"How" and "Why" I Got Involved In Theatre

Okay so now that I’ve admitted to “hanging around” Midland Community Theatre (MCT) for 35 years - still hard for me to believe - let me go ahead and tell you some more about me :-) and theatre.

Even though, I was involved throughout grade school with school plays (the earliest I remember was 2nd grade) ... but not in junior or high school, I got involved in being a “jock” (track, basketball, volleyball) “nuf said” (that theatre stuff was for pansies after all, wasn’t it?) AND even though my mother was big into always putting on the Christmas plays at the churches we attended (yes, my range was from angel, to - yes - even playing Joseph one year ... but in all fairness, I also got to play Mary one year!) ... I will simply add here that the year I played Joseph, I found out that you don’t want to be involved with LIVESTOCK on stage ... stubborn donkey wouldn’t budge and then had the nerve to step on my foot!

Sooooo, how did I hook up with MCT, because I never really thought of actually “doing” theatre after grade school?

I was in Student Government at Midland College when we were approached by MCT to partner in a spook house project. We the government :-) (always wanted to say that) decided that a spook house would be a good thing for the students to become involved in (and attend).

Sooooo, one night while I was preparing to work tickets and was speaking with a theatrical type (can’t remember who now), somehow it came up that I sang. As a theatre advocate, this person told me I should consider trying out for Oklahoma and told me when auditions were - I ... somehow ... decided I’d give it a go, these theatre folks seemed pretty nice (and funny).

Sooooo, I did go, I did get cast in the female singing ensemble and I had a blast running on and singing and running off (there was a separate female dance ensemble) ... that is when I decided I needed to learn to dance because as much fun as I was having, it appeared the dancers were having even a better time - at least a much more active time (as I mentioned I’d been a jock, so I was all about active!) (Over the coming years, I worked backstage ALOT and was onstage a bit here and there, until I gained more experience, knowledge and ability of being onstage .... at that point the backstage/onstage experiences became just about equal!)

... and, as they say ... now you know the rest of the story (well most of it anyway!)