Kris, Caitlyn and I just finished up the production of "A Streetcar Named Desire". This play was one I had heard of and had probably read years and years ago, but was somewhat unfamiliar with. I knew that Marlon Brando had played Stanley Kawalski in the movie version of it and that he had a great scene calling for "STELLA!!!!!" his wife, to come back to him, but other than that, did not know a whole lot about the play.
In a nutshell, it is the story of Stella and Blanche Du Bois, they are sisters who grew up on the plantation "belle reve" in Mississippi. Stella left and moved to New Orleans and married Stanley. Blanche stayed and basically went off the deep end after her young husband committed suicide. She ended up being the scandelous talk of the town and left after trying to seduce one of her high school students. She takes up residency with Stanley and Stella and causes all sorts of havoc. She begins to like "Mitch" and he likes her until he finds out what kind of woman she is. In the end she goes through a serious of horrible events that cause her to basically go a bit bonkers and Stella has her committed.
The story has so many layers and so many amazing lines in it. Tennessee Williams was an amazing playwright.
Well, Kris played the part of Mitch and Caitlyn had a smaller role of "woman" friend of the lady who lives in the apt upstairs from Stanley and Stella. I was the associate producer. It was nice to learn so much more about the production, directing and stage crew roles in a play.
During this whole process however, I have learned how grateful I am to have had the chance to work with Clearfield community theater and Heritage Theater in Utah. I am so GRATEFUL that I had the opportunity to work with so many people who were so talented and had such a vision of doing wholesome theater. That brings me to my next thoughts.
I am trying harder in my life to not jump to conclusions and to judge people. But it has been an eye opener to be in a production where our little family are the only LDS cast members. There are other cast members who are religious and that is really nice as well. I have learned so much from those people. I guess the one thing I have learned is that professional theater can be done with morals. It was hard for me each night to know that in one scene Stella and Stanley are "making up" and it ended up being an almost "nude" scene. The actress playing Stella did a fabulous job, however when it came to the "bedroom" scene, she had what appeared to be no qualms about being almost naked in front of the audience. She would go out in her nightgown and robe only to have Stanley undress her. The only thing left on under the covers was her underware. So here I am back stage trying to get her dressed again. So not only did the audience have almost nothing left to the imagination but I am seeing WAY more of this actress than I want to. And if that is not enough, there really was NOT a place for her to change privately backstage. We would hold a sheet up, but for the most part the men in the cast (some as young as 18) had to do a great deal of averting their eyes so as to not see her.
I was really so pleased with the whole show except this once scene and it reminds me of justifying going to a movie..."It really is a great movie except for one scene"...you know how that goes.
I really wanted to invite ward members to come and see the show but did not because of this scene. We even told her that she did not need to undress as much but that didn't seem like an option.
So needless to say, it was an eye opener. I really really love theater and doing productions but i can see that we can no longer go into auditions or into a show without first becoming really familiar with the show and asking the director questions like "will their be nudity in this show?" I guess these were just NEVER things we had to worry about with our community theater in utah.
So I give my Kudo's to Tracy Heun, Parks and Rec Manager for Clearfield City, and to the many directors of the shows there for putting together WHOLESOME theater for the WHOLE FAMILY to come and enjoy!! There was never a question of whether your Bishop should be invited to see a show you were doing.
I am not sure what other shows we will be doing with the theater here. Everyone wants us to audition for RENT in the spring, but I am uncertain about how that show will be portrayed.
I am excited for some opportunities though to audition for "DOUBT" and a newly written show done by a Chinese playwright called "At the Playground:" This show may even be taken back to China to perform. :o)
At any rate. These are my rantings. I hope they do NOT come across as too judgemental or harsh. I feel like I am in a totally different world here sometimes. I love love love California, but I am learning that I am not in a shielded bubble anymore....
