If not now, when?

Today is September 11th.
No further explanation is needed for any American. September 11th is a day that we all pause and remember the moment that our world changed forever. It has prompted me to examine all that has happened since 2001. As good a time as any to resume Blogging. If not now when?

Wouldn't some of those that lost their lives on that day be happy to have the chance to have their voices heard and not squander the chance to be present in the moment at hand.

Eight years ago, Lucas was not yet in school. He was home with me, in this very room, as he is today. He is home sick today so it feels eerily similar.
Zachary was a Freshman at St. Joseph's High School (as it was known back then).
Regan was a K-4 student at St. Mary's Catholic School in Greenville...
David was in his office safely working for this family, thanks be to God.
Fast Forward 8 years:
Zachary has graduated from High School and Acting School, lived in NYC and is back in Greenville, living on his own, making a living as an educator at the South Carolina Children's Museum.
Regan is in 7th Grade at Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic School.
Lucas is in 6th Grade at Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic School. Two Middle Schoolers!
Then there is Rosey...she wasn't even born in 2001, so this day has no place in her consciousness. She is in Kindergarten at Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic School.
David has come full circle in his career and is back at IBM, the company he began working for out of College in 1983.

All those facts out of the way, the real story is that we are still here. We are still in this happy home with a couple of great life experiences under our belts, Breast Cancer for me, Job Change for David, Birth of Rosey, Graduations from Kindergarten, Elementary School, High School, Stella Adler, Engagement for Zachary to Mackensie, Rosey's Tumor and subsequent removal along with all the follow up that goes with a scare like that, Vacations to the Beach, Charleston,Paris, Disney World, Cruise to the Bahamas, Florida, New York Trips to visit Zachary while he lived there, the purchase of a Mountain get-away as sanctuary for this precious family.

There have been illnesses, fractured family ties, loss of some people that I loved dearly, but we're still here. We are "on this side of the grass" on this day as I look around and offer a prayer of Gratitude and Thanksgiving for having this day to look back and more importantly look forward to all the moments that lie ahead.

This is an anniversary of the heart, we all lost something that day and that must never be forgotten. May those who lost their lives rest in Peace as we remember.

Summer

So, I am still doing "this" but "this" has changed.
I'm not being Fanny Brice anymore, but I am still the Resident Production Assistant at F.I.R.E.
We are about to begin our second season.
Pippin
The Music Man
Broadway's A Christmas Carol
West Side Story
The Wedding Singer
The Last Five Years

It has been a crazy year since we "started the F.I.R.E." but rewarding for me as a Company Member and a performer.

Summer has been relaxed. Lots of swimming for the kids. We have acquired a second home in the Mountains of North Carolina, so there has been excitement surrounding that.
Tomorrow, Zachary returns to Greenville after being in NYC for four years as he attended the Stella Adler Acting Studio and worked as a Writer for The Alliance for the Arts.

Things are never dull around here!

Room Helper

Rosey started talking about the "jobs" at her Mother's Morning Out today on the way home from taking the kids to school.
"I hope I'm Room Helper today."
"What's that?"
"When the lights are off, you turn them on, and just do everything in the room".
"What's your favorite job?"
"Line Leader, and Snack Helper. I like the jobs that last all day, like Door Holder".

I realized that this is when the Mothering begins. Either you like it, or you don't.
Rosey likes the idea of being room helper because she likes to "do". She'll do anything you need her to do, gladly, and offer to help with everything.

I'm Room Helper, Line Leader, Door Holder, and Snack Helper, today. David is out of town. I usually share the jobs, like in the Pre-school that Rosey attends, but somedays, Mothers are all those jobs and more. In my case, I share the load with a very capable Father, but some parents aren't good "helpers"...I wonder if they didn't like the jobs in Pre-school. Rosey talks about these jobs often and the responsiblities that go along with the assignments. I always ask her favorite and she always says "Line Leader" first.
Be careful what you wish for Little One~

Make Me an Instrument of Your Peace

I am in one of those cycles when I know that there is a greater message than the petty "chatter" that seems to be going on around me.
I have this process of discernment that I only pay attention to when the "noise" around me gets way too loud. I'm in that place right now.

