Category Archives: community theatre

What’s Wrong with Monsters, Anyways?

Posted on July 28, 2017 by mohawkvalleygirl

He’s an ex-marine.

When in doubt, lead with the picture of the half-clothed muscular guy.  Oh dear, was that sexist and exploitative?  I was just trying to get your attention.  These are more pictures from LiFT Theatre Company’s preview performance of The Tempest last Thursday at Benton’s Landing in Little Falls (see yesterday’s post, if you haven’t already).  The chest-baring dude is our Caliban, a son of a witch (no, really, his mother was a witch; she’s not actually in the play, but they mention her) and kind of a monster (although the guys that call him “Monster” are drunk).

It’s too bad her face is in shadow; I’ll try to get better shot for a future post.

And here is our Ariel, a tricksy spirit who is servant to Prospera, the deposed Duchess of Milan.  I don’t have a great picture of Prospera, but here is a not too awful one of her and her daughter, Miranda.

Don’t worry; she’s nicer to Miranda in other scenes.

 

Antonia is in the foreground; Trinculo is on book.

Trinculo is one of the fellows who calls Caliban “Monster.”  Caliban is apparently not offended by this form of address.  Right now Trinculo is “on book.”  For the uninitiated, that means he is standing by in case an actor forgets a line.  The actor has only to yell, “Line!” and the prompter supplies it.  In the movies, I’ve seen prompters backstage during performances, loudly whispering forgotten lines to hapless actors on stage.  I personally have never been in a play where this was the case.  However, we presented the Preview Performance as a Work on Progress.  Hence, the prompter.

Astute readers may have noticed that I have referred to people by their character names only.  Well, you see, I did not want to take a chance on misspelling anybody’s name, and I do not have ready access to this information.  I know, real bloggers research this sort of thing in advance.  And here we come to the ugly truth about me.  I can’t worry about that now.  I have rehearsal in less than two hours and I haven’t even showered yet.    Additionally, today is Non-Sequitur Thursday.  I’ll just slap a catchy headline on and hope for the best.

Oh crap, now I have to think of a catchy headline.

 

1 Comment

Posted in community theatre, humor, Non Sequitur Thursday, personal and tagged , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

A Few Pics from the Preview

Posted on July 27, 2017 by mohawkvalleygirl

You know, time does not fly JUST when you are having fun.  It flies other times, too.  Not usually at work, of course.  I’m not at work right now (I can’t get online at work, for one reason).  Time flies when you have a limited amount of it and a great number of things you were hoping to get done.  Well, I just won’t get everything done, that’s all.  And I will not make the blog post as long as I had hoped (some people may not find that to be a tragedy, I’m sure).

Today’s post was to have been a cross between Wordless Wednesday and Wuss-out Wednesday.  For one reason, I wanted to share the pictures I took at last week’s preview performance of The Tempest in Little Falls.  However, it seems I have quite a few shots, and my internet keeps going on (bad modem?  lousy router? operator error?).   My new plan (my plans are nothing if not flexible!) is to spread the pictures out over a few posts.  It! Could! Work!

“I don’t always wear pumpkin pants. But when I do, it is for Shakespeare.”

I led with one of my favorite shots.  This is Ferdinand, the son of Alonso, the king of Naples.  He really was posing like The Most Interesting Man in the World.  As a matter of fact, in the play, Miranda finds Ferdinand the most interesting man in the world.  Of course, she does not have much basis for comparison.

This was also described as a pirate outfit.

This is our director.  He also plays one of the sailors in the first scene of the play then goes on to lay Stefano, the king’s drunken butler.  One thing we do in community theatre is multi-task!

They may look nice, but they are up to no good!

These are Antonia and Sebestian.  Antonia has deposed her sister, Prospera, the rightful Duchess of Milan.   They spend a good amount of time in Act II making fun of my character, Gonzalo.

Looking regal and kingly.

And this is Alonso, the King of Naples.

You may have noticed that a number of the names begin with the same letter: Alonso and Antonia (Antonio in the original script).  Sebastian and Stefano.  There is also a Francisco, to get mixed up with Ferdinand.  I couldn’t believe Shakespeare could do such a thing!  When I start to name my characters, I write the alphabet at the top of the page and cross out letters as I use them, just to avoid such confusion.  The fellow who plays Alonso is also a writer. When I remarked about the alliterative names (the one time I do NOT like alliteration), he said, “Yeah, Shakespeare made a rookie mistake.”  I have to love someone who thus off-handedly accuses Shakespeare of a rookie mistake.  Rock on, Alonso!

Ooh, look everybody, I’m over 400 words!  I may have wussed out, but I am far from wordless (really, am I ever wordless?  Those who know me in person will tell you I am NOT).  I hope to see you all on Non-Sequitur Thursday.

