I love live theater!

The March sisters, Thursday, August 30
From left: Summer Sloan (Beth), Maddie Tarbox (Jo),
me (Amy), and Jillian Tirado (Meg)

There's a pretty famous storyline in Little Women, where Amy does something horrible to Jo, and Jo cannot forgive her until Amy falls through the ice when ice skating and almost dies. Jo realizes then how much she really loves Amy, and the two patch things up. It's pivotal to both characters, and also solidifies their kinship with the boy next door, Laurie, who is the one who saves Amy's life.

The "ice skating scene" caused us no little concern during rehearsals, and is one of the most stressful for me onstage. To prepare offstage, I take off my regular boots, skirt, and petticoat, and put on the skates, a coat, and a soaking wet skirt (but I don't fasten it). During the scene, Laurie carries me onstage and places me on the couch. My sisters take off the skates, wet skirt and coat, put slippers on my feet and a blanket around me, and later put a robe on me so I am more or less covered during the ensuing dance number. This all takes place while I pretend to cry and we all shoot lines at each other.

Last night was my third performance and... it didn't quite go as planned. (Oh no, I'm already laughing again!)

Laurie came running onstage with me in his arms. I felt him trip over something (someone said later that it was the stairs) and he started to stumble... and wasn't able to catch himself. We both fell on the floor behind the couch, I tumbled out of his arms and nearly hit the wall to stage left of the couch. The panic that ensued was real as he and my sisters struggled to stand me up and make sure I was really okay! I stood in shock as they stripped the coat off me.

It was when my skirt just fell off while I helplessly stood next to the couch -- and the audience roared with laughter -- that I knew I wasn't going to make it through the scene without laughing. I was still wearing the ice skates, and everyone was running around. I honestly have no idea what they were doing. My choices seemed to be to walk awkwardly around to the front of the couch and sit down, or just flop over the arm on my back... I chose the latter... and that's when the rest of the onstage cast started choking back their laughter. (Oh, man, I am crying right now because I'm laughing so hard.) Beth said that I looked so stiff, and with my corset on, it was like a turtle on its back! At least my skates came off when I flopped over. I put my face in the back of the couch and laughed for just a second before I turned and saw that poor Jo was frantically pacing back and forth in front of us. I realized someone needed to jumpstart the scene again, and it was probably my line anyway, so I said the only line I could think of:

"I was skating so beautifully!"

It may or may not have been completely random, but at least the minute of pandemonium was sort of over. My motivation for the rest of the scene and the song that followed was "do NOT start laughing again!" Beth giggled the entire time she buttoned up my robe, and Meg laughed when she ran to get my slippers. 

After the scene, I had a quick costume change before running back onstage again. It wasn't until about 10 minutes later we all had a chance to sit backstage and just laugh, and laugh, and laugh. Laurie apologized profusely, but I wasn't injured, and even if I had been there wasn't anything else he could have done. It was an accident! I laughed so hard I still had tears streaming down my face for my last scene in the first act. Oh, the whole thing was just so priceless!

I realize that this may not be nearly as funny if you weren't there, and one of my friends in the audience didn't even mention it afterwards. Another said (after I brought it up) that we all handled it so well it almost looked like we did it on purpose. They were too busy praising the show to remember those completely crazy couple of moments! Yay!

I love live theater. Every performance is totally different, and I never know what exactly will happen onstage. That whole thing could have been a catastrophe, but it ended up bonding us all closer together, and made us step up our game so that last night's performance was probably our best yet. 

I can't wait to see what happens tomorrow!! 

BTW, we've already been reviewed a couple of times, and it's all good so far!

• Deseret News (my cast, T/Th/S) 
• UTBA (M/W/F cast)
• The Davis Clipper (M/W/F cast)
• Broadway World (T/Th/S cast)
• Front Row Reviewers Utah (T/Th/S cast)
• Notes from my Notebook (T/Th/S cast) 

The Addams Family touring cast performs... Newsies?

I am a fan of clever things, and I wanted to see Newsies and The Addams Family musicals before... I want to see them even MORE now!!

Happy Thursday. The long weekend is just around the corner! Do you have any fun plans?

Take a chance on Little Women!

I open Little Women tonight! Finally!

(Yes, technically the show opened last night with the other cast, but my cast performs tonight for the first time!)