I am trying to listen to the voice that guides me. I heard the "Prayer of St. Francis" at the Children's Mass at Our Lady of the Rosary, last Thursday morning, and it has been stuck in my head ever since. It is a very simple message.
I think all the important messages are simple.

Love One Another. Does it get any more simple than that?

We're making some very important decisions that are going to affect our family, and I know that our lives are going to change. The lifestyle changes are all for the better, but nothing happens without some adjustments to what we're accustomed to.
Growing Pains.

It most likely has everything to do with ...a New World calling across the Ocean.
As usual, Art Imitates Life and Vice Versa!

So now I'm doing this.

I have spent a lot of time thinking about the whole blog thing, because I wonder who really cares what I have to say...
I care, and even though I'm not Funny Girl any more, I am still going to be doing things that some people think are crazy, so I'll keep blogging...
That being said.
I love reading blogs and I have found the ones I love because there is a huge online community of crafters that blog and those are the ones I read most.
I'm going to start looking for Theatre Moms and Community Theatre Blogs to follow because those will help me find my voice, because I'll want to be different.
I spent a lot of time on our wonderful vacation thinking about the day to day stuff that I do and how I can change our life as a family to make it all more efficient and I hope to implement some changes soon about some of the things that I have notoriously procrastinated about. I'll blog about that and how I'm making it all work. Next school year, I'll have three of my four children at the same school for the same number of hours per day. That will be a first for me in my 22 years of being a mother, except for the days when Zachary was an only child (K-5 - 8th) before Regan began K-4.
That feels like a hundred years ago.
So, that's what I'm doing right now....thinking about "what's coming next?" as Lucas used to constantly ask when he was a baby...

Spring Break

Perfect timing for Spring Break. I feel like Fanny has been following me this week, so it will be good to change the scenery.
I wasn't aware of the depths to which I would become involved with Fanny's story, and it is time to gain some perspective.

Cruising and Disney will be just what our family needs to unwind, this show was a true family affair for us.

I'll turn 44 years old on this vacation.
I wouldn't believe that if I didn't know it was true.
I feel younger than that.
What does one do to mark their 45th year??

All Good Things...

...come to an end. Funny Girl is over.

I have lived a childhood dream. How many people get that chance?

To my castmates, I say bravo. There has rarely been such unwavering support for an actor in the local theatre community. I know that because I'm usually backstage listening to the chatter.
I couldn't have begun to play this role if every single person hadn't been onboard.
Thank You, everyone.

To my Nicky, there is no way to thank someone for what you gave me. You were the perfect Nick Arnstein for my Fanny Brice. The comfort that I feel with you, personally allowed me to push Fanny to truly let down her guard and fall in love.
What a gift to have you looking out for me(Cheryl) to make sure that my(Fanny) was able to shine. Pushing me and pulling me into the light...turning me ever so gently to face away from you, things that only an experienced Leading Man could have or would have done. I will love you always.

To my director, trusting my inexperience with a role as large and important as Fanny Brice was one of the greatest leaps of faith that I have ever witnessed. Of course I know, as your friend, that faith was exactly what allowed you to do it. There is much to be said about a friendship like ours. I felt the encouragement that was cloaked in criticism because I knew what you expected. If I hit the mark even once or twice, I hope that you were proud. I only regret that it is over just as I feel that I hit my stride.

To my family, the support was unbelievable. My husband never raised an eyebrow about the piles of laundry, the lack of groceries, the exhaustion of the past two weeks as we prepared to open the show. My children were so unbelievably proud of me that it wouldn't have mattered if another person in the audience applauded. The love of my family near and far has carried me always and continues to do so.

To the City of Fountain in, which is what I call Van Broad and his staff, which is what I call Dee-Dee and June Broad...Thank you for giving me a place to bring Fanny Brice back to life the way I felt she should be. Thank you for giving a home to a dream of Anita's and mine, and believing that Theatre is important. Again...Faith.
Fanny will live in my heart forever as will the memories of the outpouring of love that was showered upon me. I hope that she would be proud of the tribute I paid her this weekend. Unfortunately, I'll never know.