 

1 Comment

Posted in blogging, community theatre, humor, personal, Wuss Out Wednesday and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Preparing for the Preview

Posted on July 20, 2017 by mohawkvalleygirl

Um, our set doesn’t look like this.

Did I mention I might be seguing into All Tempest All The Time sometime soon?  Well, I am once again posting in haste (posthaste, remember?) before hurrying off to rehearsal.  We are rehearsing on Benton’s Landing in Little Falls, NY, instead of our usual Sterzinar Park, because that is where we are having a Preview Performance tomorrow.  Performance tomorrow!  Yikes!

The preview promises to be different from the usual, “Here’s a scene or two, come see the whole show later!”  It is a performance “under construction,” according to the Facebook event.  The audience will witness and perhaps participant in the rehearsal process in “our most immersive preview yet!”

I still have to figure out my costume.  From the waist up, I think I’m set, although I would like a hat.  With a feather.  I think my character would definitely wear a hat with a feather.  From the waist down, well, I’ll think of something to put on that looks halfway period, to be improved upon before actual performances.  Come to think of it,  I was kind of like that for last year’s preview for Much Ado About Nothing, only without the “halfway period.”  I had a terrific top and trusted the audience to ignore my bicycle shorts.  I found suitable pants at the Thrift Store at a later date.

So any local readers who are looking for something to do tomorrow, July 20, stop on down to Benton’s Landing in Little Falls at 6:30 for a preview of The Tempest.  I’ll be there!

 

4 Comments

Posted in community theatre, humor, personal and tagged , , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Some Steel on Scattered Saturday

Posted on March 12, 2017 by mohawkvalleygirl

My plan had been to do the picture thing again.  You know, where I find something good in my downloads and write whatever I can about it?  Then I remembered that there have been a few pictures of Steel Magnolias on Facebook, and I thought, “Hey!” Of course now I can’t find any.  However, here is a picture taken last night during a performance by our awesome sound and light guy, Rick DeJohn.

From left to rght, Kelly Stone as M’Lynn, me as Claree, Kim Darling as Truvy, Cindy Shepherd as Ouiser, and Kara Buttermore as Anelle.

A way better picture was in the post containing the review of us in the Times Telegram.  Unfortunately, I could not download just that photo.  However, if you click on “review,” I have provided a link (I’m not completely technologically illiterate).

Kelly Stone as M’Lynn with Kaylynn Iglesias as Shelby

I realized the first photo did not include the entire cast, so here is a pre-show photo of mother and daughter, showing off the family resemblance.

A great bunch of people to work with!

And here is most of the cast and crew, sharing a toast after final dress rehearsal last week.  I believe we are missing one crew member. I believe she was taking the picture and perhaps prefers to remain anonymous.  I may just have to cast her in a murder mystery or a play (did I say I was never going to direct again?  SAY IT AIN’T SO!) and get a picture of her as a diva actress (I mean that in a fun way, not the sort of diva who only deserves eye-rolls, especially at the community theatre level).

In the meantime, I am over 25o words and I have a show to get ready for!  That’s Steel Magnolias at Ilion Little Theatre.  Visit their website or Facebook page for more information!

 

Leave a comment

Posted in community theatre, humor, personal, Scattered Saturday and tagged , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

I Should Be a Movie Star

Posted on March 4, 2017 by mohawkvalleygirl

Why would I not have a Lame Post Friday?  It’s opening night of Steel Magnolias!  I have other things on my mind!  Will I remember everything?  I’m not talking about my lines (although it would be good if I remembered all of those too), but what about my costume pieces, props, ooh, and my contact lenses?  Will my hair stay on?

Ah, you think that last one was a joke?  Alas, no.  In the first scene I have to wear some fake hair, so that in the second scene when Truvy calls attention to my new short hair-do, it makes sense.  I meant to write a whole, humorous blog post about my hair troubles, but I’m afraid if I tried to do it now, it would just make me upset (is that a run-on sentence?  I usually know these things, but I am flustered).

Yes,  I have opening night jitters.  The closer it gets to time to go to the theatre, the more jittery I feel.  This is completely natural.  I bet even Tony award winning actors feel this way.  I say Tony not Oscar, because I can’t imagine movies give you the same jitters.  Just do another take! It is really no wonder that many people feel the stage is real acting and movies are not. Now don’t start defending movies to me!  I love movies!  Of course it is real acting (well, some of it is and some of it sucks, we won’t get into that).  But that lots of takes thing really has my envy tonight.

I’m sure everything will go fine.  And if it does not, well, that is the excitement of live theatre. I’m sure enough will go well to entertain our audience (sometime they are entertained by the mistakes, but we prefer to avoid going that route.  I will probably mention it tomorrow, when I make my Scattered Saturday blog post about how I was too tired after Opening Night to do much of anything.  Happy Friday, everyone.

