THE KING AND I: 15 days until opening night

Another rehearsal this evening. This one focused on the "Small House of Uncle Thomas" scene early in Act II. I keep thinking that the Uncle Thomas mask looks exactly like Chief Wiggum from The Simpsons and the mask for Simon of Legree resembles Gollum from Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings movies.

"Wiggum and Gollum". Sounds like a law firm, aye?

I have to say, it's so weird doing this show at Rockingham County Senior High where I was once a student. We're using the J. Allan Lewis Auditorium (named after my late friend Allan "Doc" Lewis), on the same stage where I used to have drama class with Gene Saunders. Everything backstage even still looks exactly the same as it did all those years ago. It's almost enough to make me feel like a high school kid again :-)

The rehearsals will start to ramp up bigtime come Saturday. That's also when we'll be having our costume fittings and go through the makeup procedure for the first time. And speaking of that, I'm having a very hard time envisioning myself with Oriental features! Guess we'll find out what Chris Knight looks like as a man of Siam this weekend.

The King and I opens on June 18th. Visit the website for Theatre Guild of Rockingham County for more information. Hope to see y'all there!