I'll continue to BLOG. Funny Girl was the catalyst, but I feel like I might have more to share.
Here's to Songs For A New World...Another opportunity to change people's lives through Theatre.
Off we go!

Dress Rehearsal

Tonight is Final Dress Rehearsal for Funny Girl. It will be a welcome relief from last night, which I've decided was that disastrous rehearsal that happens during tech week for every show.
I am filled with anticipation...can I pull this show out of the ditch that it fell in last night?
I would feel better if I had three more weeks. I'd like it even better if I felt confident singing with the orchestra.
Tonight, I'm going to have to let all that go and work it out.
I love the story of Fanny Brice and Nicky Arnstein. It is a beautiful story about how love, even deep, great love, can fail. I have no doubt that Nicky was the true love of Fanny's life, but they were no good for each other.
Beautifully heartbreaking. It is beautiful because it was a gift to love a person that much. There are people who go their whole lives and never know that kind of love. I wonder if Fanny felt lucky to have loved Nicky.
I wonder how Nicky felt after he left Fanny. Did he think of her everyday? Did he let years pass and then turn up again, just to see if she still loved him? Was he even aware of the depth of the love she felt for him?
I can't help but think of these things as I walk through these scenes and pretend to be this complicated woman.
Love is a funny thing.
Life is a funny thing.
Funny...

How Can It Be?

How can it be? That beautiful, wife, mother, gifted artist, Natasha Richardson died yesterday from a routine fall on a beginner ski slope. How can it be?
There is no explanation, I know that, but I can't stop asking the question.
How can it be?
What am I going to do today to change so that every day is a simple expression of love for the life that I've been given?
How can I live in this moment so that if I am ever taken from this family, they know that I spent every waking moment loving them.
I'm trying to understand what is not understandable.
Trying to make sense of what is senseless.
I will pray for the men in her life and all the other people who loved her.
May Natasha Richardson rest in peace.

It's all about...

Fill in the blank.
Theatre is, by it's very nature, a self indulgent undertaking...
If you're going to watch, you will leave there thinking about how what you just saw applies to YOU.
If you're performing, you spend your entire time on stage, even if it is just one moment, wondering how the audience is perceiving YOU.
Can this be unlearned?
We do it in our every day life, too.
I am the mother of four beautiful, gifted children. That isn't hyperbole, ask anyone who knows my kids. I take great pains to remind them (especially my left-handed daughter, Regan) that not another person on earth spends as much time thinking about her as she does. Stands to reason. Everyone is really thinking about themselves, if they're being honest.(I love to paraphrase Simon Cowell)
Fanny Brice is the main character in Funny Girl. That makes her the focus of much of the audience attention. I have spent more time in the past few weeks thinking about myself, Fanny,and the audience perception of ME than I am comfortable with.
Spotlights & microphones have always been two of my favorite things, but on my terms.
I am very uncomfortable with the glare of scrutiny that is on the process I am undertaking because it requires a level of self indulgence that I DESPISE in others.
Anything I say seems disingenuous when it is heard through the filter of "Theatre Chatter". Compliments that I sincerely appreciate require more than a "thank you", but what???
When people who I know and love (cast mates) ask "Are you okay?" I feel compelled to say "This isn't about me," because it isn't, but it is in this case about what I'm doing.
I must accept that for the next three weeks, much of what is going on is about me in that context, but I have to know that when I release it to the audience, it will be about them, and if I've touched a place in their soul that allows them to say that seeing Funny Girl in Fountain Inn was worth their time...Time is the one thing that we have a limited amount of and I want everyone to feel as though time in our Theatre was well spent.

A quote I had to share....today.

"But what is happiness
Except the simple harmony
Between a woman and the life she leads."
-Albert Camus

Monday...no rehearsal tonight.
I will spend the day preparing my home for visits that are set to occur for the rest of the month of March.
I will study my script and put a dent in Act II. I am looking forward to the next three weeks and trying to ignore the antics that are part of any "Community Theatre" production.
People who bring their own drama everywhere they go so that somehow it is all about them, exhaust me.
I'm a little exhausted right now from it, but I'll take today to refocus the energy that I need to make this happen.
Fanny deserves to be carefreee and ready to strut her stuff when she makes her debut in Fountain Inn.
This is something I've always wanted to do and now I'm doing it. What's to complain about?

