Friday, January 9, 2009

Not THAT Kind of Dancer

All that theater talk yesterday has me thinking about, well, theater. Kinda obvious, ain't it? But seriously... it's probably not all that surprising that I was a big theater chick way back in the day. I did a lot of backstage work, set building, and that kind of thing. And let me tell you, you haven't heard enough jokes about screws, screwing, and screwdrivers until you have worked with a bunch of high schoolers constructing a set. We used to hold contests on who could say the raunchiest things.

Yeah, I won. Because I have no shame. But you knew that already, didn't you?

Anyway, one year I decided to step out from behind the curtain, and I don't mean like I did that one time that some of my crew members weren't really paying attention and pushed half of a car onto one of the actors. I mean like in acting.

I got a part in Midsummer Nights Dream as one of the fairies, which worked out really well for me because they have a couple of dance numbers and I was dancing a lot back in those days. But what didn't work out is that the director (I almost typed 'dictator,' which is really a freudian slip) decided to do something 'creative.'

So there I was, playing a fairy, doing a little sexy type dance, dressed like Dopey from the seven dwarves. Everyone in the show was dressed like a cartoon character. The dwarf-fairies ended up being the comic relief, and I was unofficially dubbed as Sexy of the alternadwarves. There was also Slutty, Ditzy and Boobie. Don't ask me; I don't know.


I still think it's funny. But not as funny as when we made a fake manthing out of a toilet paper roll and stuck it under Tarzan... I mean Theseus' loincloth. I'm just now realizing what pervs we truly were.

15 comments:

Jamie Eyberg said...

I am not sending my kid the school you went to. Unless they had a really good theater program and then I might consider it.

K.C. Shaw said...

Everyone's a perv in high school. At least you all were funny about it.

sruble said...

Dwarf fairies? Your theater director was an odd one, but it sounds like you had fun anyway.

I ventured into HS theater once too, but at least I got to do the time warp in one scene (even if I did have to be a tree in the other scene), while wearing a striped poncho and spikey lion hair.

We had an exchange teacher from Australia that year. Nobody understood what the play was about, except her.

Unknown said...

Ha! I was Anonymous Fairy No. 3 in my high school's rendition of Midsummer Night's Dream. :)

Adrienne said...

I'm curious about the giant tubes of paint...
BTW, love the bowling ball in the last post!

Carrie Harris said...

Jamie: Um... I think the commute might be too much. It's in Ohio, after all.

KC: Yes, but it's the kind of funny that you laugh AT, not WITH. :)

sruble: Um... weird. You were a poncho lion. I'm not sure I can beat that.

Beth: I was Peaseblossom. And I was so proud that I had a name. Other than Sexy Dwarf, of course.

adrienne: We were supposed to be cartoon characters on someone's desk, I think. So the stage was done up with paint, brushes, a pair of glasses, an overturned coffee cup that I got to climb on. It really WAS a cool set.

sruble said...

I wasn't actually supposed to be a lion, so no face paint. My hair was just sticking out on all sides like a lion (and it was really long, so it looked cool and freaky).

At least you were supposed to be something. :)

Suzanne Casamento said...

That is the craziest set I've ever seen. I think I love it.

Fox Lee said...

Ha! How wonderfully disgusting : )

Kelly Polark said...

Your director sounds like he has a screw loose! (screw pun intended)
Those tubes of paint are quite interesting, and your dwarf fairy names!! Too funny! I supposed Slutty knew just what to do with all of that paint! (yeah, I don't know what that's supposed to mean either...)

Rena Jones said...

Hey, anything's better than a dancing banana like my school tried to make me do.

Great picture -- sorry I missed it.

K. M. Walton said...

High school is an experience, start to finish - isn't it? I mean, seriously, it's a wonder any kid makes it through without ending up drooling in a VERY snug white jacket.

Dwarf fairies...now that's some funny stuff.

Mariah Irvin said...

My school did that play too. It was pretty lame though. The director had left-over '50s costumes from something or other, so she decided the play would be set then. Here's the catch: they still spoke the way Shakespeare wrote it, with all the "hath"s and whatnot. It was a little confusing; I thought I would be going to a play where they said "keen" and "swell" a lot. Nice pic, by the way.

Michelle D. Argyle said...

Um... hubby is an actor. After living with him, I've heard and seen it all. He was in Midsummer as Lysander. But he didn't dance... or dress up like a cartoon character. :)

Hanna Banana said...

Well, when I was in high school, we did a rendition of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. I was the Doormouse. I hated that black leoTARD and the stupid wire tail hanging off the back of my butt. Probably wouldn't have been so bad if I had been taller and curvier. When your only 5 foot tall and 85 pounds soaking wet, it's just sad. My acting mates gave me the Yuk Yuk Award for "What do you do with you tail when you're alone".