For local, theatre-going readers,  that’s Steel Magnolias at Ilion Little Theatre, Remington Ave., Ilion, NY, March 3, 4, 10 and 11 at 8 pm., 5 and 12 at 2 p.m.  For more information, visit www.ilionlittletheatre.org or go to their Facebook page.

 

2 Comments

Posted in community theatre, humor, personal and tagged , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

On the Set

Posted on February 4, 2017 by mohawkvalleygirl

I know some of you have been waiting for an update on the set of Steel Magnolias, the play I am in at Ilion Little Theatre.  At least, I know any fellow cast-members who read my blog (DO my fellow cast members read my blog?) would like an update.  Before yesterday’s rehearsal, I remembered to pull out my tablet and I took a few shots.  I got more of the cast than the set, but, after all, isn’t it all about the people?  I think it is.

20170202_184109

We love each other at Ilion Little Theatre.

Kim Darling and Kara Buttermore, who play Truvy and Annelle, were working on the set when I started to click.  They immediately posed for me.  I knew that would make a good photo, but I wanted an action shot.  They offered me this scene from the beginning of the play:

20170202_184204

Annelle does Truvy’s hair as part of her job interview.

Meanwhile, in the audience, Kaylynn Iglesias, who recently joined the cast as Shelby, consulted with Cindy Shepherd.  Cindy, in addition to playing Ouiser, is assisting Rick Vroman in his directing duties.  I had a little problem with my tablet getting this shot.  I hope it looks OK.

20170202_184510

We do a lot of consulting with each other. Theatre is such a collaborative art.

Then I realized I had not gotten a shot of Kelly Stone, who plays M’Lynn.  She and Kaylynn decided to do a mother/daughter shot.

20170202_184534

Their characters really do love each other, although they bicker a lot in the play.

Sadly, I did not get a picture of our awesome sound and light guy, Rick DeJohn, nor of our delightful director Rick Vroman.   Perhaps in a future post.

I’ll close with a couple of shots of the set itself.  More work will be done on the set tomorrow (I’m supposed to go help.  Yikes!  What a lot I have to do tomorrow!).  I hope to include more photos in future posts.  I’d better charge up the tablet.  Happy Friday, everyone.

20170202_184230

The driers don’t actually work, which is actually too bad, because the sink on the other side of the set will.

 

20170202_184237

A center view. Alas, I did not get stage right, where the sink that will actually squirt water is located.

 

Leave a comment

Posted in community theatre, humor, personal and tagged , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Picture This: A Set in Progress

Posted on January 19, 2017 by mohawkvalleygirl

I’m really liking the idea of Wordless Wednesday, where I show pictures.  And I have a few pictures that I kind of promised to show soon, of the set for Steel Magnolias.  I showed a couple of walls the first day they were working on it.  I missed a few steps of the work in progress, but I remembered to bring my Tablet to last night’s rehearsal and snapped a couple of shots before we started.

Lots of props and set pieces have been added.  This first shot shows one of the people responsible for making the set look so good, Kim Darling.  She went to a lot of antique and second-hand stores last weekend.  If she had called me to go with her, that would have made a great blog post!  Oh well, I had other stuff I was supposed to be doing.

20170117_183433

She’s placing the Christmas tree. By my standards, that makes this a Christmas play, and I’m sorry we did not do it in December. Oh well, I always say, you can’t have everything.

 

The next picture shows cast member Kelly Stone, who plays M’Lynn.  Imagine my surprise when I found out M’Lynn is short for Mary Lynn.  I used to live next door to a Mary Lynn, roughly a hundred years ago, when I was a wee tot and lived in Oneonta, NY.  But I digress.  I snapped this shot just before we started rehearsal.

20170117_184010

Picture her hair in rollers, to get the complete picture.

 

After taking that shot, I quickly panned to the right (stage left) for one more shot.

20170117_184015

 

It may seem that the walls are oddly painted, and in fact they are.  I always find that amusing. As any theatre person knows, we like to reduce, reuse, recycle.  Actually, I think it is more along the lines of  “Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.”

I look forward to taking more pictures of the set, and telling you more about the cast and the production, especially a month or so down the road, when this blog becomes All Steel Magnolias All The Time.  In the meantime, Happy Wednesday, everyone, and I’m going to go study my lines.

 

Leave a comment

Posted in community theatre, humor, personal, Wordless Wednesday and tagged , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

I’m Claree!

Posted on December 22, 2016 by mohawkvalleygirl

I just imagine everybody is waiting with bated breath to see if I have been cast in Ilion Little Theatre’s upcoming production of Steel Magnolias.  Yes, I know, that’s what I said:  I am just imagining it.  Nevertheless, that is the topic of today’s blog post.