My friends keep telling me that they have been hearing radio ads for the play. I hope that means they're also buying tickets ;) We've even been featured on KOSY 106.5 Showtunes Saturday Night. They interviewed our director and one of the Jo's, and gave away free tickets and everything (at least, this is what I hear; I was performing while the radio show was going on). We're doing what we can to get the word out. I hope it's enough. I am continuously blown away by how talented my cast members are, and how much I love them in their roles. PLUS, I have the two most outrageous costumes in the show. Seriously, they are awesome. Don't miss it.

You can get your tickets here; I perform on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday for the next four weeks. For this show, I personally prefer sitting in the back of the main floor, or the balcony, so you can get the full effect :D (And remember, the last week or so of most shows tend to sell out, so it's a good idea to buy tickets sooner rather than later!)

See you from the stage!

Not a wreck!

When I asked my mom what she wanted for her birthday this year, she asked me to buy her a birthday cake: white cake (like a wedding cake -- her words), with white butter cream frosting. I was grateful it wasn't too complicated a request...

Or so I thought.

My family usually gathers together the Sunday after a birthday to celebrate, and since I usually don't even get home from church until 5pm the cake obviously had to be ready ahead of time. That Saturday I had an all-day tech rehearsal so I didn't have time to bake a cake, and let's be honest, I don't particularly enjoy baking anyway. So, I called Sam's Club and asked how late the bakery would be open on Saturday. When they said 9pm, I cheered, because it meant I'd be able to pick up the cake around 6pm after I finished rehearsal!

When they asked what I wanted, I asked for a half-sheet, white cake, with butter cream frosting, with "Happy Birthday" written on it in blue icing. Light blue or dark blue? Light. Flowers? Sure, how about pink, yellow, and blue? Yes, light blue. Border? White is fine. I hung up the phone and felt happy that my mom would have the birthday cake she wanted.

Then I started getting nervous. Even with all of us in town (which we were on Sunday -- sweet!), my family isn't all that big. I called the bakery back and asked if half a sheet would be too much for 15 people. The girl on the phone said they had a 10' round cake that fed 16, so I switched the order to that. She confirmed the rest of the order, and although the border had been recorded as being blue, all else seemed well. So we were good to go.

And then they called me to make sure they had everything right. That's when I started to worry. Um, the border is supposed to be white, and how about we only have pink and yellow flowers (blue can be weird, right?). "Happy Birthday" is supposed to be in blue. No, we don't want raspberry filling. By the end of the call, I thought, "Uh, oh, this could be a disaster."

When they called the second time, I gave up. I tried to assert myself, but resigned myself to the fact that the border was probably going to be blue. As long as the cake was white cake, and the main layer of frosting was also white, I'd try not to stress about the rest.

I picked up the cake on Saturday, and this is what I saw:

The expected blue border... and the writing was in yellow. *Sigh* The blue border was a bit ugly, but the rest was okay. Now all I had to worry about was whether they got the cake part right, and to my great joy, when my mom cut into it, they had!

Oh, man, that ugly cake tasted sooo good, as evidenced by my nieces stuffing their faces:

I'm not usually a fan of white cake with white frosting, but that cake was definitely an exception. The raspberry sherbet I'd bought to go with it didn't hurt :)

My first experience of ordering a cake from a bakery was a success! Next time, I might actually plan more than a couple days in advance, and ask my friend Theresa to make one for me. When I mentioned on Facebook that I feared the cake might be a wreck, she said she'd be tempted to ruin it on purpose, as a joke. Now I'm kind of in love with that idea!

Happy birthday, Mom! Thank you for trusting me with such an important task. I love you, and I'm so glad I got to celebrate your day with you!

