Pick 3 #3: Community Theater

This is my first post for the weekly Pick 3 Challenge where you get to pick a minimum of three words out of twenty-one and write a fiction/non-fiction story/tale. Here is the link to this week’s challenge and the challenge rules. I probably won’t do this every week, but will at least once a month.

As a little girl, I loved to play-act. I was the only girl in the immediate neighborhood with two brothers and five other boys around the same age. We were all middle-class, both higher and lower, but one family definitely was in the upper level. Their father worked in Boston as stock broker, driving out on Sunday night and not returning until Friday night. They had the biggest yard of us all and a huge finished basement where we would go to play games. The oldest boy was a year older than me and he loved to write and direct little plays. We would act them out in the yard or the basement. I loved it. As a teenager, I wanted to be an actress but knew it wasn’t to be. Instead, I was destined to become a young wife and mother of two. But the thought always was calling me…

Fast forward many years and two marriages later when I was well into my middle years. We had recently moved to Columbus, GA and I read an article in the local newspaper about the community theater. The productions were held in the historic Springer Opera House and they were casting the next production. I read through the parts and there were several small ones. I talked it over with my husband and he agreed that I should try out. Performing in community theater had been on my bucket list for years – the closest I could ever come to being an actress.

Remarkable personalities including Oscar Wilde, Edwin Booth, Lillie Langtrey, John Philip Sousa, Ethel Barrymore, Will Rogers and even William Jennings Bryan and Franklin D. Roosevelt have graced its stage over the years, making the Springer one of the most significant preserved theaters in America. source

The theater was gorgeous, so historic, and was reputed to have at least one ghost, Edwin Booth who was the brother of President Lincoln’s assassin, John Wilkes Booth. Other ghostly appearances were talked about and one actor friend would never be in the theater alone. I never saw or heard one…but I was pretty busy any time I was there.

I got the part, the director was a woman from New York who came down every year to direct one or two plays. Mine was a bit part as a Scotland Yard inspector in the play Pack of Lies. I only had a few lines and my accent was more English than Scottish, but I did manage to get laughs during one speech and that was the desired effect.

I had a fantastic time, made good friends, and was invited back to try out for the next production with the staff director. That play was When You Comin’ Back, Red Ryder. This time I got one of the lead roles – Clarisse. It was an amazing experience and I feel so blessed to have been able to do it. I learned a lot about creating a backstory for my role and I think that may have helped me when I started writing mysteries later in life.

Of course, being in the deep South, cussing was definitely frowned upon so the director had to go through the entire script and replace any “offensive” words. I remember we were about halfway through rehearsals when he came to me and asked it I was willing to say the one swear word, damn. I readily agreed! Oh, and in one scene, the villain literally pulled me across the stage by my sweater pulled up over my head, exposing my bra. I had to go out and shop for an old lady box bra (that’s what I called it) for the scene!

My husband took a bunch of photos at the final dress rehearsal, they are packed away somewhere. I should dig them out and scan them.

So that was my brief life as an actress – one thing crossed off the bucket list!

One more thought – looking back, now I realize my wanting to be an actress came from my wanting to be anyone but me.

Till next time…