Sacred Days

In a person's life, there are many Sacred Days. There are Anniversaries of the Heart that we celebrate, silently.
Today is a Sacred Day.
Today is Zachary Thomas Pelicano's Birthday.
The Anniversary of the day I became a Mother. A Mother. When I saw him, I didn't know what that meant, to be a mother. After twenty-two years, I know that being a mother is re-learned many times in one's life.
I know that it is what I was put on earth to do. I am Zachary's mother.
I am Regan, Lucas, and Rosey's mother too, but I was Zachary's mother first.
The moment I became who I was meant to be, it was with the miracle of the birth of that boy.
My son.
I haven't celebrated a birthday with Zachary in years. That is why this day is celebrated in my heart more than "out loud" like I celebrate most other things.

Happy Birthday to the divine creature who was gifted to me twenty-two years ago today. In a silent prayer, I will request that he be safe, healthy and content.
I know that God has a plan for Zachary and I try each day to trust that plan will come true. It's not always easy, but it's what mother's do.

Miscellaneous

I've never understood complaints about long rehearsals. I am not usually a cast member, but I've always thought that long rehearsals would make things make more sense. I like that about FIRE. Long Saturday Rehearsals give a nice perspective about where the show is going and how it's shaping up.
That's how it is from my usual perspective as Production Assistant. I felt the same way yesterday, as a cast member.
The only down side for the long Saturdays is the number of people with conflicts on the weekends.
I've noticed, over my years as a "behind the scenes" contributor that most ensemble members don't have much of a sense of urgency about the show, so that trickles in when they are prioritizing. The advantage to a short production schedule is that we will be heading toward tech week soon and then everyone really pulls together.
Today is March 1.
WOW!

Quote from Souza

" For a long time it seemed to me that life was about to begin - real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be gotten through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life. This persective has helped me to see there is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way. So treasure every moment you have and remember that time waits for no one."

The light goes on!

It came to me today, as I stood in the shower...where I have some of my best ideas!
I am not memorizing lines, I'm memorizing conversations.
I have so very many conversations memorized (ask anyone who has ever said anything dumb that I quote back to them each chance I get). Conversations are what life is really made up of. Do we agree, do we disagree, do we fight, do we pause to hear what the other person is saying or are we simply thinking up what we're going to say next?
The conversations we have are what makes us who we are. Fanny's conversations are created by Isobel Lennart, so the words are contrived. They are educated guesses about what Ms. Brice might have said to the people in her life. That makes the conversations about relationships. That is what I have to work on. What is the depth of the relationships that are written for this show. How far can we go with words on a page and people who are pretending?
I am not a pretender.
This is going to be weird.
I love my cast mates. It is my fortunate situation to be in a show with people that I really do love. My Nicky has been my friend for 10 years. I love him. I think he's handsome, and fancy and anytime I've ever asked him to help me out, he has done it. He has impeccable taste and he thinks I'm funny...He also thinks I look like a supermodel in German Vogue, so that makes me love him more.
My Mother, Rosie Brice is a new person in my life who I feel very deeply connected to. She is a mom who loves her only son more than anything else. I was her, at her age, so she is like a mirror into my young soul. She is talented beyond any measure.
She is beautiful, funny, and generous, the perfect mother, and for the next six weeks, she's mine.
The Eddie Ryan character is a deeply developed relationship for Fanny. My Eddie is a young man who could be my son, but he's not. I was immediately drawn to him because he's familiar. Come to find out, his mother is from a neighboring town to the one where I grew up. Regional coincidence and the age similarity between myself and his mother have created a bond between us. My very best friend is a man, so there is no problem for me relating to Fanny loving Eddie regardless of his opinion of Nicky, the great love of her life. A long time ago, I had a similar relationship that caused my best friend the same anxiety that Nicky causes Eddie, so that is a very sympathetic "love affair" that I can relate to. Aren't our friends right...almost always?

