We saw Spamalot this weekend, as preformed by the Island Players on St. Simons Island.
Of course, it would have been better if I had a picture of an actual cast member that I could have used rather than this generic picture, but I tend to get bitten especially bitten by my shyness when I ask other people for their pictures. Oh, well. I will try to better in the future.
It was a magnificent show. It is the most I had ever laughed at a theater production. It was a brilliantly funny play, very ably performed. All the characters were hilarious, and the Lady of the Lake was an off the charts great songstress. I did not detect a single false note.
The Island Players have been in existence a very long time, even longer than WACT (Waycross Area Community Theater). And some of the people in the play had been involved with their theater group for many years, some over forty years! One of the gentlemen in the play, the blurb in the playbill mentioned his wife, who is also invoked in the theater and their marriage of 64 years! That means one of the performers was in his late seventies and/or early eighties! And he was not the only senior onstage, not by far!
So here I am this weekend, faced with the daunting task of memorizing my lines for Scrooge in A Christmas Carol. The memorization is coming slow and difficult. I see in our production, filled with many young people, I am by far the senior player. Maybe I'm too old to take this on.
And then I think of the fine group I saw perform Spamalot, some of whom were considerably older than me, They pulled it off with such aplomb and confidence that it re-inspires me that I can do it too!
Although the production of A Christmas Carol is a month away, they want us to start not having the script onstage tonight. Even with my Spamalot inspired confidence, I am still very worried. I hate to hold the performance back by constantly calling for lines. Part of the problem is that I try to memorize the lines exactly as written. I am not a "painter" - someone who sort of knows their lines and fills it in with whatever words they can think of to make it work. I know of a lot of very good actors that do this, I'm just not one of them.
Football continues to sink from our horizon. Alison is sorely disappointed in the Falcons. She has gone form hoping to a berth in the Super Bowl, to just hoping Tony Gonzalez and Matt Ryan end the year uninjured. Michigan imploded against Michigan State,showing their is still a lot of work to do before the Wolverines are top tier. I am grateful the Bulldogs pulled it out against Florida. Of course, national championship hopes have been long since dashed, so that game might be the highlight of their year.
The painful nattering and vicious attacks against "Obamacare" continue, fueled by the botched website. Really, people, if you don't have a constructive plan to offer, I wish you would stop acting like the only thing in health care that matters is YOUR premium and YOUR access to healthcare. They are important, but not as important as making sure that EVERY American is covered. I am so tired of it. It's like watching a toddler pull a three year hissy fit. It gets so exhausting after awhile. This is YOUR plan, my right wing friends, emerging from the Heritage Foundation and Romneycare. It tries to preserve the private insurers whom I feel should be thrown on the dustbin of history. You want private insurers? You want individual responsibility? YOU GOT IT! Quit whining and help make YOUR plan work!
Until next time,
T. M. Strait
No comments:
Post a Comment