Beauty is in the eye of the gambler, I mean, the beholder

Hello, it's your friendly chronicler of all things mundane in my life and the lives of my family and friends. Mundane is a subjective, well, . . . subject. What one considers mundane, another considers pleasant, or fulfilling. It's that old "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" expression. Well, I happen to be the "beholder" on this here blog and therefore your reading pleasure is totally at the whim and fancy of yours truly. While the "beholder" is a position of envy, there is of course what's called in the industry, the down side. The down side of it is that I'm often mistaken for the "gambler": a well known professional card shark, who started out his career on a train as an amateur, until he was taught the idiosyncrasies of poker by an apparently broke, nicotine addicted, alcoholic mentor, of which he applies to all life's endeavors and challenges.



I especially draw this comparison when seen in my full costume as Mr. Welch in the play It's a Wonderful Life where I wear what can best be described as a cross between a possum and raccoon skin in full winter thickness. I always seem to get stuck wearing a bad wig in these productions. Anyway, here's the Mr. Welch

as seen in Frank Capra's holiday film classic which you may get the chance to view this holiday season. As you can see, he looks normal and isn't at all afflicted with Kenny Rogers' hair, or Jay Leno hair,

or dead marsupial hair!

 It's the scene where Mr. Welch recognizes the protagonist's name and then proceeds to hand out a beat down!

"And the next time you talk to my wife that way, you'll get worse!"

You should have known better Jimmy Stewart. Yes, I'm in the only scene with fight choreography.

As Sam Wainwright I use my natural hair and am somewhat dressed up in slacks, tie and jacket. I make a couple of key phone calls from my setting in New York and France, found in the unoccupied balcony on stage left (that's the actor's left hand side, as they face the audience). Below, is Sam Wainwright's scene helping to cement the protagonist's (James Stewart as George Bailey) love to Mary Hatch (played by Donna Reed).

We had a good opening night. It was a lot of fun and we did it really well, we thought. During one particularly quiet scene where George Bailey is "having a moment", the only ornament not secured by wire tie on the Christmas tree on stage worked loose and plunk, plunk, plunked its way down about 10 steps. Saturday, we had a good night again, and the choreographed punch made a nice slap sound and the other actor's fall was believable.

Sunday's matinee was a little sloppy. I felt I maintained energy and delivered my lines well, but I know some actors ( nowadays to be politically correct, there are actors and female actors, the reasoning is there are no doctoresses, so there should not be actresses) were dropping some lines and one actress missed her only cameo on stage; it was the scene which elicited the biggest laughs both Friday and Saturday. She missed it. She blamed it on the tech guys not letting her know. However, I'm of the philosophy that each actor is responsible for being on that stage for their cue come hell or high water! I think her occupation with reading something on her laptop in the green room had a lot to do with it.

Rick, Sharon, and Luke attended the Sunday matinée performance, for which I was thankful. We immediately had a production notes meeting afterward and was unable to talk with them to find out what they liked/disliked. Sharon told Mare I did a good job and she wondered why I wasn't awarded a lead role. Well, Sharon, you may not remember, but I did audition for George Bailey, THE lead role. I think I would have done nearly as well as the seasoned actor who portrayed him, and I openly hoped I would win it. I secretly was relieved when I did not win it, because it's a big role. I'll work my way up.

One last thing about the play, then I'll give it a rest for this post. The lead role, the guy portraying George Bailey, he's the father of the female lead's boyfriend. Did you catch that? The female lead role of Mary Bailey, who kisses George several times throughout the production; she is 19, maybe 20, and is dating the son of the guy playing George! It's a little bit awkward. Of course, as a theater person (cue the snobbish snort) I didn't think much of it, because it's ACTING! I was able to get over it. I gather that some in the audience were not able to "get over it", and for them this knowledge brought the play down. Unfortunate.

Christmas will be upon us. Be of good cheer! Yours truly,
"The Beholder"


Thankfully, we have Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday off without rehearsal or performance. Thursday night is rehearsal, then three performances over the weekend.