B J Machalicek

I took this pic of B J in 2006.  She played Kate for me in Sam Bass's All My Sons.  To be honest, I had expected to cast a younger woman in the role, but she nailed the audition, and I had to adjust the rest of my casting around her.  She had played the same role 20 years before, but was happy to revisit it.

Everything she ever did on stage was brilliant.  If you heard B J Machalicek was in a show, you bought tickets on the spot.  Didn't matter the show--you know there would be at least one performance in it that would be worth the price of admission, and then some.

Behind the scenes, she was just as awesome.  Professional, hard-working, kind...you couldn't ask for a better cast-mate.

Whatever a director asked her to do, she would do her damnedest to get right.

She directed the second show I ever did at Sam Bass...it was a melodrama and I was costuming.  If she had any reservations about being stuck with a novice costumer who knew nothing about melodrama, she never let on.

She taught theatre at several schools in the Central Texas area...she was at C D Fulkes when I first met her, and she also taught at Round Rock High School, Westwood High School and out in Florence.  When she retired from teaching, she sold caps and gowns and high school rings all over the district.  She just liked being around the kids.  She taught at the Georgetown Palace summer camps for years.

She did community theatre.  All the time.  She loved classic roles like Kate in All My Sons, or Linda in Death of a Salesman, but she also loved to kick up her heels in comedies like Hallelujah Girls or Christmas Belles.  A couple of times, I played characters who got dressed down by her, most memorably in Ladies at the Alamo.  Paid her back, though...I got in her face in The Oldest Profession, which was also a joy.

Actually, being onstage with her at any time, in any play was always a memorable experience.  She gave so much, and was so much fun to play with.

I want to be her when I grow up.

Goodbye, B J.  You are in my heart forever.