Another double post! This is because somewhere in 2003 I was a part of a bicentennial celebration performing songs from School House Rock Live!. And that’s really the end of that story, but I thought it should be documented because it’s on the resume my father made me. Now what’s God, Glory, and Gold you may be asking. Is it a working title for a Don Quixote musical for children? Or perhaps it’s a little church play teaching about the evils of greed? Go ahead if you’d like, look it up. If you find something I’ll be amazed. This musical was written by two locals, whom I adore. They wrote quite a few shows when I was young and the only thing that makes me sad was that I was not in more of them. They wrote a show called Games of the Gods and to this day I still find myself humming the tunes. Well this show, God, Glory, and Gold had already been performed in my town by the time I heard of it, but as luck would have it they were going to reprise it. I marched up to the director and told her, “I’d like to be in the Re-prize” to which she told me, “It’s RE-PREEZE dear not Re-prize.” Haha. Theatre people, I can honestly say I’m glad to be one of them. You know those people who spell theatre R-E and not E-R. I digress. So the show was less of a REPREEZE and more of a REmount. They basically just got the band back together and added 30 kids to the chorus. I ended up with a little part as a weather telling Native American. The gag was I told the weather with smoke signals. It’s quite cute. (Don’t worry I’ve got pictures: See Below). I remember having fun with this show, though I always have fun with the shows written by the two locals I mentioned above. I think when I started writing shows, a little part of me tried to emulate the fun spirit of their shows. They had such wonderfully funny jokes (to me). Now I know the picture is small, but the joke to me is HUGE! This is the number in the show when a hurricane threatens to destroy our heroes ship. Do you see the joke yet? She is the “I” of the hurricane. She breaks down the song and has this little spoken word bit before the song jumps back into full hurricane mode. And this little girl (who I suppose is no longer little) was TOO funny. Anyways this show was about the conquistadors discovering America and in turn my home state of Louisiana. It’s got tons of funny history quips and it all around a really cute little show. And now for those pictures I promised you.
0 Comments
Question the first: Did anyone actually do Barnum? In my entire life I don’t think I’ve heard of a single other performance of the musical Barnum. According to my really short Wikipedia search the Broadway production did very well, but based off my community theatre production I just sat down to I don’t know how it was successful. The script seems rather slow and sometimes the circus is few and far between, so for a community theatre to pick this up must have been a very….unique choice. This show taught me a few (shall we say real world theatre) things. Like not every show is a success and sometimes you have to give your best performing for a very small crowd. One night we performed to four (4) people. For a cast of about 25 to perform for 4 people is pretty much unheard of in my business, but there we were giving our all to 4 people and after intermission only 2. Another thing this show taught me was *ahem* thongs. I was 12 and my costume was awesome, but short. Now back then I wasn’t the curvy 1940’s beauty I am today. I was a birdlike little thing with limbs for days. I remember the director telling me one day she could see my panties and that I needed to do something about that. I was wearing tights so I wasn’t going to go commando. That’s when my mom tried to introduce me to a thong. I say try because I was 12 and that stuff is uncomfortable.