Feeling peevish

Here is an incomplete list of my pet peeves, in no particular order:

• Empty rolls of paper towels and toilet paper. How hard is it to grab a new one when you use the last square? I am so tired of feeling like I am always the one replacing them. (Does everyone else feel this way? Have they given up? Hmmm...)
• Backhanded compliments. A girl posted on one of our Little Women publicity photos that one of the girls was "the only one who looks like she's not wearing a bad wig. you are gorgeous!" What? She couldn't find a way to publicly compliment her friend without making the rest of us feel like garbage? Never mind the fact that only two out of 5 girls was even wearing a wig. Rude! 
• Saying "I've got a secret!" then refusing to tell me what it is. If you're just looking for attention, I'm not going to pry your secret out of you. Tell me or don't. I'll find out somehow in just a little while anyway... especially if you're telling everyone else I know.
• Cell phones in movie theaters. You already know how strongly I feel about this. I'm on the verge of not going to movies anymore, and that makes me so sad! Why give the jerks the power??
• Guilt trips disguised as teasing. All teasing is based on real feelings. I feel guilty about a lot of things right now, why do you think it's funny to make me feel worse, and then make me feel even more badly when I don't laugh it off? 
• People who don't listen. There are only so many times I am willing to repeat myself before giving up on whatever I was talking about.
• Unsolicited dating advice. This is not limited to married people giving advice, or even advice about dating, really. It's one thing if I trust and respect you enough to ask for help or an opinion. Otherwise, please butt out.
• People who think the rules don't apply to them. If I've been in a long line for 20 minutes, I'm not going to take it kindly if you just move in front of me and pretend I won't notice. I will. And unless you have a darn good reason, I will tell you to get in the back (at which point you'll act like I am the rude one). Life isn't fair, but you don't need to act like you're better than the rest of us.
• Rude salespeople and waiters, and people who are rude to salespeople and waiters. It takes a special kind of person to work in the service industry. I've manned phones before and there are a LOT of really nice people in the world... but it just took one jerk to ruin my day. On the flip side, if I am paying you for a service, or you are paid to offer me service, and I being civil, don't take advantage and don't take your frustrations out on me. I'm not intentionally trying to make your life harder by pointing out that you forgot my side of bacon.
• People who don't use their blinkers while driving. I don't read minds! Please give me some warning you're moving into my lane... or out of it!

Are any of these on your list? What behaviors really drive you crazy?

Awesome action sequence

Sorry I've been so inconsistent lately -- I know a lot of you read my blog to keep up on my life (I do the same thing) and it's been crazy-busy. Between Little Women rehearsals, work (during which I've felt guilty blogging these last couple weeks), sleep, and the other-odd activities, I've been pretty overwhelmed and exhausted. Happy and tired.

But I'm still around! Plus, I want to share this clip with you; I have no idea which movie it is from, and the sound is about 10 seconds faster than the action, but WOW! This is hilarious!!


Happy Wednesday!

Once, twice, four times as Amy

Breaking news about Little Women: I will perform four times a week instead of three!

One of the girls playing Beth dropped out, and since we open so soon our director decided to ask my double, Summer, to play Beth and Amy, instead of bringing in someone new to learn from scratch. So, there are three of us covering the four shifts (two for Beth and two for Amy), and we all get an extra performance a week!

Beth and Amy, and Amy and Amy

I'm actually really excited about this for three reasons:

1. I get to work with the other cast! I love getting to switch around and play with those I wouldn't otherwise get to.You all grow so close during rehearsals and it's tragic when you don't see the actors in the other cast after you open, or you all splinter into "our cast" and "their cast" factions. Everyone is insanely talented and so very nice! I am still amazed to be a part of this group!
2. I love, love, love my character and am thrilled at more chances to play with her. Who gets to not only play one of their dream roles in two different productions, but then also have additional performances to explore it? I hope people like my portrayal... I'm having so much fun!  
3. For once, I get to perform with my double!! This almost never happens! I'm always double-cast with the most amazing people who ends up being my best friend in the cast... and then I don't see her after the show opens until closing night or the cast party. Summer is a total sweetheart, and I am thrilled that she'll be my Beth twice a week. Granted, Beth and Amy don't have a lot of interaction, but it's still awesome, and our mutual friends can see us both at the same time!

So, my performance schedule is now Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday from August 27 through September 22. (Opening night is less than three weeks away!) Click here for ticket information.

And for those of you hoping to see me between now and closing night: Good luck! The best way to see me is to come to the show. My continuing neglect is not for lack of love, just lack of time!

Please come! I miss you!

A garden and some happy trees

I'm glad these videos have popped up on my Facebook feed recently. It's nice to revisit some of my childhood shows and remember a little of what it was like to be a child.




Thank you, childhood t.v. shows! They just don't make 'em like this anymore.