That’s My Cue

BE WARNED. I’VE GOT ON MY THINKING CAP.

When that happens the dogs howl, babies cry and milk goes bad on the “Best if used by…” date. And I usually end up with my neck in a wringer.

What triggered my lobes into action was a feeling, a nostalgia, perhaps. I got an email from a local theater group that is holding auditions for their next production. I have no interest in that particular play, but it hit a responsive chord in my heart.

I was in my first play in 1968, a one-act during my junior year in college. My most recent was about six or seven years ago. During the intervening forty years or so I did quite a bit, sometimes three shows a year. (That is a lot if you are also trying to have a life and sleep once in a while).

I have done bit parts. I’ve done leads. I’ve even done a couple of musicals. I think there should have been a law prohibiting that. The size of the part was not all that important to me. It was the play as a whole and what I thought I could do with it that mattered.

What I’m feeling now is a longing to get back onto a stage. The last thing I did just about killed me physically. It put a strain on my body and every night it was a race to see what would be finished first, the play or me. It was a close call on several nights. If I am to try again I will have to be very selective. But I do want to try. That is the important thing.

I’m thinking that, now that I am retired, I won’t have the additional physical strain that I had to deal with while I was still working every day.

Since landing in Terre Haute (That’s French for, “Stage Left! No! Your other Left!”) I’ve done only four plays – three dramas and one kinda/sorta comedy. I do dramas better. Comedy is so subjective that I’m rarely in synch with the Playwright’s sense of humor. Dramas tend to be more universal.

So, that’s where I find myself this morning – halfway between wanting to strut my stuff again and thinking that maybe I need to get my meds checked.

The local theater group that sent me that email has been around for ninety years (I think some of the original members are still there) and they generally do a decent job. The local universities have strong Theater Arts programs and are a good source of actors. I have seen some excellent work here – and I’ve seen some dreck as well. That puts them in the same league as every other theater company I’ve ever known. I know dreck. I’ve been in dreck. I’ve turned some shows into dreck all by myself. Such is life.

I don’t know what the coming theater season has to offer. If any local readers know, please drop me a line or stop by my corner pew at St. Arbucks.

Maybe a small, intimate, earthshaking, spectacular? Hmmmm?

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