"Oklahoma!"

Ramona and I drove to Brownwood, site of Howard Payne University, today, to see their Lyric Theatre production of "Oklahoma!" We had costumed it, and wanted to see how it looked.

Nancy Jo Humfeld, who directed the production and played Aunt Eller, is the head of the Communication and Theater Department at Howard Payne. She has an impressive resume, and judged the high school One Act Play Tournament in which Round Rock's "The Chalk Circle" was eliminated. She offered all the Round Rock players a 10% tuition scholarship, right off the bat, even though their play was eliminated in her round. I know that, because, of course, my son was one of those players. He was quite stoked to have been offered a scholarship even though he's still a Junior!

I'll tell you what--they put on quite a show! Their leads, Caitlyn Tidwell and Christopher Rosborough gave performances that were impeccable. The whole cast was very good. The production hummed along, maintaining tempo right to the end, and what we saw was the last performance of the run. The timing was excellent and pacing, consistently upbeat. If there was a flaw, it was that Jud was not evil enough. The actor, Lance Kilpatrick, did a great job, but was having to work too hard. For a "nice" and disciplined amateur actor, it is very difficult to release the inner anger that will bring such a character to life. Most of us are afraid to. After all, what is to be done with it after the final curtain? It won't go back in easily!

I thoroughly enjoyed the show, and it was well worth the admission price and the 240 mile round trip.

Of course, it would have been nice if they had mentioned us in the program! I'm sure Lori Arp, the person credited, did a fine job of coordination, but what are we? Chopped liver? We are the ones at work till 11:00 PM two nights in a row to get their costumes done, because they needed them earlier than originally planned. And that was after they were late submitting measurements.

Just because we got paid doesn't mean we don't deserve credit.