Have you ever...

Lynne Guinne

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I thought it would be fun to chit-chat about things we may or may not have done in our lives, or things that we would do (or try) or not do (or try). Once a topic runs out of steam or becomes boring, feel free to change the subject. Just make sure you repeat the main title at the top of your post in bold - sorta like signalling for a turn when you are driving. You DO signal before turning, don't you? :okay:

To illustrate what I mean about a subject line, I'll start the ball rolling with a topic with my first topic post.
 
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Have you ever spoken, sung, or performed on a stage?

I've performed in plays with community theatre groups. I did it long ago, before I was married. Once married, I got busy with my "new life" and didn't do any more acting. Fast-forward decades later, and our son's final exam in an advance English class was performing in the class play, Shakespeare's "Comedy of Errors". He did an outstanding job and was approached by many of the parents and encouraged to get involved in community theatre. Right around that time we had new neighbors move next to us. It turned out that the husband was very active in community theatre and was willing to take our son to an audition...and subsequent rehearsals, since they both had made the play. Eventually, the director at that theatre recruited me to be in shows, too. I even got to be in a play with our son as our last show at that theatre before he went to college and hubby and I moved to Massachusetts.

After we moved here, it took me a few years to venture to a new place and audition, but I did. After being in a couple of shows there, I got busy with other projects and have gone back only to see shows from an audience seat. This last time there, the director I had for my last show mentioned that she had a certain play in mind and that I would be perfect for one of the parts. I told her it depended on whether her play happens before we would get to move. With the way we have(n't) gotten this house ready for market yet, I just might be auditioning again next year...
 
No - I never acted on stage. The only exception would be performance poetry which I used to do rather a long time ago, when we lived in London - a group of us performed poetry on the Edinburgh Fringe (hardly anyone turned up in the audience!). We did lots of London venues with some success.

I have a hunch that @The Late Night Gourmet may have thespian links! :)
 
I forgot to mention, I also had a part in an independent movie that a fellow theatre friend made when we were in Ohio. A lot of fun, no real notoriety. The movie was shown in limited release. IF you knew my real name, you could look me up at IMDB.

@Lynne Guinne,

I have never been in the performing arts of any type as an adult ..

As a kid in school however, I preferred doing set design & make up / wardrobing verses portraying fictious characters ..

Have you ever written an article or theatrical work or a book ?
While our son enjoys acting as much as I, our daughter is like you. She worked on sets for a couple of plays I was in when we still lived in Ohio.

I've never written a book or play. Rather, my writing skills are foisted on fellow members in social forums. :wink: Perhaps I should start looking for a creative writing forum.
 
I have a hunch that @The Late Night Gourmet may have thespian links! :)
Not sure what gave it away, but you're right. I had a Communications & Theater Arts minor in college, where I performed in some plays. I also wrote for the school newspaper, and I'd review plays (though not ones I was in...a bit of a conflict of interest there!) After graduation, I joined a community theater, where I acted, directed, stage managed, produced, and built sets for plays for about 20 years. At different points along the way, I also did shows for other community theaters. Inevitably, I was also the vice president and president of the group at different times. This is where you become intimately aware of the fact that you have hardly any money to afford to do anything. So, we had to keep things simple, and get donations for set pieces, costumes, and such.

I even wrote one-act plays, and a full-length production that our group performed. I had a full-time job at that point, so we did work on the plays in the evenings and on weekends. As a plus, being able to perform on stage translates to any job that requires you to do presentations in front of large groups.

You'd think I'd miss it since it was such a big part of my life for so long, but I don't. If I were just acting in a play, it was a 3-rehearsals-a-week commitment. If I were directing or producing, I was also spending time in between rehearsals with other things related to the show. In community theater, everyone had to pitch in to publicize the show, build and tear down the sets, and arrange for tickets to be printed. If you were the director and/or producer, you didn't have the luxury of missing a rehearsal or not being involved in the process.

It's a massive time commitment that started out as something fun, evolved into something I loved, and then became a bit of a burden when you had to be the one to step up when people would drop out of a show, or not come through with supplies we needed. The most memorable bit of that was once when someone announced that they were going to be out of town for one of the performances, 2 days before the show opened. I had a minor part in the show, so I actually had time to learn his part and perform it....and things actually came off very well.