The Photo

I was in Manhattan for my 25th High School Reunion Dinner in December of 2008. I made a point to stand in the shadow of the New Amsterdam Theatre. It was the home of the Ziegfeld Follies and Fanny Brice was a star there, within those very walls.
I went alone, so I could take a moment and think about how she felt when she walked through the stage doors. Of course there is an alley and you can see the actual path that she walked.
I was glad I went. I thought about the difference in the world since she was there.
She was a part of the biggest show on Broadway when she was with the Follies. She was, for a time, the biggest star. We don't see much of that in our time. We have
"stars" who don't have much talent. We have made celebrities out of ordinary people by virtue of "reality" t.v. There is no talent required. Broadway isn't a home for the gypsies of the Theatre anymore, it has become a commercial proposition where the actor may transition from film to stage as a novelty, regardless of their ability to execute the material with integrity that is unique to live theatre. It's unfortunate that many of the lines have been blurred.
The nature of Show Business has evolved for better or worse.
Maybe that's why I love the show Funny Girl, so much. Now that we're actually in production, I can see that it is as "simple" as I always thought it would be.
It's a story of a person. She was extraordinary, but she was a person with talent, feelings, and flaws. She happened to be funny, so that was a defense that worked for her in every public situation, including the humiliation of her husband's incarceration. Show business began and ended on the Broadway Stage in New York City at the time that Fanny was with the Follies. She was one of many members of a very successful company, but she had the something special that transcended the chorus.
What was that thing?
Who has it?
Most importantly, who decides who has it, or is anybody even looking for it anymore?

Slow and Steady

After rehearsal Tuesday, I was exhilerated. I do love the story of Funny Girl.
The words are easy for me to say. Fanny was a fast talker, a trait which has also been attributed to me.
I have spent several hours with my script since Tuesday and I'm trying to come up with a system that works for me to memorize so very much dialogue.
It won't be easy, but Fanny's conversations are much like ones that I might have myself. I just have to keep reminding myself that she's a person that I can relate to.
This is going to be interesting.
I feel like we're really getting started now.

Real Rehearsal

I'd say last night was the first "real" rehearsal, for me. The dancers have spent a lot of time working on the big numbers, but Fanny had to work last night.
It was orientation with the set and some entrances and exits as we read thru the script up until the big "Henry Street" number.
I know Fanny Brice pretty well, so the challenge will be learning the script, as it's written and being true to the woman that she was, not a character I get to create.
It is a daunting task to have a dream come true. The challenge is before me, and I have no choice but to succeed.
Assuming the role of cast member is weird, too. I'm used to trying to help Anita keep the order in the court, so to speak, and this is no longer my task. It is an adult rep show, and the teens that are involved are great. We don't have any behaviour problems at F.I.R.E. It wouldn't be tolerated.
So I am going to try to find a way to be entirely present through this experience.
I plan to seize the day that I got to play the only role I ever thought I might be good at, and I'm going to work hard at doing justice to the beautiful score.
That's enough, for me.
Thanks in advance to all my cast mates who will bring these people to life and who will see the look of panic in my eyes every time I go up on a line. Help a mother out and don't laugh, please!

F.I.R.E. Media Blitz!

Today, sweet Adam Sanders and I taped a radio interview for Magic 98.9, a local radio station.
Our hostess/interviewer was Monnie Whitson. She was a scream! Loved meeting her, and she really showcased our Company with great questions and her own spin on what we're doing.
Very enjoyable.
Adam is Danny Zuko and Monnie made him sing, off the cuff, acapela, and he was great. He's just a joy to work with in any circumstances.

Last night I found Funny Girl on Television and if you know me, well, you know that if I find one of "my" movies on television, I consider it a personal gift from the Universe so I was elated, and I took it as a good omen.

We're taking F.G. rehearsals rather slowly for the next couple of weeks in anticipation of the opening of Grease on February 13th.
I'm looking more and more forward to seeing these kids strut their stuff.
We are really doing something in Fountain Inn!

