Life is a Stage

BLT's "Mame"

BAYTOWN LITTLE THEATER

Mame closed on December 14. Theresa Moore, who played Mame Dennis, was superb in the role.

Kim directed the play and I was his assistant, costumer, props mistress, and anything else that needed to be done.  Whew! were we ever tired when it all ended.  We were very pleased with the outcome, but getting there was as difficult a task as we have ever had to undertake.

First of all, the play had to follow another musical and a hurricane.  Two things that seemed to effect the participation of actors, set construction, crew members and musicians.  This was not a good time for a play and many people were tired and dealing with not only the approaching holiday season, but the general fatigue following the hurricane.  But, we muddled through and turned out a satisfactory play.

The Monday after Mame closed, Kim held auditions with the students from school for a play he will be directing at Deer Park High School.  He just goes from one to another.  He just can’t take too long off or he goes stir-crazy.  So here it is the day before New Year’s Eve and one of the first days that he doesn’t have to do anything, and he has called a rehearsal.  He just can’t sit still.

Well, here we go again. Fortunately, I can sit this one out and just go to the performances.  We had our anniversary on December 21, 2008 and celebrated 34 years of marriage.  That translates to 34 years of plays and a lot of theatrics along the way.  I guess there is no turning back now.

Kim and I are directing the musical, “Mame” at the Baytown Little Theater.  We open December 5 running the first two weekends in December.  We close December 14.

The musical is the story of the flamboyant Mame Dennis her life raising nephew, Patrick Dennis during the 1920’s-1946.  Having never been a mother herself, Mame wanted to expose Patrick to life and all it could offer him.  She wanted Patrick to live without regret and learn about life from experience, not a textbook.

The music in “Mame” is very memorable with such favorites as the theme song, “Mame”, “We Need a Little Christmas”, and “Bosom Buddies”.  Our moderate cast sings those songs as if we had a large chorus singing the well-loved verses.  The very rafters will sing the choruses for audiences for 6 performances.

Something that I find to be very difficult about working on any play whether I am performing on stage or helping my director husband off stage is working with costumes and props.  Costumes and props seem to be those jobs I can not seem to unload on anyone else.  It has been quite an undertaking to track down 1920’s clothes as well as 1946 costumes for our actors.  I will however state that I rather enjoy the gathering props for the plays.  It is fun and quite challenging to gather or make props to represent a real item on stage.  For the musical “Mame” our actors needed to be holding riding crops in the scene where Mame goes on a fox hunt.  I had a good time finding the materials and making 8 riding crops for our dancers to use in the Fox Hunt scene.

Kim is working hard to meld together a new theater experience for our audiences and a fresh look at a theater classic, “Mame”.

I believe the show will be well received by our audiences.  The people working on our play are dedicated artists and like us want the BLT to enjoy the company of many community theater goers come the first two weekends in December.

What better way to start the holiday season than at a play with the family?

Kim came home today from school saying that it was pretty standard first day stuff.  He turned on the sound system in the auditorium.  He passed out class schedules and ID badges.  After all the students got those they went to the auditorium for an assembly.  Meeting with his classes today was pretty standard also.  All they did was fill out information cards for him and talk about the plays they will do  this year.  He told me that one young girl was so enthusiastic to be in all the shows and do everything.  That is the kind of enthusiasm a theater teacher loves.

Well that’s about all to report for now.

Little Shop of Horrors, Baytown Little Theater, 2008. Kim (left) was Audrey Two's voice.

Hello and welcome to the first post on Life is a Stage. The purpose of this blog is to journal my life within the realm of theater.

When I met my husband of 33 years, we were back stage during the rehearsal of Camelot at Abilene Christian University. Kim played one of King Arthur’s knights of the Roundtable. I joined the cast late in an additional chorus for the scene where Lancelot saves Queen Guenevere from death. We met in the “Greenroom” at the Abilene Civic Center.

Kim was a theater education major and our wedding date was scheduled around productions. When we graduated, Kim was hired by Robert E. Lee High School in our hometown to teach theater arts. Kim’s first big musical was Oklahoma! and I designed the costumes. The next year, his high school kids performed the musical Bye, Bye, Birdie and I gave birth to our first son, Jason, just weeks before production.

After five years, Kim decided to get out of teaching and try to earn more money in the business of sales. First he worked in commercial sales of photo lab services, then communications devices, and finally commercial security systems. He stayed with the last job for 23 years until the company was bought out and Kim decided to try other companies. Four jobs later, and it was time to return to his first love, teaching theater.

Actually, through the years of sales jobs, Kim never quit working with our local community theater. In fact our whole family got into the act. Our first show as a family was the musical, Music Man. Kim played Professor Harold Hill, I was one of the town ladies that sang the “Pick-a-Little” song, Jason and Kyle were both towns-kids and played in the boys’ band. That would be the first of many productions our family would perform in together. Ryan joined the act with the rest of us in the musical, Oliver!

To this day all of us are still involved in theater. In fact our oldest son, Jason, and his family just performed a production of Music Man in a community theater in their area. Our middle son, Kyle, is a theater arts high school teacher, and our youngest son, Ryan, still performs with community theater and is hoping to be certified to teach theater in public schools. Kim was the drama teacher in 2 other schools before settling down as the ninth grade theater arts teacher for Deer Park High School, North Campus. He likes his work and I get involved whenever I can. Last year his ninth grade students performed the theater classic Our Town. I helped costume the production and even went on the class field trip to Galveston at the end of the year.

It is a lot of fun being married to a theater teacher. Its a lot of work, but has its rewards. I enjoy performing in productions with Kim especially if it is a musical and we can sing together. Its had its ups and downs over the years, but if I had it to do again, I’d still marry the theater teacher.