Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Seen Through The Eyes of Children

As most of you already know, I was involved in the theater for many years and have accumulated a lot of great memories performing onstage.

Also, most of you already know that I was cast as the Wicked Stepmother in Cinderella, back in the late 90’s and had the time of my life.

Not only did I get the opportunity to do something onstage that I had always dreamed of doing - portray a woman - but, I also had the amazing opportunity to work in children’s theater. The thing that I love about performing for children is that you can’t ACT, because they don‘t miss a trick. Therefore, it taught me a great deal about allowing myself to BELIEVE onstage, rather than PRETENDING to believe.

I knew that in order for the children to believe who I was as the Wicked Stepmother, I would have to believe it first.

Perhaps the biggest highlight in this experience was that I was asked by a kindergarten teacher, who had brought her students to see one of the performances, to give a guest talk as myself (not the character) and meet the children at her school, so they could ask me questions about what it was like to be an actor.

I honestly can’t share (because I can't remember) any of the questions they asked, other than how long it took me to put my makeup on. However, what I can share with you is the touching gift they gave me after I completed my talk.

They each drew pictures of my character, as seen through their own eyes, and then put them all together in this adorable little portfolio.

Here are several of the drawings…..

Drawn by Rebecca


Drawn by Allison


Drawn by Alex


Drawn by Georgia

This is a photo of me taken backstage in the dressing room with Rick, the man who did an AMAZING job in creating my costume and wigs. BRAVA, Rick….thank you again!

Inside joke: Rick came up with the perfect name for my character, Sylvia.

Anyway, when I closed the portfolio, this is what I saw written on the back….

This is WHY I love children so much.

Blessings….

Please note: Because of some major issues with my previous commenting system, I have reverted back to Blogger's. Sorry for any problems you may have experienced earlier today. Thank you everyone!