2023, Fantasy, Theatre, Uncategorized

What’s Your Role?

30 Comments

One of my reasons for moving back to Luverne, MN, after I retire is the town theater. I have posted about it before. It is an old but well preserved vaudeville theater that is still the center of town activity. Current movies are shown regularly, as well as live concerts. and there is an active local theater group that puts on plays and musicals.

I want to act. I want to be in a play even if I am the maid. I haven’t participated in theatre activities here because I work full time and I have too many odd relationships here to feel I could really let go and act as the character I was given.

I know there aren’t many roles for women my age, but I am hopeful I could find someone to portray.

What role would you want in a play or musical? Who did you pretend to be when you were a child? What roles have you had?

30 thoughts on “What’s Your Role?”

  1. I’m 71. I have a similar “wanting to be on stage” thing, which, in my case, I should have taken care of while in high school. But I chose poorly, so carried it into adulthood, and now into my senessence. I got my “stage” thing pretty well taken care of by becoming a preacher. What’s good for all around is that I gave that up soon after retiring.
    There’s an active community theater in the city where I now dwell. I’d look into it as something more than a theater-goer, but a statement by a Minnesotan (G. Keillor) in a skit some years back on being involved with all the craziness that goes on in such organizations has kept me back. I’m content to remain an observer and enjoyer of the plays. I might even consider being a donor to the organization, but my stage and pulpit days are over (with the exception of being an occasional scripture reader in church).

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    1. I encourage you to try it. You don’t have to get involved in the craziness… it may or may not involve a lot of time; it depends on the show. But if you stay out of the backstage drama (and that varies by the median age of the cast, and just various personalities) and you avoid the ‘Board of Directors’ / producers drama, it can be a real fun experience.

      Start off painting, ushering, or building, or whatever interests you. Get the feel of the place and people. Then you can decide.

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  2. Rise and Shine, Baboons,

    No latent acting aspirations here. Being onstage is not something that appeals to me at all. I love to watch plays and musicals (with the exception of Bye Bye Birdie—yuck) and I liked being it the pit orchestra. But onstage. Nope. My next roles are Master Gardener Volunteer, traveler, artist. The

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      1. This weird! I must be getting some censored version of the Trail Baboon. No matter how much I refresh my page, or even restart my computer, whatever photo Clyde posted isn’t showing up in my version of the blog. Can everyone else see it?

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        3. My daughter shot a nice picture of a lady slipper at the arb. It happened to be the first one taken. So they shared it.
          Clyde

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  4. My mom and my sister were in musicals… I once tried out for the role of Golda in a community theater production of Fiddler on the Roof – was accepted into the chorus, but realized there were 4 rehearsals a week that summer, and I had a toddler – gave it up.

    Closest I come now is last winter when I pretended to be a choir director…

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  6. Morning –
    Right up my alley, this one.
    I grew up in 4H doing the One Act Plays. I think Mom pushed me into that as she was helping anyway. No one else in my family did theater, nor did she growing up. I wonder why she did? I’d guess they needed all the boys they could find.

    In high school I found out about the technical side and the rest is history. Although being onstage once in a while is fun too. It’s a different energy than being backstage, in the booth, or building it the month ahead of time. (See, there I go with “energy” again).

    I always wanted to be ‘Hysterium’ (Jack Gilford in the 1966 movie) and I can’t sing any better than him.
    I was told once I wasn’t emotional enough to be a real actor. They were right to a point; many actors are self -absorbed narcissists… Some are really nice! Even some of the narcissists are nice, you just need to avoid getting them going on themselves. 🙂

    I mentioned the cast of ‘Raisin In the Sun’ and how many are new. Last night was a guest audience, called a ‘preview’. They really liked the show and it was good to get that energy(!) to the cast. Talking with one new man, he has done some church speaking but nothing like this before. I told him, he’s got a good loud voice, and he can memorize lines, he’s almost cast already! I hope many of these people come back again and keep it up.

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  7. I can’t imagine myself acting. The last time I did was in elementary school. I’m sure I was horrid. With my musical background, I could handle being the director of the pit orchestra. Don’t worry Jacque, I’ll give you the solos if/when they come up. 🙂

    And, I’m a benevolent dictator-style director. No ranting at the musicians. But I can give a pretty good stink-eye if you’re out of tune. 😉

    Chris in Owatonna

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  8. In 9th grade I had a bit part in “The Miracle Worker” – cured me of any acting ambitions. I loved being in the pit band for high school musicals – clarinet first two years and piano the third.
    I do adore going to the theatre – both musical and non-musical productions – but have no desire to be up on the stage.

