My first theater memories

When I was three I first took the stage. Even before then, I had been involved with the theater. I had been blessed with a family that saw the importance of the arts and wanted their family to be a part of them. As my family spent time at the local community center, so did I, even as a toddler. Although I don't recall it personally, my friends and family tell many stories about my early childhood. A longtime stage manager talks of the times she would watch me offstage as my mother would be onstage. My mother describes a time driving home from a rehearsal with me in the backseat singing the musical's songs and filling in the gaps with the proper lines. When I turned three, my family decided that I could 'audition' for a show. I still remember that first performance. The show was "Bye, Bye, Birdie." As we drove to the auditions, I told my mother that I would, "walk across the stage dragging my blanket behind me." My mother laughed and said that I would do whatever it was the director told me to do. I don't recall much else from that particular show except for two things in particular. One, we rehearsed the opening scene over and over again because the entire cast on stage is required to faint from the dancing of the title character. While this seems like not a big deal, when you are a small child on someone's shoulders, fainting without falling off of an adult's shoulders AND having the adult faint without the child falling is quite difficult. After many tries, we figured it out and we made it work. Second, I got to walk across the stage dragging my blanket behind me.