ACTING SERIOUSLY

We moved from Chicago to a small town in Ohio where I envisioned sitting on my front porch and waving to the neighbors as they walked by, but we couldn’t find a home with a front porch and majority of the neighbors were old time residents not really interested in newcomers.

There was an article in the local newspaper about a group starting a civic theater. I attended the first meeting with about six or seven of the town’s people.  Their first order of business was to elect officers. Each of them got a title and I became the only member.

I stayed in the background as they made plans for the future.  The first production was “You Can’t Take It With You” and my role was Essie the dancing daughter. I had never done a straight acting part so I was interested in preparing for my character. My part called for interacting with the young woman who was playing my sister. We were to have a little sibling rivalry but she couldn’t understand the concept not having had a sister, so I asked did she ever fight with her husband.  No, she never did. It became a lost cause.

My character always wore a tutu and was constantly dancing in the background.  At one point in my stretching exercises I got my foot stuck on top of the buffet and hobbled around trying to get it down. No one seemed to laugh.  The reviewer said he liked my quiet humor in the background.  Later some audience members told me they thought I was hilarious but were afraid to laugh out loud and ruin the scene. The townspeople were not very sophisticated theater goers.