A Brand New Day

Apropo of nothing having to do with Funny Girl, I must talk about Barack Obama.
I voted for Barack. It is the first campaign in my 43 years on this earth that I actually worked for. I made phone calls on behalf of our new President. That fills me with pride because I feel like I'm a part of something big.
Now....many people whom I love do not agree with my opinion about the state of our union.
I understand. No one needs to agree with me. My last President wasn't that popular among my friends either, but I loved him and I still do.
I am proud to be an American today. I am proud that we have overcome the racial divide to elect the most qualified candidate.
President Barack Obama has the potential to change the world. He has already changed our country.
I kept my children home to watch the day unfold. The greatness of a country with a seamless transition of power. As George W. Bush boarded the helicopter to depart our Capital, I felt the lump in my throat as I wished him a silent farewell, and Godspeed. He served our country to the best of his ability. He wasn't the leader I would have chosen, but he was our leader.
He managed to squander an enormous amount of goodwill, worldwide in the months and years following 9/11/01.
President Obama is faced with the same challenge. The world is watching. He has this unprecedented opportunity to lead this Country out of the current darkness and into a brand new day. The moment was one that I will never forget and I'm happy that Regan, Lucas and Rosey were here with me as he was sworn in. They really didn't care that much, but in ten years, when they're grown up they will remember being in their pajamas with me in the family room at 420 Rochester Road, Easley South Carolina when their Mother's guy was sworn in.
Mommy has a President again.
And anyone who knows me, knows that I eventually meet my President and Barack has no idea that I'm in his future~

One vocal reherasal down!

Okay, so I'm not really a "singer"...I don't read "music" and I don't really hear "notes."..how can that be, you ask? No answer.
I sang professionally for several years and was fortunate to have musicians who appreciated the way I sound when I sing and audiences that could also take it.
As for theatre, I stayed away from musical theatre because of the tendency of music directors to be a little too academic about something that, to me, is very organic. That being said, I love Gwen Starling. She enjoys the sound that I make, even when it isn't the note that she sees on the page.
She is exactly the musical director that I need.
Then there is the actual role of Fanny Brice. The only person I really have to sing with is the lovely and talented John Brigham, who is the Nicky Arnstein of my dreams. Win/Win for me.
John wants to sound good, so he's willing to help me hear what I don't hear naturally and I think he's sure that we'll get it right, by March.
Fanny is pretty much a solo act. Is that why I've always wanted to play that part? Probably.
I, too, am a "bagel on a plate of onion rolls" when it comes to musical theatre. I am perfectly at home on the stage, on my own terms.
I love a microphone, no that's not hyperbole, I actually love two microphones, and I have the pouch that I carry them in to prove it. Just ask anyone who has ever had to perform with me.
I love the light. I close my eyes, and I'm going to have to stop doing that, but I feel what I'm singing and it doesn't always lend it's self to looking at anything, except the image of the song as I "feel" it. I really do feel it.
So, off I go. This is going to be an adventure for everyone who knows what they're doing and asks themselves, how did she get cast in this role? She doesn't even read music!
Some things just go together. Fanny Brice and the Spotlight, Me and the dream of playing Fanny Brice. It's something I've been waiting my whole life to do, and I don't even know if I knew I was waiting until one day when I sat down with that Anita Sleeman character and started talking about what we would do "if we had a theatre". We would do Funny Girl. It went on our list and now we do have a theatre so that's the way that went down!
I will be musically directed, and dramatically directed and I will find Fanny Brice and I will lay her out on the stage in Fountain Inn.
She will be okay in my loving care, I promise.

