got to work with them a bit---love barbershop!

there is a whole different world backstage during the show---we sing with whatever is going on onstage---people are chatting (sometimes way too loud!), preparing for the next scene, flirting (always funny to watch the teens)---a general bonding.

This show was made up of lots of family groups (such as Ace & I)--Artisan is a wonderful place to perform---they encourage friendship and working together as a team---the process influences the result!before every show i would go thru each scene and mark it out---just to refresh my mind---i'm a bit of a worry-wart. Performing gives me a lot of confidence and keeps me on my toes---i'm always surprised at how much i enjoy the process as well as the performing.