Just like that

Today I was called by a director I worked for last fall, and he asked me to play one of the girls in this play. I'm not familiar with the script, but the playwright is sharp, I know half the cast, and of course trust the director. So next week I'll be in rehearsals and in less than a month I'll be in front of an audience again.

And just like that my stage hiatus comes to a close.

Sit down, you're rocking the boat: Theatre Thursday

When people find out that I'm an actress and my husband is a pastor the question that most often follows is some variation of "how does that work?"

To begin with, I am not what most people think of as your average church goer, let alone your average pastor's wife. You've probably picked up on that already. But faith is obviously an important part of my life, and I haven't done any shows that conflict with that. Sure, I've played characters that aren't model citizens doing things that are highly questionable, but as an acting teacher once said "I don't have to like Jason to play him and tell the story of Medea." It's about the story.

When I'm working on a show we don't advertise it at church. It doesn't go in the newsletter, I don't hang up posters. Largely this is because we can't do that for everything that everyone is involved in, and so we don't show special favor to my activities. Also, it helps control the information.

Most people know I'm an actress. Some of them keep abreast of what I'm up to, and a lot of them don't. I will always share what I'm working on when I'm asked. I know who is most likely to come see my show, either because they are regular theatre goers or because they are friends who want to support me. Those are the people who get sent e-mails and handed postcards inviting them to the show and giving them the details.

I always warn people about anything they might find shocking - language ("I use the f-bomb. A lot"), sexual situations, kissing, creating my own raunchy lyrics, etc.

The kissing seems to be the hardest thing for most people. I had a huge group of friends from church come to my last show, and their reaction to the kissing was pretty funny. They hid behind programs, were shocked that it looked like I enjoyed it. One 17 year old boy commented "I'm scarred for life." (His mother, on the other hand, said "I was just happy for you that he was cute.")

I've never been naked on stage. I have a general rule against it, although might consider breaking it for the right show. (Not that people are beating down my door asking me to do nude scenes. Although I did turn down the chance to be topless in an independent film about 8 years back.)

So far nothing I've done on stage has caused a problem.

I have done some shows that could be controversial - sexy, scandalous shows that have some pretty serious things to say about sex and politics and war and disease. Ive also done shows that are pure entertainment. And lots of shows in between.

Holly asked some interesting questions after my last Theatre Thursday post.

I'm intently curious with thoughts on how your congregation took in the triumvirate of controversial shows [The Vagina Monologues, Cabaret and Angels in America]? All have historical and political significance -- but do push socially touchy buttons. Did they just sort of take it in, in order to support you, and then shake it off later? Or did it make an impact in the sense of changing how they may think about war, or disease, or sexuality?

I'm not sure that the shows themselves had a huge impact, at least not that anyone shared, but I would say that being friends with me may have. I know that the people who came to my shows knew about many of my politics. They met my gay friends and in some cases welcomed them into their home, something that had never happened before. They heard me talk about the shows and why they were important to me. So it's hard to say where the impact of the show begins. Certainly there were folks who never would have gone to those shows had I not been involved. I do like to think that I broadened their minds a bit.

My husband has never had a problem with any of the shows I've done. We do talk a bit about how much to talk up certain things and around whom. Neither of us are afraid to rock the boat a bit, but we're also careful in how we do it. Maybe someday the boat will tip over. But so far, so good.

______

As long as I'm answering questions, Erin asked:

Now, about that naked man...

In Angels in America there is a scene in a hospital where the nurse (me) is checking out Prior's lesions, and he has to disrobe. It's not a sexy scene at all.

14 thousand words

Here are some photos of the grand time we had on vacation. In no particular order.

Rock slide! This would have been painful even if I hadn't fallen on a large rock on our hike to the slide. It was still fun, but oh, my aching bum...


Peering at a puffer fish at the Ripley Aquarium in Gatlinburg.



We went up this Sky Lift, and it was at the top that we saw the bear!

My family in front of the largest stalactite in Forbidden Cavern.


If you look closely you will see The May Queen sitting on a log in the middle of this picture. Isn't it gorgeous?We spent a lot of time in this forest.

And no vacation is complete without food. MQ enjoyed the pizza pies we cooked over the fire.
S'mores for desert!mmm.... Watermelon!

