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If this were a normal year, the read-throughs at the Prizery Summer Theater would be taking place about now. This seemed like a good time for me to recall my wonderful experiences as a local adult in six of these productions.
I had absolutely no acting experience when I first auditioned in 2012 at age 70. Not even in high school. But I had just taken voice lessons, and so I auditioned for a part in the Prizery’s “Sound of Music.”
“You have a nice tenor voice,” said Artistic Director Chris Jones during the audition. I didn’t get a part, but I would not have made a very good nun or Von Trapp child.
But next year, he asked me to have a part in “Oliver.” I was the town drunk, and actually danced alongside another adult actor, Larry Jennings. Two young women kissed me in one scene, for maybe 12 performances and countless rehearsals. I was sold on acting!
I am not the only over-40 local type to perform at the Sumer Theater. Among others I remember over the years have been Ken Vaiden, Charlie Simmons, Gladdy Hampton, Jennings and Alison Streeter. Jones liked to add older, more experienced actors to the cast to give the young actors a more realistic view of theater.
The year after “Oliver,” Chris asked me to play a coveted part that I will treasure forever: the priest in Les Miserables. I just loved that singing role, telling Jean Valjean (Jacob Waid) that he should take more silver than what he had already stolen.
I seemed to have become typecast as clergy, playing an evangelist bishop the next year in “Anything Goes” and with a lengthy speaking part as the Starkeeper in Carousel.
My biggest role may have been the baker’s father in “Into the Woods” in 2017. It was at that point I realized that it is harder for older people to remember lines. I needed a lot of coaching from Gladdy Hampton and a couple of excellent 20-something actors. I could never seem to get the rhythm right in singing “No More.” Chris told everyone I was the most-improved actor from the first rehearsal to the last. I think (but am not sure) that was a compliment.
Meanwhile, I got enough courage to audition in northern Virginia (where we spend most of the year) for a role in “1776.” With my lengthening resume, I got the part of Caesar Rodney, who was dying of cancer. I may not have wowed the audience, but my goulish makeup did.
Back in South Boston, I played a farmer in “Oklahoma” and was scheduled to be an Eastern-Orthodox priest (how ecumenical I was) in Mamma Mia“ last year. But as rehearsals began, I had a blocked artery, needed a stent and had to drop out, most likely for the last time.
One of the great things at these shows was mixing with all of these talented young people from all over the country. I got to hear Waid sing “Bring Him Home” numerous times, enjoyed listening to Kelly Glyptis sing “You’ll Never Walk Alone” and was wowed by the tap-dancing n “Anything Goes.” I liked following their careers afterwards, and I got to meet a lot of great young local kids, many of them with theatrical ambitions of their own.
It wasn’t all perfect. Tech week was monotonous and stressful as I waited endlessly for the stage managers to get the lighting right. Several times I refused to fall down the stairs or under a cart in an act. (I could easily do that on my own, thank you.)
I have told people that Summer Theater provided the best of two worlds. For most of the day, I experienced the music and creative atmosphere of Broadway. But then when I went outside at day’s end, I encountered no New York traffic, crowds or noise. I was in quiet South Boston, ready for an easy commute home to Cluster Springs.
How sad it is that the stage is silent for the first time in years. How lucky Halifax County is to have had the Prizery and Chris Jones all these years. How lucky all the actors have been to be able to experience such a professional experience.
