As the characters started appearing, one caught my interest. Marjoe Gortner, the child evangelist turned actor. I headed to IMdb to check out his page.
As I scrolled through his credits a title jumped out at me.... "When You Coming Home Red Ryder". Written by the same author as Agnes of God
, Mark Medoff. Wow...Here is where the trivia comes into play. Back in 1987 I was living in Columbus, GA and had a chance to do some community theater (at the historic Springer Theater)...something that I had wanted to do since I was a kid. I tried out twice and got roles twice. Not bad...LOL!
The first play I was in was "Pack of Lies". It was a small role, playing an inspector from Scotland Yard. For whatever reason my British accent was much more like a Scottish one, but I still got a laugh when I was supposed to. The fun part was working under a director from New York City.
The second play I had a much bigger role. The play was "When You Coming Home Red Ryder" and I played the role of Clarisse Ethridge, one of the four main characters. I learned a lot of building a character from our director, a local man. I also got to say the only "Goddamn" in the play. Remember, this was southern bible belt territory. You could say "damn" and you could say "God" but you couldn't say "Goddamn".
The play was a huge success and I had fulfilled something I'd always wanted to do. If I had a decent singing voice, which I don't, I would have done a lot more with the theater...most plays were musicals, not dramas as were the two I was in.
Not long afterwards we moved to Rochester, NY and my stint in the theater was over but never will be forgotten.
Till next time - keep on rollin',
Donna and Stu
Stu and Donna
Too bad you didn't stick at it. With all your Froggi knowledge through the years you might have had a starring role in the Muppet Movie years later:))
ReplyDeleteLittle theater is fun, although yours sounds a lot bigger than ours. Suzy and I were very invloved in the Butte (MT) Community Theater for several years, plaing in Arsenic and Old Lace, Music Man, Shot in the Dark, Cactus Flower, and a few others. What fun we had! We'll have to get together and swap backstage secrets!
ReplyDeleteGood for you! My sis loved theater, and our granddaughter, age 12, has been in Wizard of Oz and Annie through a Christian Youth Theater Group in our area....Fulfilling a dream is an important thing to do in one's life..now go out and fulfill another!
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