In the summer of 2003 I helped assist at the Conservatory, I met some amazing people. I designed and made the costumes for their production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. It was an incredible summer filled with some very talented people who have gone on to do amazing things in the theatre community.
In the fall, one of my 'students', Chad K., called and told me that the leading lady in a show he was cast in, dropped out due to scheduling conflicts with another show. He asked if I would be interested in auditioning. I asked him what the show was about and a little about the character.
The show was called
Man With the Pointed Toes by Lynn and Helen Root. He told me the show was about a cowboy who had suddenly found oil on a property that he had won in a card game. He then meets a lady from NY and goes gaga for her. He doesn't feel like he has enough 'culture' to win her and decides to hire a tutor to help educate him. The lady from NY is a gold digger or oil digger as the case may be. The schoolteacher he hires is a bit plain looking at first but has a heart of gold. The cowboy and the schoolteacher start to have feelings for each other and hilarity ensues as they try to express their feelings and the ranch hands try to oust the NY gal out of the cowboy's life. Basically, it is a romantic comedy about unrequited love. It was the AZ premiere of
Man With the Pointed Toes.
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| Headshot for the show |
I said I was interested so I went down to audition. As regular auditions had already occurred, there were just three of us there to audition for the schoolteacher role. The director, Allan Dietlein, was there along with his son, Dave, who is the owner of the Hale Centre Theatre in AZ. You can read about their amazing history
here. They are gentlemen in every sense of the word.
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| Allan, Sandy, me and Dave on New Years 2004. |
There were only cold readings with the leading man, no monologues. It was kind of a weird audition because my competitors were in the room, if my memory serves me correctly. I threw myself into the character, one of the scenes we read was where the schoolteacher gets drunk/high on antidepressants and I just went with it, using my previous skills of acting drunk. It felt good to be acting again. We were then asked to wait in the hallway while they decided. Allan came out and said that they appreciated all of us coming to audition and that they decided to cast me in the role. I was really excited but had to contain my enthusiasm because the other auditionees were right there.
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| Me as Florence the school teacher/ tutor |
I jumped right into rehearsals. It was a little weird coming into a cast that had already been working with each other for a bit. I worked really hard on my characterization. Alan's wife Sandy did the costumes for the show and is just an amazingly gracious woman. Alaina B. played the lady from NY and she was just fabulous, we got to play in other shows later as well. We were the only women in the production and had a blast.
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I wish I had a better picture but this is the only one my mom
was able to take of Alaina B. and Chad K. |
The Hale Center Theatre is a theatre in the round, which means the audience is on all sides of the stage. Instead of looking up at the stage, they are seated stadium style on the four sides of the stage looking down or if you are on the front row, you are level with the actors on the stage. So, this was all new to me. The audience is very close and you have to not only act with your front side but your back side too.
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| View from the west. |
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| View from the north. |
The show was an instant success and we remounted it in their country theatre in Sandy, UT. We remounted it again in 2004 at Hale Centre Theatre. Since I moved, they have done the show a couple more times, but with Alaina B. in the role I played and another actress in her original part. The leading man was also recast for those later remounts. It is a very entertaining show, it is a bit like My Fair Lady but with the teacher as a woman and the man as the one needing some refinement. So, I was not surprised it became an audience favorite.
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| Trying to look pretty and feeling like a failure. |
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| Starting to fall in love |
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| Feeling inadequate but trying to be encouraging. |
It remains one of my favorite roles ever. I could play it a million times and not get sick of it. The cast was just amazing and had great chemistry. The men who played the ranch hands were just brilliant comedic actors and made the show super fun. I felt blessed to work with such amazing actors and was grateful to my former student for thinking of me for the role.
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| Chad, me, John J, John A, and Don C. |
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Chad and I along with my other Conservatory
friends in the background after a show. |
This production was only the second show to perform in the newly built theatre. It is amazing that I am now a part of their incredible history. I wish I had some better pictures and a cast shot, but alas I do not. This role led to some other great roles for this company but those will be highlighted in the coming weeks.