Now for the more lighthearted stories of Barnum. This is another one of those shows that I don’t really remember, but after a quick watch with my little sister I have made new memories of the show. Haha. Now for a segment I’d like to call Comments from the Peanut Gallery aka my Little Sister. “You are so on point in this show that even your shoes can’t handle it” Me: “My legs are hot” Meredith: “Mmmmhmmmm” “You’re even on point during your bows! Look at you!” “Best thing about this musical: That guy’s flip, followed by the swing, and then you (Eileen) being so on point!” Man she makes me feel like a star. To be fair though I sat there watching this tape wondering where all my coordination went. I mean I had lines for days and my whole body was engaged and energized. Nowadays when I try this I just look like SUPER AWKWARD GIRL. I mean young me had it down. I was making BIG choices, I looked engaged the whole show, and my southern accent had since disappeared. Oh and did I mention the rockin’ costume. Yes those sleeves are made of boas. 😉 Remember when I told you dear followers that “Someone” once told me I play a lot of inappropriate roles that I should never have played; this applies here too. The Wiz is traditionally an ALL African American cast, but in my production we only had one guy who fit that description, and he was only in one brief scene (even after watching the WHOLE production this one kid never reappears, not even in chorus scenes, I wonder what happened to him…) So here I was in the almost all white cast of The Wiz at my local community theatre (Gotta love community theatre). I know, I know you’re all wondering who I actually played in this unique version of The Wiz, but first I want you to guess. Go ahead, this could be fun? Dorothy, you say? No way. Maybe one of the witches? Not a chance. What about a munchkin, that’s it a munchkin right? Still no. I actually played the Yellow Brick Road. 🙂 So not only am I the wrong type for this show, I’m also playing inanimate objects (No one can say my career has been a dull one) Now I don’t have a picture of this character so let me set the scene for you. All black clothes like a techie, with a cardboard sign hanging round our necks covered in (drumroll please) yellow kitchen sponges. I will give the costume moms this, it was creative for a budget of nothing. Also after watching the video can I just say how proud I am of myself for being the only one NAILING the choreography! Haha. I also played a Citizen of OZ as well as a Winkie. Anyone seen the movie? The Winkies are these scary creatures who, once liberated strip to become beautiful men and women in very skimpy bathing suits. We obviously did not do this and settled instead for tie-dye (thank goodness). I also remember late one night at Winkie rehearsal things weren’t going well, we didn’t know the lyrics or couldn’t remember the choreography and the director, wielding a monkey wrench in one hand and a lead pipe in the other (for sound effects), scared me so much! She was swinging those murder weapons from Clue and yelling and after that I can promise I never missed a word or dance step again! There are so many other things I want to share about this production, like how our Lion had a hippie tunic and an afro, or how our Tinman wore a silver Elvis suit. Or the little known fact that after this show I got my puppy and named her Addapearl, for the sister of Glinda the good witch. Another fun fact, during the creative process of the show we attempted to have Evilene walk down from her tower using the Winkies as a staircase. That thought still scares me. Oh! And our Scarecrow was a girl and she was scared for weeks to slide down the fireman’s pole in the middle of the set. Although one of the best memories is during the citizen’s of OZ scene there was tons of underscoring that no one cut, so we would walk around the stage like it was a cat walk and every time we passed one another we would make a noise, like “BBZZZZ” or “SHHH” and when I was a kid I couldn’t do it without laughing. .Fun fact dear readers, by 2001 I had played a cow not once, but twice (this is an ever growing list). I was in a church production of The Crippled Lamb, playing a motherly and wise cow, a complete 180′ of Milky White . I don’t remember much about this play; it was short, it happened in a church, I wore a cow onesie. I do remember that this time they tried to give me udders and I was soooooo embarrassed that a giant black patch was created to cover them up. You can see it in the pictures. Also bonus picture by this time I had played a cow so much that I guess I began to dress like on in real life. Now to the aforementioned Jump, Jive, and Boogie. This was one of your typical revue shows, but it didn’t seem to have a thru line. Just cute kids. Lots of em’. But I remember being so proud because in my scene that we did, I was Sandy from Grease in the Sleepover Scene. Even to this day I was a little proud of it, that is, until I watched the tape…. First thing out of my mouth upon a re-watch, “I have a Southern accent!!!!!” So to everyone who asked me where my Southern accent is, it’s right there preserved on a VHS for the world to *facepalm* at. Now stay with me here. You’re watching a revue full of tiny children and suddenly they announce a scene from Grease, the most apathetic Sandy in the world shuffles out and plops onto the floor. And when dismal Sandy finally goes to open her mouth she says, “Mhhy fahtherr wuld prahbahbly kyeel mee.” I mean, Whew! I dodged a bullet when someone taught me to get rid of that accent. |