I’m BACK!

May 2, 2008

For the two people left following this blog, here’s a short run-down on what I’ve been doing for the past few months:

Rehearsing and preparing the role of Margot in a community theater production of The Diary of Anne Frank. This is actually our closing weekend. I auditioned way back in February, the first time I’ve auditioned for a play in about ten years and was absolutely convinced that I would be cast in the role of Miep Gies, one of the friends/office workers who helped hide the Frank and Van Daan families.

Imagine my surprise when I got the phone call from the director asking me if I would like to play the role of Margot Frank, the elder sister to Anne. My first reaction was WOO! Bigger part! Yay! Then I was rather bummed that I didn’t get Miep because Miep has been a personal hero of mine since junior high, when I actually met her while she was on a lecture tour of the States.

But the role of Margot has turned out to be just perfect for me. I get to cry a lot and, in the second act, I have a scene where I get to gag and, considering all of the practice I’ve had as a Sick Kid, my gagging is alarmingly realistic. (There’s always one or two people in the audience who exclaim about how real my gagging sounded. I can hear them from inside the little Water Closet that is part of our set.)

It’s been a grueling few months. I don’t have many lines but my character is NEVER off-stage. And I do mean NEVER. Our small Frank family opens the play by walking through the audience to the secret bookcase, the man playing Otto Frank opens the bookcase to let us all in and, once onstage, I only leave it for intermission and at the very end, when the Nazis chase us out in to the Lobby.

The production is truly fantastic. I’m constantly impressed by the level of sophistication of all aspects of the production, from the set design (spectactular! I’m hoping to take some pictures of it tonight), the costumes (I’m in love with one of my costumes–but more about the costumes in the next paragraph), the casting (we are a DAMN GOOD CAST) to the incredible detail given to every single prop used in the show.

But as wonderful as the costuming is, it’s been a huge thorn in all of our sides for the past month. Once we are inside the Secret Annex we do NOT LEAVE, which means that all but one of us (Peter, who has his own room and can disappear into it for his costume changes) have to make of our costume changes on-stage in partial darkness. We had to rehearse with costumes for two weeks before the show opened just to get used to the many, many costume changes (and I made quite an amusing gaffe during one of our last dress rehearsals).

To start with, the entire Frank family enters the Annex covered in layers of clothes. My character is wearing: A white slip (since all costume changes are done on-stage, we all have to wear slips to maintain some semblance of modesty), a gorgeous ivory blouse that I want to take home, a plaid skirt, a striped red-and-white dress layered over the first outfit, a white cardigan over the dress, a brown jacked over the cardigan, dress, and first outfit and THEN a gorgeous blue jacket that I also want to steal. Not to mention the purse and hat, of course. And the damned umbrella that I have to carry since it’s supposedly raining when we make our trek to the Annex.

The four of us climb onto the stage while Otto holds the bookcase open, and then we proceed to huddle in a small clutch of people around the dining table while we divest ourselves of our layers of clothes. The Frank family was forced to go into hiding two weeks earlier than expected because my character, Margot, had been served papers telling her to report to the Westerbork Transit Camp, from which she would be sent to either a concentration, or death camp. So, the entire family entered into hiding earlier than expected and had to bundle up with layers of clothes because they hadn’t had the time to sneak them into the Annex before-hand.

As we all peel off our layers of clothes, the three ladies drape their clothes over the chairs and table and it’s my job to collect ALL of the clothes, sort them (since they are a jumble of my clothes, Anne’s clothes and our Mother’s clothes), get Anne’s and my clothes into our small bedroom, Mother’s clothes on her bed and the jackets laid out on her bed, upon which I collapse while Anne’s first voice-over (V-O) plays over the audience.

Once the V-O ends, I have little time to hang up mine and Anne’s coats and hats, before I have to deliver my first line (”I am too!” Told you I didn’t have many lines) and start helping Otto unpack all of our dishes while Anne runs around the stage being Anne.

From there it’s off to the room Margot and Anne share and I have to sort and fold both of our clothes and place the in boxes under each of our beds and THEN I have to make both beds, which I barely have enough time to do and one night I didn’t even finish making my bed so poor Mr. Dussel (the dentist who arrives at the Annex a few months after the Franks and Van Daans went into hiding) had a completely un-made bed (Mr. Dussel takes over my bed and, for the rest of the play, my character is forced to live in a frakkin’ CAVE).

Our first costume change comes upon us very quickly and last night was the first time I made the change and got to my place before the full lights went up on the stage. You would think it’d be an easy change since all I have to do is change skirts (from the ugly plaid skirt to this GORGEOUS pleated wool, brown skirt that I also want to take home with me) but I actually have to strike (clear) two empty boxes from our bedroom (the ones that held our bedding and the few items of clothing that we couldn’t wear as layers, like the brown skirt and our nightgowns), change skirts, gather up my props (notebook, pencil case, small pad of paper, and three grammar books), take off my shoes and rush to my place at the table, so that I’m sitting at the table with my shoes on the floor and an open book in front of me, apparently studying. The hook closure on the skirt wasn’t fastened properly, so it was keeping me from getting to my mark on-time but that was fixed and now I can actually make that second costume change with a bit of time to spare.

Which leaves me in my absolute favorite costume. The gorgeous ivory blouse and the beautiful pleated, wool skirt. A few small scenes play out and then Miep comes to the Annex to tell us about a dentist, a Mr. Dussel, who is desperate for a safe hiding place and it’s declared that Dussel will have my bed and that I’ll be moving in with my parents.

That’s when the frakkin’ cave becomes my home. It’s four feet off the ground (yes, FOUR FEET OFF THE GROUND) and has a small bed and just enough room for my clothing boxes. The cage is where I live for the remaining three-quarters of the play. After three weeks of performances, I’ve gotten used to the cage and hardly ever complain about it anymore.

Our final performance is tomorrow night and I’m more than ready for it. It’s a great show, we’ve all been working our asses off on it but we’re completely burnt out and ready for a break (and I think I might have a sinus infection but I’m ignoring it until next week). We have FIVE performances last weekend alone (one Friday evening show, a Saturday matinee and Saturday evening show, a Sunday matinee and a Sunday evening show) and it was grueling. Half of the cast is sick this week and we’re making it through these last few performances on sheer will-power. And cold medicine. I also managed to twist and sprain my ankle about two weeks ago (only two days before opening night) and thankfully it was just a sprain but it still hurts and it looks pretty gross. My shins are also banged up from bumping into things in the semi-darkness during costume changes.

I’d write more but I have no time. My Aunt passed away a few weeks ago, and then my Dad fractured his pelvic bone, so between the play and the family drama, it’s been an exhausting few months. Now I’ve got this lovely sinus infection to deal with but at least we only have two more performances.

Time to go and get ready to put on a great show tonight. Never-mind the bruised ankle, the sinus infection, the banged up shins or the floaty head, THE SHOW MUST GO ON!

Posted in My So-Called Life