My Theater Debut: Stage Lessons

 

Rehearsals of The Dixie Swim Club are in full swing! Since I first landed the part, I’m having a blast and have learned lots about life on stage from Lisa, our director and Debbie, our stage manager.

• Don’t turn your back to the audience.
• Don’t stroll or meander across the stage. Every move is deliberate.
• Don’t block another actor.
• Don’t cover your face.

I realized these lessons can apply to life off stage, too.

• Don’t hide yourself away.
• Live with intention.
• Value others.
• Practice boldness.

I’m working hard at memorizing my lines. Starting January 5, we may NOT bring our scripts to rehearsal. It’s been a great exercise for this menopausal brain.

And I’m doing my best to inhabit my character, to become Jeri Neal McFeeley, ex-nun. Now out of the convent, she makes some bold choices.

In one scene, Jeri Neal models a low-cut, short, pink dress. Her friends declare the dress much too young for her, announcing that Jeri Neal looks like “a hooker with a handbag.” (She carries a designer purse).

I sure hope I can become as bold as Jeri Neal.

Because if I step on stage in that short pink dress and freak, I’m NOT allowed to turn my back.

Top Photo: The cast of the Dixie Swim Club right before we climbed into our decorated truck for the Hillsborough Christmas Parade.

Menopausal You and Me: Mellow or Bold?

Menopause makes us bold, like these garden flowers, who went summer nuts outside my kitchen window.

We speak up.

We voice our opinions.

We make brave choices.

But…

Menopause makes us mellow too.

We know when to remain silent.

We know how to pick our battles.

We often give up the stressful and the time-consuming.

The trick, the real trick, is figuring out when to choose bold and when to choose mellow.

I don’t always know which way to sway.

This summer, when the orange flowers took over, I debated.

Should I trim them back or let them go nuts?

I let them go nuts.

Does that mean I’m bold? To appreciate such brightness. To let my garden run unruly.

Or am I mellow? To not worry that the flowers towered by leaps and bound over everything else in the garden.

No matter.

The flowers are happy, bright orange happy.

And we had a festive summer together.

What about you?

Is the menopausal you

More mellow?

More bold?

Or a happy combination?

Danko Giveaway:  Congrats to lucky  Ginger Kay, who won the Dansko Giveaway!