2013...An Amazing Year!

We've been in 2014 for about 2 1/2 hours, so I decided to sit down and write about my 2013 and maybe put a little bit out there about some things I might expect in 2014. I started 2013 doing something I love and I ended it the same way. I had the incredible fortune to get a call last January from a wonderful director that I had never had the opportunity to work with, Steve Perigard. He was directing Noel Coward's Hayfever for Va-Rep, and the actress playing the maid, Clara, had to drop out of the show. He was asking me if I'd like to do it. Well, of course I said yes, and thus began my year acting. It was a wonderful experience, and more importantly I made some amazing new friends. In the spring I took over the role of audience member and saw my baby tear up the role of Anita in her high school's production of West Side Story. Saying I was a proud mother would be an understatement. In the beginning of May I celebrated two things, my oldest having an incredible freshman year in college and the fact that I survived a year of not having her at home. In the summer I took a little break from the stage to watch both of my girls in productions of their own. In July I found out that I had been cast in one of my all time favorites, To Kill a Mockingbird, again with Va-Rep. We had a long rehearsal process and opened in September. It was a fabulous experience, and I got to meet Mary Badham, the Oscar nominated actress who played Scout in the film, a real treat for this film geek! When Mockingbird closed I went right into rehearsal, again for Va-Rep, for A Lugnuts Christmas, an original musical. That's how I closed out my year, and I will also start 2014 acting thanks to Va-Rep as Lugnuts runs for one more week. I have worked more as an actress this year than I have in my 40 year career, and I hope it will continue in 2014!
There were also some incredible losses in 2013. The person I called my father-in-law for 15 years lost his battle with several health issues, and left this world on his own terms. Shortly after his 50th birthday, my cousin left us quite unexpectedly, the victim of a pulmonary embolism. It really made me view my own mortality as he was one of the healthiest people I knew.
What will 2014 hold? For one I will watch my baby turn 18 in exactly one month from today. She will also graduate from high school, and I will officially become an empty nester, a little scary for me. This particular year will hold some rough challenges for me, but I have faith that God has always had a plan for me, and I will get through. "For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, plans to prosper and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jer. 29:11 

Who Was That Masked Man?

Wow! It's been a really long time since I've posted! Part of the reason for that is I was involved in a production of "To Kill a Mockingbird" that just closed. It was a wonderful experience as the story has always been one of my favorites. I've seen the movie several times, but doing the stage production really made me explore some different sides to issues raised in the story. One question that came up particularly interested me. Each Friday night after the show we would have a talkback. For those who don't know or have never participated in one, a talkback is a time set aside after the show for the cast to answer questions from the audience. Because of the legal nature of the show, many times our moderator was someone from the world of law. Our moderator on this specific evening was a judge from juvenile court. SPOILER ALERT!! She posed the question that with Atticus Finch having so much legal integrity, why was he willing to participate in a cover-up in regards to the death of Bob Ewell? If you've never seen or read the story, Bob Ewell, the town pariah and general despicable human being, and a white man, has accused a black man, falsely, of raping his daughter in order to keep the real truth from coming out that she hugged and kissed  this man after inviting him into their home under the pretense of helping her with a chore. Atticus is appointed to defend the Negro, and even though he knows he is fighting a losing battle, the truth comes out in court. In retaliation Ewell goes after the Finch children one night with intent to harm them and very likely kill them. The town recluse and resident "crazy", Boo Radley, comes on the scene and stabs Bob Ewell with a kitchen knife and kills him. Upon the sheriff discovering the body, he tells Atticus that, "Bob Ewell fell on his knife." As sheriff, it is his decision how to handle the situation. Atticus doesn't challenge the sheriff, and the story ends with no one knowing the act of Boo Radley and he is left to live out his reclusive days in peace. So... did Boo Radley murder Bob Ewell? Was it a cover-up? Read the book or see the movie or play and draw your own conclusions, but my feeling is NO! In my opinion Boo was more a hero or guardian angel for the Finch children that night. If he had not shown up when he did, most certainly Bob Ewell would have killed them.  If you've ever seen any of the old Lone Ranger TV shows, he always rode in on his horse, Silver, saved the day, and then disappeared into the dust of the West without praise or adulation, leaving all to question, "Who was that masked man?" Boo Radley was Maycomb County's Lone Ranger for one night when he was needed the most and then never to be seen or heard from again. "High Ho, Silver and away, Boo!"

Someone Else's Skin

I can't remember the very first time I saw the film, To Kill a Mockingbird. I believe it was somewhere around my early 20's. I will turn 50 this October, and in the last 30 years I have probably watched it at least 5 times. I loved the film, and was even set to name my second child Atticus, but God gave me a girl. Seeing the film almost 30 years ago you would think that at sometime I would have read Harper Lee's novel that the book was based on. I am ashamed to say that I had not, until now. Back in July, I was cast in a local production of To Kill a Mockingbird. In some of our very early rehearsals, the director suggested that we read the novel to get a real feel of the background of the fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama, the setting for Lee's story. So, 2 weeks ago, I trotted into Barnes and Noble and bought the novel. Now, I am not much of a reader. It's not that I don't enjoy reading, I've just always been a child of television and movies. It was like pulling eye teeth to get me to do any of reading in high school. I became the master of skimming to get the general idea. In fact, I became so good at it, that I once received an A+ on a critical analysis I turned in on D. H. Lawrence's Sons and Lovers, a book I never read, but only skimmed with this comment, "This is one of the best critical analyses I have ever read on this book!" Go figure. So...I got lazy and coasted most of the time when it came to required reading. This time was different. I was really reading this book for research for a part on the stage, my true passion. I am so glad that I did. I finished it today, exactly two weeks after I started it. I cried several times. I laughed, and I thought....a lot! This book was written in 1960, 3 years before I was born. It's setting takes place in 1935, but the themes are just as relevant today, maybe even more so. Many people think this book is about race, black and white, and how we treat each other, and to some degree it is, but it's so much more. Atticus, after finding that his daughter, Scout, has had some trouble with her teacher at school tells her, "If you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you'll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view...until you climb into his skin and walk around in it." I don't know about you, but I think that one simple trick, as Atticus puts it, is the answer to world peace. I can't say that I always do that as I encounter people each day. I'm surprised, considering I must have heard my grandmother say a million times that we should follow the golden rule. If you don't know what that is, I'll enlighten you, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." As I read this beloved story, Harper Lee put me in someone else's skin several times, the falsely accused Tom Robinson, the physically abused Mayella Ewell, the neglected Dill Harris, the poverty stricken Cunninghams, the courageous addict, Mrs. Dubose,  and of course, the reclusive Boo Radley. As I "walked around" in their skin, I learned a thing or two about myself, and hopefully next time a situation arises,  I won't be so quick to pass judgement or assume the worst about someone, and maybe, just maybe, they might extend me the same courtesy.