1. You can take a bunch of people from all kinds of backgrounds, all ages, and they become a family.
2. Rehearsals can be long and tedious, but great things come out of them – stories are told, friendships are formed, characters developed, songs are learned, choreography is taught and a show is born.
3. Tech rehearsals CAN be fun! Especially when you’ve got great people to hang out with. (and the crew is amazing!)
4. You CAN fly off stage backwards and look incredibly graceful doing it!
5. Never dance “Step in Time” on a full stomach.
6. You CAN sing a cappella when the sound system crashes and most of the audience won’t even realize something is wrong!
7. Never dance in the wings because someone is sure to be video taping it.
8. Always blow your nose before being knocked out by magical shelves.
9. It takes longer to get to stage left than you think!
10. There can never be too many dressing room selfies.
11. Santa Claus is real and he likes to go to community theatre productions.
12. All kinds of things can happen with your audience (patrons passing out, kids throwing up, kids running in the aisles…..) but the show will go on!
13. Sometimes you use a whole pack of bobby pins to put on your wig.
14. Always peel off your own mic tape, because Noah shows no mercy.
15. You will make some of the best friends EVER and love them to pieces.
16. And especially – Anything can happen if you let it!
To my fellow cast mates – I love you all. To those I’ve just met and those I’ve known – thank you for becoming my friends! I will always treasure our time together.
To the crew – especially those who moved my gigantic house and helped me in and out and fanned us when we were dying of heat – thank you.
To Shauna and Doug, and Leslie and Ashley and Brandi and Leigh – THANK YOU! Thank you for trusting me to play this part, supporting me throughout and just being an all around amazing production team.
To Francene and Alda – thank you for helping to make me feel beautiful every night! And for strapping me into the amazing grown up Belle dress!
To my pretend kids – Addie and Blake, and Isabella and Will – I LOVED being your mom for a few months. You made it so easy to love you. You will always be my sweet Janes and Michaels.
To Lynsey and Kayla- It was a pleasure sharing a dressing room and stage with you. Our moments were special and I so lucky I got to perform with two such talented people.
To James and Josh – there are no words for how much I thoroughly enjoyed working with both of you. You made it so easy and I will always love both of you! Thank you for being such wonderful Georges to my Winnie.
I could go on and on and gush endlessly – and I’m sure I’m forgetting something or someone important. But rest assured, I am so grateful for Mary Poppins!
“Mary Poppins” was a magical time for me – i will never forget it. I will treasure it always. All good things come to an end – and am I not so very lucky that I loved something so much it is so difficult to let it go?
“If you reach for the stars, all you get are the stars – if you reach for the heavens, you get the stars thrown in….”
(Originally published April 26, 2015)