I don't regret having been so involved in theater for a minute, but I can't imagine doing it again (or even imagining that I could possibly find 3 days a week to add something to my already busy schedule).

It's funny, but as I reread my post, it sounds a bit like I'm talking about the disconnect between the Dream and the Reality of owning a restaurant. Fortunately, in the case of theater, I could walk away from it without any consequences other than some upset people in the group (who had to figure out how to fill in the gap that I left them by leaving).
 
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Not sure what gave it away, but you're right.
I can't remember what it was you wrote that lodged in my head - but I clocked it and I remember I wasn't surprised. You have a certain theatrical flair in both your attitude to cooking and the dishes you cook. You are not a conservative cook. :D

Great to hear your story. I bet you have a little hankering for the theatre left though...
 
@Lynne Guinne,

I have never been in the performing arts of any type as an adult ..

As a kid in school however, I preferred doing set design & make up / wardrobing verses portraying fictious characters ..

Have you ever written an article or theatrical work or a book ?
I forgot to mention, I also had a part in an independent movie that a fellow theatre friend made when we were in Ohio. A lot of fun, no real notoriety. The movie was shown in limited release. IF you knew my real name, you could look me up at IMDB.


While our son enjoys acting as much as I, our daughter is like you. She worked on sets for a couple of plays I was in when we still lived in Ohio.

I've never written a book or play. Rather, my writing skills are foisted on fellow members in social forums. :wink: Perhaps I should start looking for a creative writing forum.

@Lynne Guinne

I had forgotten at the moment I had written very early today ..

I have been on Spanish T.V. talk shows a few times however, not as a performer. I had discussed our company´s travel tours, a book a family member wrote, and a small magazine I put together for our clients and a Spanish magazine, I freelance articles for on Gastro Eno Travel .. I have also been on several major Radio Programmes, as well ..

All my best for a lovely evening ..
23.10 ..
 
Looks like it's time to do a "board flip" and change the topic...

Have you ever hitchhiked?

I had not planned on it, but my car broke down on the way to work in the late 1970s. It was the dead of winter, more than a foot of snow on the ground, and windy. I was on a turnpike - limited access and high speed driving. There was a semi truck with a trailer attached pulled off on the side of the road, so I started to "run" toward it to have the driver signal for help. Back then ALL truck drivers used C.B. radios, so I figured he could call for a tow truck. Oh, no! He started to drive away!

Just then a good
Samaritan pulled up and asked if I needed help. I figured getting into the car with him was the lesser of two evils, considering I was already getting very cold. Turned out he was a Boy Scout co-leader with one of the men who worked in my very large office building (about 1000 people) AND I knew the co-leader! My rescuer and I ended up carpooling to work most of the time from then until I ended up going on maternity leave.

Have you ever taken a ride with a stranger?
 
I've only ever done it twice. Once was in my much younger days, coming home at 4.30 a.m. after a night out on the town. Our local bus service did not run at that time of the morning, and it was a 3 mile walk home from the station. A young chap stopped to offer me a lift. It turned out he was a mate of one of our neighbours. The second time was in the late 1970s/early 1980s. It was thick snow - near us one car had run off the road and was almost buried - and no buses were running at our end of the routes. It was a 3.5 mile walk to work. The longest road I had to go along was no more than a country lane at the time, and I was frozen. Someone pulled up alongside me - it was obvious where I was going, there were no turn offs on that road until you reached civilisation (almost up to where I worked), and the traffic was moving at a snail's pace, so I got in his car (he was good-looking too!). I did have a "weapon" on me though - a steel tail comb, the tail of which was as sharp as any knife.

From the other perspective, I pulled up a junction late one night, indicating that I was turning left. Someone tapped on the window of the car, and asked for directions. I said where he wanted was just round the corner and about half a mile down the road, pointing in the direction he needed, which was also the way I was going. He did no more but to open the door and get in, expecting me to take him there. Ever since then I have always kept the doors and windows firmly locked.

On another occasion I was driving down to the west country to join my parents and daughter on holiday. It was an awful night, stormy and pouring with rain. There were two teenage girls at a bus stop in a tiny village miles from anywhere. They were both soaked through. I picked them up and gave them a lift all way to Southampton, even though it was a little out of my way. The next day there was an item on the news saying that a killer/rapist had been arrested not far from that bus stop. I always wonder.....
 
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