Flashback to Theater-South Pacific

Time for the first of my flashback posts!  Are you excited?  Of course you are.  I still have yet to figure out how to work our scanner (translated: Trent still has yet to teach me how to work our scanner) so this post and the next are some photos that I have buried in a folder already on the computer.  The folder is literally called "Old Stuff".  

This post is a glimpse into my life on stage.  I was involved in theater throughout highschool and a little bit still once I was in college.  The pictures below are of Fredericksburg Theater Company's production of South Pacific in July 2005.  It was the fourth show I was a part of with FTC (if you don't count turning pages in several show's orchestras for the pianist who was my piano teacher).  Auditions were scheduled to happen while I was still taking finals.  Uh oh. I called their office and left a message that I was interested in being in the chorus but was out of town at school. Jeryl Hoover, the director, knew our whole family by that time because all of us except Dad and Abby had been in at least one show, if not more, by that time. Abby has since made her FTC debut as Charlotte, the undertaker's daughter in FTC's production of Oliver! this past summer. She and mom are the only ones who have actually had a non-chorus part.  Anyway, Mr. Hoover called me back and basically said "You're in, forget auditions, first rehearsal is such and such date."   Oh...ok, thanks! 

Rehearsals ensued and it was a great show and a great time!  I got to be on stage again and work with some of the FTC regulars, including Kerry (see pic below) who I was in The Music Man with in 2003 (stay tuned for a post about that show).   For those of you unfamiliar with theater, South Pacific is a show about the life of nurses and soldiers stationed in the south pacific during WWII.  I was a part of the chorus of nurses.  No lines or solos, just dancing and acting.  So much fun.  

Enough words.  Here are the photos.  

A few of the nurses in the dressing room in our vintage 1940s-50s swimsuits.  Made out of cotton and no elastic whatsoever!

Worn for the scene on the beach when Nellie sings the song "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outta My Hair"

This is Kerry, one of my theater buds!  For his sake, I will refrain from posting the picture of him in a coconut bra, hula skirt and sharpie tattoo of a boat on his stomach....   He is now the Artistic Operations Manager at FTC! 

All the nurses, in our costumes for the variety show within the show, "Honeybun." Leading lady, Nellie, is on the left in green.  

Honeybun costumes on a different night.  

They gave us fabric, newspaper, ribbons and flowers and told us to make skirts since the nurses in the south pacific would have made such costumes out of whatever they had on hand.  I managed to make a skirt out of a sheet and ribbon.

This is Darren, the gay hairstylist that for some reason adopted me and did my hair for every show while the other girls figured out their own hair, including a quick change of hairdo from up and "casual" to down and "formal" for my 10 second crossover scene headed to a dance.  He somehow magically kept it curly throughout every show.  He even gave me free highlights at his salon after the show closed.

The curliest my hair has every been.  Well, not counting Music Man when I had ringlets that only stayed in because I used "hair glue".  I do not have good theater hair...

The closing scene of the show.  The war is over!  Headed home!  Quickest costume change of my life, from the formal dress shown above to this costume...literally involved sprinting to the dressing room with another girl after the crossover, opening buttons and zippers as we went, pulling clothing over each other's heads and sprinting back onto stage.  Whew.   The dress ripped a little more down the side every time I yanked it off...it was history by the end of the show.

Baby Abby and tweenage Sarah with me after the closing show.