In second grade, I was not picked to participate in an Arbor Day program. I was bitterly disappointed and had to wait until 4th grade to make my first stage appearance. I was given a small speaking part as First Mother in the school operetta Rip Van Winkle. My first line: "Hurry home children, a storm is coming." I can remember the excitement of getting into costume and makeup for our performance. But more than that, I remember going on stage and feeling a warm and happy glow when I saw the audience for the first time. This was where I wanted to spend my life!
In 5th grade, we had a very progessive teacher, Miss Lile, who put us into cooperative learning groups to write and perform plays. I had just read a kid's bio of Cleopatra, so I got the group to pick that as our topic. Being all gung ho, I ended up writing, casting and directing the show. I picked the prettiest girl in our group to be Cleopatra. Unfortunately she had the memory of a sieve and the focus of a butterfly. The kid who was supposed to bring in the rubber snake forgot to do so, so we used a piece of dirty looking string instead, which broke up the kid playing Marc Antony. I tried to keep things going in my small part as Cleopatra's serving girl, but it all fell to pieces and we ended up with a very low grade for the project. However, I learned some valuable lessons from this enterprise -- the chief one being: it is not always wise to cast roles based upon looks alone!
This is the first drawing I did that my mother saved.
My first time as play director
My First Time -- Directing Shakespeare! in 8th grade, I talked my teacher into letting me direct the last act (with all the carnage) of Hamlet . I adapted the text and talked some friends into giving up recess time to rehearse. The boys made swords in shop. My friend Holly played Osric as we didn't have enough boys. I was Gertrude. This went off a whole lot better than the Cleopatra attempt, even though we almost got shut down before our performance when Laertes was caught lifting the skirt of Osric with his sword. I had to beg the principal to let us continue.
My first masks -- were two dimensional. I didn't start making 3 dimensional masks until after college. The first ones were nylon stockings stretched over wire forms and stitched in place, then painted with acrylics. These were very geometric. Then I read about a paper laminate process over sculpted clay and I had found my preferred technique.
6th grade art
My first experimental theatre project...was a collaboration with a small group of friends. We wanted to know what would happen if we created a large scale improvisation for invited participants. The manager of the Civic Theatre gave us use of the plenum chamber, which is a very large space directly under the seating area of the auditorium. There were various odd items stored there, but plenty of room to set up a basic village with shops and homes and a corner bar. We called it the Village of Whipps Ledges after the climbing area in Hinckley Park in Medina County. We created 100 characters to live in this village, gave them jobs, families and actions to play. Everyone was to come "in character" providing their own costuming and personal props.
We typed up the invitations with instructions and sent them out to everybody we knew: friends, relatives, even some college professors.
On the evening of the event, the Civic Theatre manager set up a real bar in the Plenum Chamber. That turned out to be one of the main centers of action that night. We had created homes, streets and shops by using ropes and chalk.
We gave character name badges to everyone as they arrived. About 75% of the invited participants showed up. This created a developing plot structure, as people began looking for missing spouses, children, employers and so on. What had happened to the missing residents of the town of Whipp's Ledges? People began to whisper about the Legend of the Ledges -- is that where the missing people went -- to the ledges? What happened to them there? The mystery was building quite nicely, when the Civic manager decided to shut it down -- people were getting way too into the story for his comfort level.
Supposedly, someone had a camera there that night. I never got to see any photos. Would love to track those down one day.