Just when you think you're doing something...

you hear the words, tumor...surgery...pathology...and they're not referring to you, they're referring to your four year old treasure named Rosey. Of course those of you who know me, know that I've already heard those words and I dealt with them on the condition that I didn't have to watch my children suffer. What happened to the deal I struck???
My youngest daughter Rosemary had a tumor removed from her belly on Tuesday. By all accounts, it was as big as a coconut. That defies logic, but it's true.
The final pathology wasn't what David and I were hoping for so follow up with Hematology/Oncologists are on the schedule for Wednesday this week.
The latest pact between my husband and I is that we can not look at each other and say "Can you believe this?" any more than once an hour and we must take turns saying it, because it's not fair for only one of us to get to say it every hour.
As we learned back when I had Cancer is that life does go on. You might not know what's around the corner, but life is certainly going on.
We'll be okay, because that's the family that we are. We have support from friends that is undeserved and yet never wavers, so we'll continue to sneak by on the belief that everything will be okay, because we've never been proven wrong in that belief.
Another story to tell about the year that I was Fanny Brice will be the story of the coconut tumor in Rosey's belly and how we kicked the butt of anything that reared it's ugly head in our world. That's what we do.
Thanks to all of you who help us do it.

" I hope you will have a wonderful year, that you'll dream dangerously and outrageously, that you'll make something that didn't exist before you made it, that you will be loved and that you will be liked, and that you will have people to love and to like in return. And, most importantly (because I think there should be more kindness and more wisdom in the world right now), that you will, when you need to be, be wise, and that you will always be kind"~ Neil Gaiman

Okay, so I'm quote happy!

I'll stop once rehearsals start and I have something else to post about. In the meantime, read these words and tell me that they don't start you thinking.

Tomorrow we read thru the script of Funny Girl...I really do have some nerve!

I totally stole this quote from a Blog that I regularly read but I always steal quotes. I credit them to whomever they're attributed to, but I collect them. I'll be sharing a lot of quotes.

" Language does have the power to change reality. Therefore, treat your words as the mighty instruments they are - to heal, to bring into being, to remove, as if by magic, the terrible violations of childhood, to nurture, to cherish, to bless, to forgive - to create from the whole cloth of your soul, true love." ~ Daphne Rose Kingman

I intend to be more impeccable with my words this year. They're powerful. I see the way they affect my children. They listen to me. Sometimes what I say isn't worthy of their attention, yet they listen. They don't always obey, but they listen.

What does this have to do with me being in Funny Girl? (I know that's what you're thinking.)
It has everything to do with being in Theatre and treating each other with kindness and love.
A loving environment makes for a safe place to explore what you're really capable of.
Theatre people aren't known for treating each other kindly, and that is something I'd like to see change.

She's really doing what, you ask? She's really going to portray Fanny Brice in Funny Girl...
Who cares if she's way to old or that she talks about herself in the third person...
I just stopped doing that, by the way.
So I've been considering a Blog, and this is a story that I think I'll have fun telling, so here we go.
Follow my adventure as I play the only role I've ever really dreamed of playing.
I'll begin rehearsal with a read-thru on Monday night, January 5th, then it is off to the races.
I should probably tell you a little bit about how this came about.
I belong to a Repertory Acting Company in Fountain Inn, South Carolina. I am also the Resident Production Assistant and Business Manager for our organization.
Because of the devotion of my friend and mentor, Anita Sleeman(Executive Artistic Director) when we started F.I.R.E. (Fountain Inn Repertory Experience) she chose Funny Girl for our Premiere Season, partly to shut me up and partly to make an old ladies dream come true. Theatre People are all about that kind of stuff. So, the decision was made and I have this script and now I have the orchestra book, and I guess that I'm really going to go through with this.
I know most of my cast mates and I love them. We are a group of crazies that have become a family in the past eight months during our productions of High School Musical 2, Godspell, Zombie Prom and Christmas by the F.I.R.E. Funny Girl will be presented in March...Forty Five Years to the Day that it opened on Broadway with Ms. Streisand in the Title Role. That's to the day if you count that it's the same Friday in March...the acutal Calendar date is off by one digit.
I added that bit of info because I know that there are Streisand fans that know the actual date and would say I lied, I didn't lie, I'm just looking at the Friday angle because it makes a better story.
This is the inaugural post of this blog. I chose today because it's January 2nd and I wanted to Blog this year and I'm doing it. (One resolution down!)
I hope you'll read on if you're interested in how a production like this comes together and what it's like to be the person who has an opportunity to make a dream come true.
Blessed is what I am and I hope that the blessings extend to everyone who is associated with this show.