Post #512, How I Got Involved In Theater

In the Autumn of 1982, the Sam Bass Theater advertised auditions for "The Odd Couple." I knew I could be a Pigeon Sister, so I polished myself up and went on down. The way things were at that time, the six men needed for that show just weren't available, so the show was shelved and "Barefoot In the Park" was done instead. The director asked me to come back the following Spring to audition for "Ten Little Indians."

That English accent was a foot in the door. I played "Mrs Rogers" in that production, and it was more fun than a roller coaster! We used my scene live on a local (Austin) morning TV show, and that was fun, as well. There was a whole crowd of people telling me I was talented, and the show was a success. I cried when it was over. The director told me, "But, Ronni, there's always another show!" I wasn't so sure. SSS wasn't overly thrilled with being home alone with the kids for two hours, five nights a week, and on weekends during the production run. And, my ability to put on an English accent got me that role; who knew if I could actually act?

Summer rolled in on its heat wagon, and the theater decided to do a melodrama. My friend and I costumed it. I still have the very first costume I ever made for the Sam Bass Theater.

At that time, our 50-seat theater was the fullest I'd ever seen it. We had timed the production for Frontier Days, and, being air conditioned when it was 104° F outside, we were VERY popular.

SSS dug in his heels around then, and I had to agree to do no more than one show a year.

By the Autumn of 1984, the Depot building had been moved from Main Street in downtown Round Rock to Lions' Club Park, as Memorial Park was known at that time. The play was "Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean," and I was cast as a Texan!

One of the things SSS said when he and I went our separate ways a year later was, "Just see how much play-acting you can do when I'm not here to baby sit for you!"

A lot, as it turned out. Other theater people traded off baby sitting from show to show. The girls were eight and four when Single Motherhood hit me, and I still did only a couple of shows a year. I sewed, ran the box office, organized volunteers to run the box office, cleaned the theater, and generally made myself useful in between.

In 1986, I played Maggie in "The Shadow Box" with a different theater company, and in 1987, it was back to Sam Bass to play Bella in "Ladies at the Alamo." After that, I started to lose count of the plays I had worked on.

It has been a joy and a constant through 23 years of changes.

Everybody needs a hobby. What's yours?