Morris Dancing

While on vacation I read Disobedience by Jane Hamilton, and found this fun little bit about Morris Dancing, a May Day tradition:

The morris dancing we learned as children requires a set of four couples, eight dancers who skip like hell in various figures, knock sticks together, or flick their white hankies heavenward. The origins of the tradition are lost, but it probably has something to do with the pan-European agrarian fertility rites, and celebrations at sowing and harvest time. By the Industrial Revolution it was a bonding deal for the men in the English Midlands. They'd get up early on May Day, dancing at establishment after establishment, begging for beer with their performances along the way, getting drunk and then drunker as the day wore on. A lot of the older women at camp did morris dancing for a workout, morris dancing, the pagan precursor to the aerobic worship of the body, minus the spandex and the hand weights.

Red

I'm standing in the kitchen. My husband walks in.

"Your hair is red."

"I know, I dyed it."

"It's RED."

"I know, I dyed it!"

Many of you have asked for a picture and update on my new dye job.

I tend to be the picture taker in my family, but I was able to find a few of myself among the vacation photos.

The red is most noticable when the light is hitting it just right. This often means that the top of my head is flaming red while the bottom looks almost regular brown.

As I've had it for longer it seems to be settling in; I think it looks more red than it did when I first dyed it.

I don't hate it, but I'll be going back to my regular color. I've noticed that it has changed what I look good in. For instance, red. I love wearing red, and am often told it's a great color on me, but with the new haircolor... not so much. Purple is weird now, too.

People did notice, and I got some compliments and some "um... I don't care for it" (mostly from family). Fortunately it wasn't horrendous.

But I have a new appreciation for brown.

Lessons from my vacation:

Never trust a 6 year old to apply sunscreen to your back.

Nieces are cute, until they teach your child to repeat every word you say.

Bears like garbage.

Hiking is good exercise, and a far cry less boring than an elliptical machine.

I'm out of shape.

The May Queen is a champion hiker.

The prettiest rocks are in the national forest, and you are not allowed to take them.

But you can find some nice rocks in streams outside of the national forest.

I'm glad I don't have a DVD player in my van, but glad I have a portable one for long days of travel.

Camping in a trailer with a bathroom and a holding tank of water comes in handy when a construction crew hits a water main and water is shut off in the whole area, forcing the campground to lock the bathroom doors.

A decade later and in a different state, but they are still singing many of the same songs at camp.

The Happy Meal law of supply and demand: you will keep stopping at McDonald's and buying their crappy food in hopes of receiving the coveted SCRAT Ice Age toy, which obviously does not exist, and is only dangled before small children as an incentive to get them to ask to eat at McDonald's for every meal.

If you buy just the toy and not the Happy Meal, the toy will cost you $1.49.

Sliding down a natural rock slide in mountain water that is just this side of freezing numbs you enough that you almost don't notice all the bruises you're getting. ALMOST.

Just because you've recently spent nigh on $1300 to have your air conditioner fixed and it's working when you leave home doesn't mean it will be working when you arrive at your destination.

Traveling 14 hours (including stops) in one day in a van with no air conditioner through the south eastern United States will NOT kill you.

But the migraine at hour 13 comes pretty close.

Kittens grow quite a bit in 2 weeks.

Nothing says "welcome home" like endless laundry and a trip to the grocery store.

Baring it: Theatre Thursday

I'm still out hiking through the hills, so I will sate your Theatre Thursday lust with these gratuitous photos from backstage at Cabaret. When I auditioned I told the director that I would be comfortable wearing lingerie on stage, but that after giving birth (nearly 2 years prior) no one really wanted to see my bare stretch marked belly.

I'm second from the left. I LOVED those big fishnets, and wish I could find the guts to wear them in real life. Mein Herr. Singing in German and dancing on a chair. Good times.

Money makes the world go 'round. (I'm on the far right)

Oh! That reminds me about how I would practice the songs while driving in the van. The May Queen was about 20 months old, and would ask me to play Money over and over again... she loved the part when the EmCee would make the raspberry sound! She would giggle and giggle and do it herself and giggle some more!

Don't Tell Mama that I posted this picture a few weeks ago when I wrote about understudying.

There were some people from my church at the time... you know, the one my husband was a pastor for... who came to see the show. They were only mildly scandalized. After all, I had already done The Vagina Monologues, and was just getting them warmed up for Angels in America. I didn't bare much flesh in that show, but I did share a stage with a naked man.

(and may I just say that now I am singing "Money makes the PANTS go down, the PANTS go down, the PANTS go down..." Do the PANTS never end??)