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  9. I choose Hamlet. “2B or not 2B. Where did I park is the question ”
    I pretended to be Roy Rogers.
    Zero stage roles. I had a Fargo talk radio role as President of the NFL. Norwegian ___ ___. I’d fill in the blanks to reflect current political issues. The hosts enjoyed the comedy.

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    1. I forgot to add that I pretended to be , and for a period thought I was, Annie Oakley. I roamed our little town on my stick horse rescuing poor animals and chasin’ them Bad Guys.

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  10. I was a theater geek in high school and college. But with one exception, I was always behind the scenes. Scenery, props, costumes, assistant directing, even gripping. The one and only time I ever tried out for a play was in college, The Children’s Hour. I played ….wait for it… the maid! I had two lines, although you can’t really say “yes ma’am” and “no ma’am” are lines. It actually kind of cured me of wanting to be on the stage. Seems like it was a whole lot of sitting around and waiting to not do much. I preferred all the other activities.

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  12. When I was a senior in high school I played Anne Frank in the Diary of… I really enjoyed it and I think I played her well. I’ve often thought if trying out for community theater but have never quite got around to it.

    There were two unfortunate circumstances in my high school acting debut and finale. The director thought that I should look more waif-like and since there wasn’t much she could do about my figure, but she thought she could do a little something with my hair. I agreed to let her trim my bangs. She started them half-way to the back of my head and ended them a couple of inches above my eyebrows. It was so bad that my Dad took me downtown the next day and bought me stylish, human hair wig the I know he absolutely could not afford and I wore it through most of the rest of my senior year.

    The other incident was all my fault and I regret it to this day. My mom had a changing room divider screen that I thought would be a real plus backstage. I brought it to school and when I went to take it home after the play was over, it was gone. Someone else apparently liked it too. Bummer!

    I have a cousin in Tulsa who was active for years in multiple levels of local theater. She slowed down a few years ago, but missed it and is now taking a class on acting for TV and commercials and has had several auditions and small parts in a couple of movies on a streaming service I’d never heard of. She just turned 70 and is having a ball!

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  13. Realized I forgot to answer some of the questions.
    I would be someone called Abby when we played pretend, or June. So when I landed at a receptionist job where I was replacing another Barbara, I just became Abby in that setting. I still can tell when I met someone if they call me Abby…

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  15. I was in every school play at the boarding school and through high school. Had the lead role in the senior play. At the boarding school, I was always in the Christmas pageant as well, usually as an angel, which required every acting skill I could muster.

    As a girl scout, we would occasionally perform skits on special occasions, like at the annual Sankt Hans Aften festivities (Midsummer celebration). On one of those occasions I recall also assisting the magician who was hired to perform for the assembled crowd.

    No adult acting experience or aspiration, though I couldn’t tell you why. It was lots of fun as a kid, and I loved it.

    I don’t recall ever pretending to be someone else.

    At this stage of my life, I could perhaps play the Miss Daisy in Driving Miss Daisy.

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  16. When I was in high school I was terrified of any kind of public speaking or theater….until my senior year when  I took a public speaking class. My first speech I was so terrified that everyone noticed especially the teacher. By the end of the year I was able to give a speech at a graduation event. But public speaking/theater went underground until Leadville, Colorado when I lived with a high school theater teacher. She chose me to play a nurse in the play “Harvey the Rabbit” and when I moved back to Minnesota I played in several community theater plays until I was invited to direct…so for years I directed one acts that were performed with high school one acts….rehearsals in January, plays the first weekend of February. I directed. Funny ones always. I so enjoyed researching and choosing scenery and costumes! Then the Barnum Community Theater closed down. I enjoyed it but it also exhausted me because I was still working full time at MPR in Duluth (30miles from Mahtowa). I think (as I recall) I directed for at least ten years. The first play was a melodrama, the last play was an Irish play by Lady Gregory Wm Butler Yeats friend) which we had done once before. I also put a play together based on the Norwegian folk tale “Tatterhood.”Such good memories! Thanks for asking. Cynthia “Life is a shifting carpet…learn to dance.”

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