To Be or Not To Be.....That Is The Question

The Old Man has been acting again. Not acting up this time; just acting. The annual Christmas Cantata was presented at our church last night. There was a drama portion. In a moment of weakness 3 months ago, I agreed to take on the role of Mike Hollis, a somewhat clueless and insensitive husband to Kelly who was in the throes of pre-Christmas stress to such a degree she was ready to melt down like Frosty the Snowman caught in a tanning booth. Thanks to some very talented other folks, we managed to pull it off without embarrassing ourselves. Someone asked me afterwards, "You must have done a lot of this sort of thing". I replied, "Once....50 years ago when I was a senior in High School."


Tradition dictated at Bedford High that the senior class would conduct several fund-raisers in order to finance the Easter weekend debacle known as the Sr. Trip to New York. One of the prime vehicles was the Senior Play. So, there I was.....suddenly cast in the male lead opposite a sweet girl named Fran. I was Paul to her Annabelle. In the play, The Cat and the Canary, all the surviving relatives of Cyrus West had gathered at his mansion to hear the reading of his will.


Things were spooky enough and it got even creepier as the play unfolded. Written in 1921, It had all the elements of an old silent movie; an escaped lunatic, some shallow and greedy relatives, a monster behind the secret panel, and a climactic fight scene. We carefully rehearsed the fight scene. We went for realism, even to the extent of having my antagonist bite down on a capsule filled with catsup to simulate bleeding from the heroic punch I was to deliver just in time to save the day. All went well during the performance with no missed or forgotten lines. The big scene came and I prepared to "slug" Tommy. In the heat of the moment, Tommy forgot to lean back with the fake punch and instead, leaned forward. I caught him squarely on the chin and his fall to the stage floor was incredibly realistic to say the least. When we helped him to his feet, his eyes had all the sparkle of wax paper. He shook his head a couple of times, and we moved on. The capsule filled with "blood"? Tommy swallowed it.


I've thought a lot about that long-ago acting experience during the preparation for our little program the other night. I had relegated it to my mental safe deposit box and hadn't taken it down off the shelf for many years. I dug out my old annual and started rummaging around. The memories were there.
Three of my cast mates are gone now. Fran, Kenny, and Donnie now perform in the never ending play titled Eternity where I'm quite sure they are getting the rave reviews they so rightly deserve.