From Jenny: A Theatre Beginnings Question

Why did you sign up for drama freshman year (rather than some other elective)?

Because I did theatre in middle school. I was part of the very first theatre program there, and we had no money. Mrs. Benza gave us her money, but I don’t remember what department she was head of… maybe special ed. or something? The head of the program’s name was Mrs. McCrea, and I loved her as an English teacher, so when she told us she was starting a theatre class as a new elective, I jumped for it. I forged my mom’s signature on the permission form; I vaguely remember it was because I had forgotten to give it to her to sign and it was the day to turn them in. This is how badly I wanted to do it.

Our costumes were sheets that we had to bring from home that we stapled together in the bathroom across the hall. Mrs. McCrea’s classroom was the old Shop classroom (which I took a Shop class in 6th grade and didn’t like much, so it was surreal to do theatre in there) and we did our production in there.

We did A Midsummer Night’s Dream both semesters. We used one of the backrooms with some of the shop supplies still in it for our props room and we stapled black plastic bags to the ceiling for our stage. I was Helena that first semester. I remember Beth ran tech and that he had a trashcan with rolls of colored butcher paper sticking out of it for our tree. It was our main piece of set.

I enjoyed it so much I did it the next semester, too, and this time I was Stage Manager/Props master. Mrs. McCrea even let me block a scene or two. I remember trying to get everyone to shut up backstage. The actors sat on the sunny side facing the windows and the techies sat on the darkest side with all the set. The actors were extremely noisy and didn’t listen to me because I didn’t know how to exert authority, so often I’d just ignore the actors and go sit with the techies, and thank them profusely for being so quiet. Our props room was full of old shop stuff like boxes of screws and stuff, and it was freezing cold because we’d opened the back door to let some air in backstage; some things never change. All the backstages I’ve ever been in have been hot.

One of the reasons I went to Del Norte is because I’d heard the theatre program was so good. This gave me very good reason to curse Mrs. M.L. and to curse the fact that she didn’t cast me in Midsummer. Ne’ertheless, this one experience is what got me hooked.

And because both hayley_beth24 and isaidello did so, I suppose I too will dive off the cliff with the rest of the herd:

Say something to this entry and:
1. I’ll respond with something random I like about you.
2. I’ll tell you what song/movie reminds me of you.
3. I’ll name something we should do together.
4. I’ll say something that only makes sense to you and me (or just me).
5. I’ll tell you my first/clearest memory of you.
6. I’ll leave you a quote that is somehow appropriate to you.
7. I’ll ask you something that I’ve always wondered about you.

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