My Saturday Evening Post: Back Home (for a bit)...

Even after 7 months in NY it was as if I'd never left LA. My pink flowered canopied room looked exactly the same, my baby blue volkswagon station wagon still had gas in it, and my friends thought I was no worse for the wear, and in fact maybe even new and improved.

And so after a month or so of doing absolutely nothing but enjoying time with them I started back to school at CSUF, and it was seriously as if nothing had changed. LeeAnn was back as well of course and still talking about her big move to New York...

"No, No, Nanette"

For the Fall Mainstage production I was cast as a dancer in another one of Mimi Tate's choreographic masterpieces... For weeks we improvised, tossing beachballs back and forth to each other, learning how to look cutesy and getting our best Marcel Marceau's on. I think we must have rehearsed a tap dance number or two as well.

I'll never forget sitting at home one night just a week before our opening and getting a phone call from Dean Hess, the director of the show. He was frantic because one of the leads who was playing Sue Smith (the Ruby Keeler role) had dropped out with the excuse that she was just too overcome by nerves to do it. And would I take the role? Well, I sort of freaked out, being that it was a huge tap dancing role and other than doing the time-step in "Mame" a couple of years before and the few brief rehearsals I'd had with Mimi, I was really FAR from being a tap dancer. But he said he'd teach me and so somehow I said "Ok."

And somehow we pulled it off!

One of the most unbecoming costumes ever...

This was our Review.

I'll never forget sitting with Thom in his car in some parking lot in Fullerton, reading the review, and squeeeing!

Flowers for Sue...

"Mary Poppins"

That January I did a production "Mary Poppins," directed and choreographed by a couple of my Disney friends, who of course cast the rest of my Disney friends as well. I don't remember if it turned out to be any good at all, but we had a blast doing it. I think we did a couple of performances on the Downey Civic Light Opera stage and then a couple more at UCLA.

Chimney Sweep - "Step In Time"

A Pearly - "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious"

Towns Person - "Let's Go Fly A Kite"

Such the make-up artist!...

I know all these entries seriously overlap and omit but I really don't know how to make them linear without redundance. So this one will probably contain mostly my theatrical efforts from those couple of years because in my memory that's just the easiest way for me to chronicle the past. Please refer to my LJP and TMB blogs for pretty much all the other stuff that was going on during this time...

Marshall Industries

Ok, I lied, because my full-time job had nothing at all to do with any theatrical efforts except that I had to ACT really hard to make people believe I had any interest in even being there. But it did provide me with play money that winter, spring and summer and I made $475 a month! I was the "Control Clerk" and I really don't remember exactly what that meant, but trust me it was pretty boring. I worked alongside one of my best friends from High School, Roberta, except that she was the company's computer programmer (at 20) and made a ton of alot more money than me. Yes, she was very smart! I don't remember receiving any benefits but I must have had vacation days because at one point I flew out to New York to visit Doug and we spent a crazy week on the town seeing shows like "Equus", "Chicago" and "A Chorus Line." Little did I know at the time that the latter two would eventually become such an important part of my life. Even though, looking back, I think I honestly knew that they would.

Back to Disney for a Day for The Easter Parade

I think I must have been really excited about doing this, given that I'd completely missed the last Electrical Parade and had been pining over it for a year. So it must have been great to be back home. Though I really don't remember much about this day at all!

With Michael

With Thom

A Fork

Somewhere during this time I had applied and was accepted to Brigham Young University, but for some reason I didn't go. I've always wondered how different my life would have been (not necessarily better or worse but just different) if I had gone.

"Promises, Promises"

I'd leave straight from work every evening and drive to Downey where I'd practice until really late at night, usally going out with the cast afterwards... then getting up to be to work by 7:00 am the next morning. I have no idea where all that energy came from. Obviously it wasn't a very successful strategy though, because at some point that summer they fired me. (The only job I've ever been fired from :) But no biggy, because that only allowed me to be able to stay out even later at night after rehearsals...

As Vivian della Hoya in "Turkey Lurkey"(the Donna McKechnie role)

Yet another make-up shot...

An August of Disappointments

I won't elaborate on this, just basically sticking it in as a time stamp. Because I was just about as depressed and whiney as anyone could ever be that month! Lorna was off in the Orient doing her USO tour and everybody else was just pretty much busy...

But then...

America On Parade

I think this must have been around the time that I delevoped my huge claustrophobia issue. Imagine being completely strapped into a costume that you couldn't get out of yourself, and of course you couldn't really talk to anyone once your harness and head were locked and in place. So if a panic attack were to ever occur the only thing you'd probably be able to do would be lie on the ground and kick your legs frantically until someone had the presence of mind to notice you were having a problem. (I'm only partially kidding here) But it was as hot as a sauna in there and I used the opportunity to sweat as much as I possibly could and setting my mental bar for kicking those legs higher and higher every day. I don't remember exactly how many months I actually did this parade, but I do know that I lost A LOT of weight.

And at this point I was dancing a ton. Not only at school and Disneyland but adding at least a class or two each day into the mix. Jackie and Bill Landrum or Joe Bennett at Dupree's downtown LA for jazz every morning, Kathryn Lowe's in Anaheim for ballet class every afternoon, and when my schedule allowed for an additional hour or two, Stephen Peck's in Fullerton. I was pretty much a dancing fool. And obsessed.

"Gypsy"

But CSUF found me again. This time in the fall musical "Gypsy."

Tessy Tura - "You Gotta Have A Gimmick" (aka the stripper with finesse)

I think the thing I remember the most about that show was losing my voice. I guess my vocal chords weren't quite use to belting out such a gutsy song. It must have been like the 2nd or 3rd night of the run that my voice just gave out, completely!... mid-performance. How embarrassing!

The very next day, our music director sent me to a special laryngologist in, waitforit... Beverly Hills. I remember he swabbed my throat with some steroid concoction and then I don't remember much else from that experience at all, except for seeing Gene Kelly sitting there while exiting through the waiting room.

I went on in the chorus that night with someone else replacing me in my role, but it's still pretty cool that the next day I received reports from the box office that several people had called to see if I'd be back playing the role or if the understudy was still on. I'm just hoping that was a positive...

A "likeness" rendered by my good friend Joe

Tryin'

It was right around this time that I first auditioned for the upcoming tour of "A Chorus Line." The audition was held at the Aquarius Theatre in L.A. and what an experience! The line for auditionees was, of course, wrapped around the block and we stood in line forever to get in. What I know now is that I didn't make it into the show (far from it!) But at least I lasted long enough to be one of the ones who got to witness Michael Bennett and Bob Avian perform the opening combination as we stood on the sidelines waiting to show our stuff. What a rush! But it would still be several years before I'd get to do that routine under anything but an audition situtation...

A Couple of Other Shows Hardly Worth Mentioning...

The only thing I really remember about this show was the "No Coffee!" number and also that Doug showed up out of the blue one night before the show and sent a card and flowers back stage. I was a wreck!