Back to the Stage
Last week the Ruston Community Theater hosted the RusTony Awards at the Dixie Theater. The awards are given to actors who performed the preceding year, with ballots going to all season ticket holders and theater board members. I was thrilled to bring home some hardware for my portrayal of Annie Oakley in "Annie Get Your Gun."
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I received awards for Best Actor/Actress in a musical, and Best Musical Performance with my co-star, Randy Graves, for the song "Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better." The third trophy I brought home was the People's Choice Award, which is pretty cool because it is selected online by anyone wanting to cast a vote on the RCT website. Every single person who performed on the stage in any category is on the ballot. The only people I mentioned it to were my mom and my husband, so I figured I had at least two votes. But I really was surprised to win that one, and it was a wonderful honor to receive it.
So now, on the heels of my first theater appearance in over 20 years and a few awards to show for it, this is my next role:
In case you aren't familiar, this is Grizabella the Glamour Cat, played in this particular production by British actress Elaine Paige. I will be playing the role of Grizabella for the Strauss Theatre Production of CATS. Strauss is located on Lamy Lane in Monroe, and the show runs October 4-14.
CATS is an enormous production, with almost every line sung, and every song danced. Luckily, I play an old, haggard cat who isn't able to do a whole lot of dancing. I do dance in the opening two numbers, as my non-aged character, and let me just say that when I was in that first dance rehearsal with all these young 16-20-somethings, I was thanking my lucky stars that I wouldn't be on the stage the whole time. I haven't had to learn heavy dance choreography in over 20 years. My body can still move, but my brain just doesn't think like that anymore! From the first minute the music started playing, I was wondering what in the world I had gotten myself into.
Ugh.
But once I had my first music rehearsal and was able to sing, all was right with the world again. It's been fun so far! I'll update you as more stuff happens...
.JPG)
So now, on the heels of my first theater appearance in over 20 years and a few awards to show for it, this is my next role:
In case you aren't familiar, this is Grizabella the Glamour Cat, played in this particular production by British actress Elaine Paige. I will be playing the role of Grizabella for the Strauss Theatre Production of CATS. Strauss is located on Lamy Lane in Monroe, and the show runs October 4-14.
CATS is an enormous production, with almost every line sung, and every song danced. Luckily, I play an old, haggard cat who isn't able to do a whole lot of dancing. I do dance in the opening two numbers, as my non-aged character, and let me just say that when I was in that first dance rehearsal with all these young 16-20-somethings, I was thanking my lucky stars that I wouldn't be on the stage the whole time. I haven't had to learn heavy dance choreography in over 20 years. My body can still move, but my brain just doesn't think like that anymore! From the first minute the music started playing, I was wondering what in the world I had gotten myself into.
Ugh.
But once I had my first music rehearsal and was able to sing, all was right with the world again. It's been fun so far! I'll update you as more stuff happens...
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