PLAN?

I know I won’t be able to write any other time this week, so I will do it now while I can. I won’t be here again, except to sleep, the majority of this week. I am going to do the only job I have never done in a theatre before, house manager. I feel very grateful to be asked to do this so that my education of how to run a theatre is complete! I have been the office manager, the box office manager, built sets, run lights and sound, been stage manager, assistant director, and a cast member at some point in my life. I have directed shows that really don’t count, so I guess that is still a goal, but I am not sure I really want to do that. I have only marginally helped with costumes, but I am not sure if I want to do that either.

The worst part of the house manager job is going to be the curtain speech. I have heard people be really boring with it and I have heard people go on and on and on. I can be any character you want, but don’t make me stand in front of people and be me! Another reason I am glad to do this is because in my BFA project I have to be me for 2 hours, singing, talking, AND dancing! This speech will be good practice!

I am realizing more and more that in order to keep my BFA project about the music and not about the storytelling, I have cut my story down to nothing. I would rather talk to everyone and barely sing since I have so much to tell, but that is not the point. In trying to write life events for playwriting and this project, I have realized how extraordinary my life has been. And I have realized that if I told my whole story no one would believe it. I do embellish a bit, but if I told nothing but the bare bones facts it would still be incredible. I know I see everything as a story but really- I grew up in a zoo? Traveled the country ( and other countries) collecting animals? My theatre experiences? My first time in college experiences? The love story of my marriage? Our experience with politics? My late in life college experiences? And all of the dramas in between? I could go on and on forever. In taking the classes I have this semester I thought I would be bored and have a “less than” experience. None of them were on the list of what I needed to take and none of them were on my list of what I wanted to take. And even if I never use them for the subject they are, I think they are going to impact my life more than any other semester of classes I have taken. Just because they are making me look into my life more than I might would have. I am not sure that is a good thing, but I am going with it. I know God has a plan, He just hasn’t shared it with me yet!

 

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Marietta is a graduate of the University of Montevallo with a BFA in musical theater. She has been performing for over 50 years on the stage and continues to perform, direct and teach. Marietta is married to Tim, has a son named Jon, and a cat named Penny.