Last night I got a call from the director of the play, offering me the part of Claree.  She is the former first lady of Chinquapin (nobody at auditions knew how to pronounce it either; I’m not even sure I’ve spelled it correctly). I think I read on the back of the script that Claree is an eccentric millionaire with a sweet tooth (I haven’t gotten my script yet, so I can’t double check that).

Full disclosure:  the part I originally had a hankering for was Ouiser, who has the immortal line, “I’m not crazy, I’ve just been in an incredibly bad mood for the past forty years.”  A co-worker described her as “the miserable one” and thought I’d be perfect for the part.

After reading scenes at auditions, I am quite happy with the part of Claree.  I think it will be a very fun role.  Additionally, the actress cast as Ouiser is marvelously talented and a great person to work with (she was my stage manager for Leading Ladies, the play I directed last spring).  I have worked with most of the other cast members as well, and they are awesome.

Another full disclosure:  I kind of wish the play had a few more roles, because some of the ladies who did not get cast would have been great to work with too. As I often say, you can’t have everything (no matter what the positive-thinking Facebook memes say!).

I am looking forward to beginning rehearsals for Steel Magnolias.  Performance dates are the first two weekends in March.  That should give us plenty of posts before this blog becomes All Steel Magnolias All The Time.

 

2 Comments

Posted in community theatre, humor, personal and tagged , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Shall We Split the Difference?

Posted on October 21, 2016 by mohawkvalleygirl

I am missing the monthly dinner meeting of Ilion Little Theatre Club.

OK, I just sat here with my laptop for what seemed like a long time before I typed in the above sentence.  Then I backspaced it out.  Then I hit “undo” and put it back.  Then I sat here and tried to think of another sentence.  As you can see, it is not going well.

In my defense, I have not had a post that was purely about How I Can’t Write a Decent Post Today (I just added the word “decent” to that phrase, do you like it?) in a long time.  I’m not saying all my posts were decent, and I certainly added in enough whiny excuses for why they weren’t as good as I wished they were.  Still, how long has it been since I posted pure foolishness?  I’m too lazy to click back to my dashboard and check.

Tomorrow night is opening for Splitting Issues by Sam Bobrick.  We had our dress rehearsal last night.  It went pretty well.  I was glad.  I don’t like to invoke that old saw that the worse a dress rehearsal the better the opening night.  I don’t want an opening night miracle, meaning I don’t want to NEED an opening night miracle!  Well, we don’t in this case.  The show is good.  I think the audience will get a lot of laughs.

Well, there you go.  This post was not pure foolishness; I gave another plug to Splitting Issues at Ilion Little Theatre.  That’s Friday and Saturday, Oct. 21 and 22 at 8 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 23 at 2 p.m., at The Stables, 13 Remington Ave., Ilion, NY.   Tickets available at eventbrite.com or at the door.

As for this post, I think I’ll slap on a silly headline and call it a Non-Sequitur Thursday.

 

 

Leave a comment

Posted in blogging, community theatre, humor, Non Sequitur Thursday, personal and tagged , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Can I Help It If They Loved Me?

Posted on September 2, 2016 by mohawkvalleygirl

I was going to say to my husband Steven, “This is another fine mess you’ve gotten me into!” but I feel certain he will deny responsibility.  Well, there is no sense in placing blame.  One must deal with the situation at hand.  Anyways, we probably all saw it coming.  Really, did anybody believe that headline “I An NOT Going to Audition!“? I felt sure at the time nobody did.

All this by way of introduction to the fact that I have accepted a part in Splitting Issues at Ilion Little Theatre.  The play consists of nine short sketches.  Steven and I will appear in the last one.  It is the scene we read part of for auditions.  Yes, yes, I said I was not going to audition, will you stop throwing that up at me?  I truly did not mean to.  I was merely reading the scene with Steven to help him audition.  Can I help it if the directors loved me?

Perhaps “love” is too strong a word.  Still, they asked me to take the part in the most flattering terms imaginable (well, maybe you could imagine more flattering terms) (you know who you are).  I don’t know why they thought they had to butter me up.  I am a well-known theatre junky and usually one has only to ask.  Or even hint.  Vaguely

Still, I did hesitate before I said yes.  I need to take some time for my writing!  Could this be my subconscious fearing I am really not that good of a writer so let’s not put it to the test?  SAY IT AIN’T SO!!!  What an unflattering thought. I suppose there is only one way to refute it, and I don’t need you guys to tell me what it is! (Again, you know who you are.)  Unfortunately, I cannot put this foolproof plan for refutation in effect tonight or tomorrow.  I have rehearsal and performance for the last play I was (am) in.

Do you suppose I am suffering from a serious addiction?

 

2 Comments

Posted in community theatre, humor, personal and tagged , , , . Bookmark the permalink.
← Older Posts
Newer Posts →