My Saturday Evening Post: Baby Steps to B'way...

And I mean that in a really big way!

A while back I was telling you about my big break in High School Drama Class. So this sort of continues from there.

Well anyway, shortly after that I found that Whittier Light Opera would be doing a production of "Funny Girl!" Well guess what, yes you're right, I auditioned. I have to idea what I was thinking since I was only 15, and really the only female roles in that musical are Fanny Brice herself, her elder Jewish mother, friends and neighbors...and a bunch of sexy showgirls. But I was still a little bit devasted when I received this postcard.

I don't think I ever told anyone about this.

But back to High School...

At that point my drama teacher already pretty much considered me a star. Amazing what one silly little lip-synch can do for your career. And so I was pretty much a shoe-in for one of the two females in our Spring production of "The Odd Couple." The other girl was Carolee Shoemaker...

I should probably interject here for a second and explain that I had the great misfortune during, say from 1970-1972, to live in a time when "technology" thought they could make improvements to the film processing methods for photos taken with instamatic cameras.. So sadly I am a product of the yellowed and faded photos from that time period. Senior picture included. But thankfully for nowday's PhotoShop I am at least able to remove some of the yellow tinge. The blur I can't do much about.

But back to the theatre, and where it all began, which I should probably mention here. I made my theatrical debut as a Munchkin in my church's stake production of "The Wizard of Oz" in 1965. (I would actually end up including that fact into my future Broadway Playbill bio's, where at 5'10" never failed to elicit alot of smiles.) Which now reminds me of those days when our church would regularly put on plays, musicals and roadshows all of which I was a part of. I loved being a part of all that and should probably give some credit to any of my future success to those experiences given me at church. I really don't know when or why they stopped all doing that. Perhaps they ended up considering it too prideful and not in the best interest of the church's youth. Probably because of me. lol!

Here's a shot from one of our Ward plays "A Ready Made Family." I played a 70 year old woman, can you tell?

I remember being told so many times that evening how I'd given an Oscar winning performance. I seriously doubt that but still, it kept me going.

Next up "The Crucible" where I was cast in the role of Abigail Williams (the town's most unprincipled girl), which sort of worked out to my advantage amongst all the really cute, unprincipled guys in the show... :)

And then, life changed dramatically (ha), when I took a chance to branch out over the hill in Whittier in the summer of '71. Definitely, a lot more theatrical opportunities over there.

And so my summer community theatre production of "West Side Story" was my year of branching out and growing up for sure. And as silly and amateurish as this picture may seem, there was some serious talent in that cast, along with many friends that would become a huge part of the next few years of my life. I'll never forget driving my old Rambler over the hill to that very first rehearsal. My mother was less than thrilled.

And as well she should have been (not thrilled) because it was a pretty growing up summer for me. Honestly, I never really did anything all THAT bad, except to learn how to kiss and alter my driver's license... But what a blast it was! It was also the summer that Lorna and I would meet and subsequently become unseparable for years to come.

And then it was Back To School in the Fall with "The Man Who Came To Dinner."

Again sorry about the blurry. It really WAS a pretty good play!

But Over The Hill beckoned me once again the next spring with Whittier Civic Light Opera's "Hello Dolly." It would be the most professional show I'd done to date. (I didn't audition for the lead this time!) Catherine Jacoby who played Dolly became my new idol.

And a great cast too!

The only downside to that experience is that it sort of threw me into the muck in terms of my high school drama teacher, Mrs. Bradbury, because it prevented me from being able to be a part of the senior play, "10 Little Indians." I still can't believe now how I had the nerve to show up for the auditions that night even after telling her I wouldn't be able to do it. That was a fun evening. I had never seen her so angry and betrayed! Talk about my burning bridges...

But I still got the Bank of America Award for Drama and a trophy for Best Actress at the end of the year... :)

And shared the "most creative senior" award with Jeff Balsmeyer who would later end up being nominated for some major film festival award plus doing well, a whole bunch of other stuff.