Acting Out Again

Ten little soldier boys...

Hello, dear readers. Here at meg, acting out, I talk about a lot -- from home improvement projects and eating organically to married life and, of course, the cats. But, just last night it occurred to me that you might like to hear about something truly relevant to the name of the dang blog.

Last night, Dave and I went to the Little Theater for our first night working on their next production -- "And Then There Were None," an Agatha Christie murder mystery. Dave is playing the part of Marston, a snobby, spoiled brat who seems to care about nobody - except himself. I'm playing Vera, a secretary who gets wrapped up in the "mystery" aspect of the murder mystery.

Before this read-through, I found myself to be, sure enough, happy to be getting back onstage (and of my own accord, at that! The last show, I got roped into, and didn't enjoy it in the least -- ah, the loyal life of a community theater participant), but a little apprehensive. I hadn't read the whole script and wasn't sure how much I could do with my part. Luckily, the read-through proved to be not only a BLAST, but told me that my character has lots of ranges to play with - from calm, sweet and capable to downright losing it.

I haven't done a drama on ILTC's stage before. Dave reminded me that I did have the opportunity during "Clue" to have a mental breakdown (the night an audience member picked my "card" as the murderer), but I then reminded him that, while "Clue" was a musical, a comedy, a mystery and, yes, even a drama, whenever the chosen murderer for the evening gave their defiant, outrageous, "I did it! I did it!" speech, the audiences would go nuts...laughing. After reading Vera's interactions with the other characters, I can be assured that, while there are amusing and even giggle-worthy moments, ain't no one gonna be laughin' at the wrong times.

I'm already proud of this show, and I'm not even the director. Speaking of which, our director is a very kind retired gentleman whom we (Dave and I) have worked with several times -- including as our roles on the board. Regardless, it's strange. I can tell when I'm really into a show when I suddenly feel that helping out won't burden me or be a pain. I've already offered to create the programs and paint sets, and have a few other little jobs in mind if Art wants me to do them. That's HUGE when it comes to ILTC. It's hard to find anyone to do anything, and not for lack of caring about the place.

The show will be going up in March. I'll be posting more information when things get nailed down completely, and I'm sure I'll be letting you know how rehearsals are going. I'm not foreseeing any too-rough spots -- the rest of the cast are pretty much pros, and we're so excited to be working with all of 'em!