I just finished a run of "Picnic" at the Sanders Theater in Fort Worth, Texas with the Stolen Shakespeare Guild. "Picnic" takes place in 1950's rural Kansas and I played an old maid school teacher hoping to finally get married. It was such fun to be on stage again. After having kids, I didn't have a lot of time for acting. But now that life is more stable, I'm able to take a role now and again. Here are some photos from the production and a blow by blow of the plot from Rosemary's point of view.
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| That's me as Rosemary at the top of the show putting on make-up and singing "Blues In The Night". |
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| The women see a strange man with his shirt off working in the neighbor's yard. |
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| Rosemary meets the handsome young stranger. |
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| Rosemary's friend Howard comes for a date. |
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| But Rosemary isn't that into him. |
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| So she drinks to loosen up and drown the pain of aging and being single. |
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| The gorgeous young Madge is putting on her make-up in the upstairs window. Rosemary and little sister, Millie, are unimpressed and put out by Madge's gratuitous display. |
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| Rosemary can't believe the way she is showing off up there. |
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| So she drinks some more while the handsome young man boogies to some live music coming from the park. |
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| Rosemary gets drunk and ugly and lashes out at the young handsome man for being young and handsome. She yells "You're just a piece of Arkansas White Trash. You'll end your life in the gutter because that's where you belong." Oye. |
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| She embarrasses herself and Howard is all, "WTF?" |
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| Then in a drunken, embarrassed state, Rosemary drives off with Howard and sleeps with him. Back at home, she realizes how effed she is because its the 1950s and you just don't do that sort of thing. |
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| Howard is all, "You were really nice to me tonight, Rosemary." Uh oh. |
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| Rosemary is desperate. She asks Howard to marry her. |
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| And Howard is all, "Um.... no." |
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| Then Rosemary begs him to marry her. This girl is in trouble... |
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| And they live happily ever after. A desperate old maid willing to hitch her wagon to any warm body that walks by and a confirmed bachelor who has a taste for illegal liquor and prostitutes. What could go wrong? |
Hope you enjoyed my simplistic tour of "Picnic" through Rosemary's eyes.
Of course there's a lot more to it, but who has time for that in a blog post?
xo
4 comments:
You have a great blog. I enjoy it. You did a good synopsis of Picnic. Wish I had seen it as I live in the metroplex too. We live in the country out of Crowley. Have a good day.
Thanks for summing it up since I've never seen it. So tragic....yet hilarious to read your abbreviated version.
Great reprise from Rosemary's perspective. I was lucky enough to see you on stage and witness your ability to move through sultry (Blues in the Night) to perky (out for lunch with teachers) to ticked off (how come handsome strangers go for the cute young chicks?) to really desperate (Howard, you don't know who you are dealing with) to exuberant. All the time with the common emotions of humor, sadness and the ever present touch of reality playing through it all! You ROCKED it!!
Rosemary is such a delicious role and so hard to do really well, and i know you must have been WONDERFUL! Great photos, Sweetheart. x
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