Tabishland

At Thursday night's rehearsal, one of our actors Frank Mancino was in the lobby of the theater and missed his entrance. He plays the Mayor of Chicago. Someone yelled "Where is the Mayor?" and I spent the rest of the evening trying to remember where that phrase was from.

But that's not the play I would do. I don't remember anything about it other than the fact that we got out of one afternoon of the torture of Junior High to sit in the balcony and watch the play.


Back then, Jeff and I desperately wanted to do a production of Death of a Salesman. Seriously. I can imagine a sort of "Rushmore" version- "A Man is not a piece of fruit! Attention must be paid!!!!!"

But that's not the play I would do.

Oh crap, I can't think of a punchline for this one. Help me out Joe.

We keep puting Cyrano in "next year's season" only to take it out when the reality of 35+ characters sets in. But, I didn't do it in High School. I did see it though.

Matbe I would like to perform our 1979 talent IHS talent show audition piece "Funny Men Named Bruce at the Omni Disco, Convention Center and Frozen Yogurt Emporium." My favorite gag- a guy singing "Stayin' Alive" only to be shot by the receptionist. Now that stuff I can remember!!!
 

I'm with you Gracie! I loved doing TMWCtD, and I would do it again anytime! I have happy memories of Gene in that show...

I also think it would be fun to do Matchmaker. I thought Patty was awesome as Dolly, and I always got a kick out of discovering Ian in the closet!
 

Hasn't Ian come out of the closet yet?

Come on, Ian, the blog is there for you.

[sorry couldn't resist]

As for the answer "Question 8," I don't have a good answer. I would say "Oklahoma!" except that, thanks to the blog, I'm able to replay that one over and over again, or at least the famous "45-second gap" in my memory.

Then, of course, there's that heated exchange of spittle I had with Tim for perhaps a bit more than 45 seconds in "Sound of Music." Not a very big part, but I was a sophomore and everything made a much sharper impression, I think.
 

Maybe I should have said you don't have to stay with the same role!

I think You Can't Take it With You was an absolute blast, Gene made that show so much fun.

But My Fair Lady is my all time favorite...all of my best friends in the roles around me, Mealy's dance escapades, Eric and Tim doing the Ishtar thing at auditions (well before the actual movie!)and shoot, it was even where I got to know most of you "underclassmen!" I've said I want to do the whole thing all over again but I can't get anyone else to play.
 

"You Can't Take It With You" belongs in "Rush-land" (as in Sharon Rush), but it does make me wonder why I tended to be cast as the old, wise or "official" man as in "Grandpa" in "You Can't..." (cf. the Reverend in "Earnest," old Oshira in "Teahouse," the Doctor in MW, and the Narrator in "Thurber"). Did I project some kind of reasonable, regular guy kind of aura that I didn't actually possess? Okay, don't anyone answer that.
 

I'd like to do the "Marat/Sade" again, only in whiteface and without any clothes this time. I never understood why DRT made us all wear tuxedos in it except that we had so many of them in the costume rooms.

After that, "Hello Dolly" was my favorite, especially the part where we got yelled at for showing up to audition.

Third, would be a "Director's Cut" of "Teahouse..." where the long lost cricket cage scenes are replaced.

Lastly, would be watching the amazing performance by Jeff Davis in TIOBE.
 

I simply can't believe I'm going to be the first to say it:

Thurber Carnival
 

Just noticed that you mentioned JUNIOR high, Kim. So I'd have to add "Finders Creepers," the comic masterpiece that brought us Barry Slansky and Steve Early reading the sign in front of a funereal house and wondering who "Mort U Ary" was. Come to think of it, I was typecast as a suit in that one, too: the lawyer Harry Schuster. I always enjoyed our breaks in the faculty lounge where we could buy candy and soda (sorry, "pop") out of the machines.
 

You know, Jeff, your early "suit" days in the theater are surely balanced by the fact that you have, in reality, become the polar opposite of that casting - a crazy, impetuous renegade in your middle age. Dontcha think?
 

Tim I would love another go at Shrew, this time I might actually know what I am talking about, plus it would only take you 23 hours to rememorize you lines...oh I forgot you still have them memorized.

Have to pass on MFL unless Zambotti wants to recreate the Freddy, flowers stuck in the door, unzipped fly fiasco. That was hilarious.

Joe, I am with you, TC has to be the epitomy of our high school careers, I am sure it is DRT's fondest memory and source of his greatest pride.
 

Chip and I (and did Joe do the sound?)did A Thurbur Carnival one summer at Theater by The Grove. It was really, really fun to do.
 

Oh and Gene was in it too. he did a lot of the Walter Mitty stuff.
 

I liked Thurber because it was different. But I sure didn't "get" a lot of it at that tender age (do I get everything now?) I suspect the audience didn't either.
 

I'd love to do YCTIWY again. I always loved that it was an "old", classic comedy. Sweet, funny and yet it holds up well.

I was privileged to see it at the Public in Pgh. a few years ago. It was a hoot and, given the fact that I had great difficulty remembering lines, I was surprised that I remembered most of the show.
 

"Thurber Carnival" was a big deal for me because it was my first high school show. Looking back, I've begun to realize that "When Grant Was Drinking at Appomatox" (starring Dave Noker as the general himself, by the way) must have been edgy back in the day. I don't know Thurber's biography, but he probably grew up around folks who had been through the Civil War and found nothing funny about it...but kept telling the same old stories that he probably grew tired of.