Some photos from the show

Caden and I

Craig and I

Happy Mrs. Cratchit

Caden, me, and Craig

My dapper son, Caden

My handsome guys

We make good Victorian English persons, don't we?

This may be my favorite photo of us ever.

Our director, Cara Baker, as a Cockney

Swimming in Molasses--OR--Am I Just Too Pushy?

I have never felt like I needed to be The Boss. I can follow as well as lead.
I think.

See, I'm involved in several projects. One, the zombie movie that was rescheduled, is a project that I now have much more responsibility. I am the producer! And the director of the show thinks highly of me. I think highly of him. I've offered my help and he has gratefully and graciously accepted and welcomed it. The Zombie Movie will Rock!

But the show I'm in now, ACC, well, I stepped in last Thursday at the first music rehearsal because it was basically a train wreck. Please understand, I am not a musical genius. I can sing. I've had some training. I know how to work with other people to get them excited and working as a group. I didn't want to completely walk over the music director of the show last Thursday night. But the show was in peril of drowning and I gave it my best shot of Jennifer Style CPR.

I have fretted that I was just too pushy. I wasn't that worried about the music director. She has been sadly put into a job she can't do. Period. But I worried horribly that the show's director would be mad that #1 I pretty much took over (the director wasn't there), and #2 that when I told her it was a train wreck, she'd think I was a complaining diva loser.

Fortunately, I spoke with the director tonight and she was grateful for my feedback.
<Wiping forehead>
Phew!

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The Delicate Balance in the Small Pond

As I jump into the theater world in Utah with both feet and no water wings to keep me afloat, I am finding out that swimming around here can be a dangerous or a marvelous thing. Sometimes both. The people I have gotten to know overlap. Which is good and bad and just plain weird sometimes.

• Oh, you directed that show and now you're assistant director of the show I'm auditioning for and you worked with the person who was the star of my last show? Well, she and I were good friends. (Thinking: I think we were good friends. Were we? If so, maybe she'll put in a good word for me. If not, crap!) 
• Oh, you didn't know I reviewed that show? Yep, that was me. Yes, it was very good. (Thinking: Thank the Lord it was a show I praised.) 
• Oh, you will help me get that audition? Wow, you are such a pal. (Thinking: Am I good enough to warrant him going out on a limb for me?) 
• Oh, you like that director? Well, we'll never work for that company again. And so-and-so and this person and that guy will never work there again either! (Thinking: How can I stay friends with everyone when clearly it could become the 'whose side are you on?' thing. I want to get roles on my own merit and not be picked over because I'm friends with this or that person. Of course, I also want to get cast because, as friends, they know I can do the job. Oy!)

As a compulsive blurter, I know I've already stepped on some toes. 

Lesson Learned: Open your mouth and project like hell when you're onstage. Offstage, keep your yap shut. The latter will be a bigger challenge for me than doing the acting stuff.

Oy.

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