There's No People Like Show People!

This past Wednesday evening I was at a party. It wasn't my birthday or a Holiday party. It was an Anniversary party, to be more specific, a 50th Anniversary Party. This 50th Anniversary was not being celebrated by a couple, though. It was the celebration of a theater that had been in business for 50 years. That, in itself, is huge, especially with the ups and downs of the economy since 1965. But this theater is so much more than a business. It's a family, and several guests said just that throughout the evening. The theater I'm speaking of is Swift Creek Mill or Swift Creek Mill Playhouse as I first knew it. Back in 1974 when I was in the 4th grade at St. Catherine's, I was doing a play. I was playing the Shoemaker's Wife in "The Shoemaker and the Elves." My drama teacher suggested that I audition at a professional theater getting ready to produce "The Music Man" She gave me the info, and my dad drove me down to Colonial Heights to Swift Creek Mill Playhouse on Route 1. I had never auditioned for anything before. First I had to sing. I sang a song we had just done in Junior Choir called God Who Touchest Earth with Beauty. Later we read scenes, and I read with other young actors. I was trying out for the role of Amaryliss, and I was thrilled when I was cast. We ran from June to November, and I got paid $5.00 a show. I was hooked. I had been "bitten by the bug" as they say. Shortly after Music Man closed I was cast in an original play by Ed Sala called Two Brothers, and then I was asked to be in a play called "Teahouse of the August Moon" The last play would change my life forever in many ways. Swift Creek is a long way from where I lived in 1975, and not being old enough to drive, if my parents could find an adult in the cast who lived fairly near us, I would ride with them. Gary Hopper was playing one of the lead parts in the show, and I joined their carpool. One Friday night on the way home from the show we were in a horrible accident when a drunk driver in a Cadillac ran a stop sign and hit our little Hornet that was packed with 6 people. The window exploded in my face, and I ended up getting over 100 stitches. You can imagine that I was afraid, and I didn't have either of my parents with me. The man sitting next to me in the car was Ed Sala, an actor who had  caught a ride home with us that night.He was not in the show but had waited tables for the dinner theater crowd that night. He rode with me in the ambulance to the hospital that night and visited me in the hospital every day until I was discharged, at least 2 weeks. We have remained life long friends. There's no people like show people! That was my last show at "The Mill" until almost 20 years later. I got a call to do "Into the Woods" The actress originally cast as Jack's Mom was leaving the production before it opened. I stepped in. Masterfully directed and designed by Tom Width, it is still one of my most cherished experiences in theatre! On the coattails of that show came a show called "Me and My Girl," a huge musical that would become the longest running show I would have the honor of being cast. We ran for over 100 performances and 7 months. As you can imagine with a run that long, we had several cast changes and swings. Few in the cast had the badge of never missing a performance. I almost made it, but the week before closing, tragedy struck again for me. I had a miscarriage, and I lost my first child. The outpouring of love I received from my theatre family was beyond wonderful! So much support and caring and cards and flowers. It made an awful situation bearable, and I returned to do the closing performance. There's no people like show people! 

My entire theatre career all began at Swift Creek. A wonderful group of people to grow up around. I learned to play Charades at Buddy Beer Nights, and I am not talking some friendly little game. It was highly competitive! My children got their first exposure to theatre at The Mill seeing the Children's series, and both have performed on the Mill stage. Leah, when she attended Theatre Camp and Georgi, inutero, as I was pregnant with her when I did "The Ugly Duckling" and "Rip Van Winkle" Swift Creek Mill will always be my true theatre family as they gave birth to my career and have nurtured me all along the way. I hope to be on their stage and in their audience many more times! Happy Anniversary, Swift Creek Mill Theater! Here's to 50 more!