I am the luckiest person on the planet! I get to be in my dream show The Scarlet Pimpernel at CenterPoint Legacy Theatre in Centerville UT. I don’t say I am the luckiest because it’s been an easy show. Oh no, it’s been a beast! Blood, sweat, tears, occasionally wanting to quit(not really….but), and my favorite; bizarre phantom show bruises that pop up in the weirdest places! But it goes along with all those clichés about things that are hard being worth it. Through seemingly endless rehearsals and hours spent on things like how to work those da@# storybook ribbons our cast, crew, and production team have come together to create something truly extraordinary.
This show has been life-changing for me and while I don’t want to get into uber-personal melodrama I will mention three lessons a la pimpernel.
1. How to truly get outside of myself.
I mainly think ofthe Madame Guillotine number in regards to this. We have a brilliant director, Scott Montgomery, who kept pushing and pushing us to move out of our comfort zone. I remember thinking “Okay, well you asked for it” and just threw myself into that number. Best rehearsal ever! Forget that you are acting psychotically demented, forget that your fellow actors are watching from about two feet away. Just take all the rage and anger you can sum up and throw it out there. Then to get feedback about that scene being “the creepiest scene I’ve ever scene in musical theatre” and that you were “terrifying”. Done and done! I tend to worry incessantly about what people think of me and to be able to get past that has been hugely inspiring for me.
2. How to let go of things that you can’t control.
Doing shows I get to see friends and have late-night parking lot chats or balcony chats or dressing room chats with my fellow actors and I consider these people some of my dearest and closest friends. I am often surprised with how people are sent to tell you exactly what you needed to hear exactly when you needed to hear it. Special thanks to Todd Wente for listening and having the perfect words. I love this show but being a perfectionist and well, just the way I am, there were things I struggled with. I had to learn to let go of some things and it has been a clouds opening sunbeam streaming down moment at times…still have to work on it. 😉
Here’s the most personal part so please if you don’t want to hear about it STOP reading. 😉
3. How to stop hiding.
So the past four years ….yadda yadda yadda…and in the spring things came to a head and I decided to cut ties and walk away but I ended up just walking into a cave. Human nature perhaps. Anyway, I feel like I have been awol for the last seven months and it is just so annoying. We had a rehearsal where our director was telling us how proud he was of us for working so hard when so many members of the cast where dealing with really difficult things. Now I know about a few but not all. I wish I did. It would be nice to help if I could. I know that two of our ladies have had their husbands deployed and it is all sorts of scary. I think of another of our ladies who is expecting her first child and was so terribly “morning sick” during our preview that we were afraid for her and she would NOT quit. In the legend of the Blarney stone you can leave your troubles behind as long as you take someone else’s. The point being that you end up walking away with your own. I’ll take mine. I may not be completely free but I check facebook more than once a week, I actually walk into the green room sometimes and most importantly {though you may not understand why this is such a big deal} I brought my camera to the show.
Here’s is a link to my photo essay “Backstage at the Pimpernel”
website: http://www.illuminephotography.com/scarletpimpernel
facebook: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151115321083727.438338.111853783726&type=1
The facebook one won’t let me put them in order yet so my website is the better link. Anyway, these are images taken mostly on October 10, 2012 with a few from October 17 to round out the story. This is the Monday/Wednesday/Friday cast with a couple of exceptions. These are images of things/people that make me laugh, that I want to remember, and just what goes on. I love this show, this cast, crew, and production team. I will never, ever, ever, forget any of you. Much love!
Like this:
Like Loading...