Performing as Dolly

Thoughts on theatre.

Hello Dolly has been a blessing and a frustration all at the same time.
I want this show to be so good...then I look around and have to remember it's Community theatre, not Broadway and many people in my cast have never been in a show before.

What I like about Community theatre is giving new people opportunity to be on stage.  What I don't like about Community theatre is new people on stage who have never been in a show before.  I want to put in the program that this is their first show so the audience gives them a "break" and appreciates what they are trying to do ...but it doesn't work that way.   I want it to be a good experience for everyone, but it's a much longer process because they are in it.

I was getting totally stressed out thinking about the quality of performances or lack there of...and lack of commitment to the show from some actors....especially the know-it-all teenagers who are always on their phones....but all that was doing to me was making me stress EAT!   SO I have come to the re-realization that I'm only in charge of me and my performance.  That's all I can do.

The rehearsal process has kind of felt like "commando" theatre where we are all just hunkering down waiting for the battle to begin ... the battle with costumes and props , with remembering movement and stage directions, with attitudes and keeping everyone pumped up to perform.   Art isn't easy.

But.....
I do love this process though...meeting new people, learning the songs, memorizing the script, working on character and back story....then putting it all on stage with other actors to hopefully tell a beautiful story that the audience will be interested in.

I love playing Dolly.  She is a bucket list role for me, with amazing songs and an iconic character. Dolly is a "broken" person who had a great active life with her husband but when he passed away she just  locked up her heart and emotions and just went into meager living mode trying to make ends meet.  When our story starts, Dolly is tired of living this way and wants to "rejoin the human race."  She has a plan to marry a man- actually a family friend- who has money.  She just needs to convince this widower that she is the right girl for him.  Hello Dolly is about awaking up to life again, taking charge and embracing all of it, the tears and the joy.

And one more thing..........my costumes are amazing!  I have 5 gorgeously designed dresses..the only problem is they are all so heavy with layers of corsets and bustles and petticoats and hats and gloves and purses for all of them.   I will be sweating up a storm every night.  The hats are heavy and I have already had a nightmare that the hats  pull my red wig off while on stage.   I must admit I'm a bit worried about that.  I have to make sure I get my wig really anchored into my own hair.

Why is there so much drama with drama?

Curtain call..

                                                    Me with Wendy Inkley as Irene Malloy...

Director and theatre BFF Jan Smith is the director