theatre guild of rockingham county

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Can you tell how wrapped-up I’ve gotten in The Best Christmas Pageant Ever that I’ve barely been able to blog during the past few days? We did two performances yesterday. Had good friends come to see both of them (thanks y’all!). And in light of what happened during opening night, some of us wondered if we might have invoked the curse of “the Scottish play” during a discussion we were having about it with the younger kids in the dressing room that evening. So just to be on the safe side (and also ‘cuz I thought it would be fun to be able to say that I’ve actually done it) I performed the “counter-curse” before the 2:30 p.m. show yesterday: walking around the building containing the stage three times, then spitting over my left shoulder and muttering a profanity. Did it work? No way to be sure, but everyone is ...

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Theatre Guild of Rockingham County’s production of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever packed the entire house for its first public performance: not an empty seat in the place and they even had to bring in some more chairs for the extra-sized audience!

The show was great! The kids in the cast are especially doing a phenomenal job. The one thing close to an Opening Night calamity though happened to Yours Truly, when I was leaving the stage after the fire scene and tripped on the risers in the dark… while wearing all that firefighter outfit and oxygen pack, mind ya. I didn’t “fall off stage”. I actually “fell onto off-stage”, LOL!

The upshot is that I have a slightly sprained ankle. And I’ve still gotta run up that aisle with the heaviest costume in the show three more times. There is no understudy in community theater. But hey: The pain ...

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So tonight we had the fourth performance of Theatre Guild of Rockingham County‘s production of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. That was four performances we did on this first day of the show (mostly for elementary students). We don’t take to the stage again until tomorrow night at 7:30.

A lot of people in the cast and crew have mentioned that in the past few days, that I might have lost weight. So after getting home I got on the scales.

Since dress rehearsals began Monday night, I’ve lost fifteen pounds. All from wearing the full firefighter gear and carrying the oxygen pack around.

Wondering how much of that might be water, ‘cuz inside that thing, under the lights, you can’t help but sweat like a pig. I’ve said it before but it merits saying again: I now have a whole new appreciation for firefighters, after experiencing ...

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Whew…

Cast and crew was in the auditorium at 7:30 this morning. The first show was at 9 playing to a packed house of elementary students. Then we did it again at 10:30. And again at noon!

Looks like we’ve got a hit on our hands: the kids loved the show! Many of them said they’d be coming back and bringing their parents (which is always good šŸ™‚

So we’ve got three shows down, five more to go. The next one is a closed performance tonight and then it opens to the public tomorrow evening at 7:30. Visit the website for Theatre Guild of Rockingham County for ticket information and directions to Rockingham Community College.

And now… I’m going to take a nap before showtime! šŸ˜›...

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Last night we finally got our dressing rooms!! Awright, to be honest they’re conference rooms in the Advanced Technologies Building at Rockingham Community College, which the Theatre Guild just appropriates for shows. We’re thankful for Rockingham Community College letting us perform there but all the same: it will be much nicer when we have the new civic center with a bigger stage and dedicated dramatic facilities.

Anyhoo, during our dress rehearsal last night we often found ways of entertaining ourselves until our cues (we know when we’re about to go onstage because of the baby monitor that’s broadcasting live from the auditorium: can you tell now that we really are community theater? :-). Here’s Eric Smith (who plays Reverend Hopkins) strumming a tune on his new banjomer (a combination of banjo and dulcimer)…

By the way, word on the street is that Eric has been wrecking all kinds of good-hearted ...

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Last night was our first full dress rehearsal for Theatre Guild of Rockingham County‘s production of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. We’ve got three days ’til the show opens, but really it’s two days for the cast and crew ‘cuz on Thursday we do something like four or five shows for the county’s elementary students…

…and I hope I can keep up the pace ‘cuz I’m wearing what many are saying is the heaviest costume in Theatre Guild history! Yesterday evening I wore the full firefighter getup again, plus a real oxygen pack on my back. That’s something like one hundred pounds of costume that I’ve got to put on and charge up onto the stage in. But the story and the message of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever is so touching (not to mention entertaining) and this is such an amazing bunch of people that I’m getting ...

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Last night we had our first technical rehearsal for Theatre Guild of Rockingham County‘s production of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. Prior to that co-directors Jeff and Melissa Mericle had a “costume parade” where the cast got to show off the costumes they had put together for approval. The idea is to evoke a Seventies-ish look (since that’s the time period of the original novel).

Although I didn’t take part in the costume parade itself (since it had been provided by the Theatre Guild with special arrangement with the Madison Fire Department) I did put on my Fireman’s getup for the first time, and kept it on when we rehearsed the fire scene…

I have an entirely fresh appreciation for firefighters now, after wearing that for just one evening. It is heavy! And that’s still not all of what I’ll be running around in during the show. ...

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Last night we had the first rehearsal of the fire scene for Theatre Guild of Rockingham County‘s production of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever and it was a scream! “Well-choreographed chaos” is the best way to put it. And lo and behold, as a Fireman I get to be right in the center of it all! Some terrific hijinks ensue in just a minute or two of performance time and we more or less got it all nailed down pat last night. Well, ‘cept for doing it in costume ‘course.

And speaking of that, tonight the three of us in the Fireman roles dropped by a local fire department to get equipped with our firefighter’s coats and pants. I’d never worn full fire gear before. The stuff is so bulky that I felt like I was wearing C.O.G. armor from a Gears of War game. And I’ve got ...

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This past month the young actors of Theatre Guild of Rockingham County rocked the house with Disney’s Mulan Jr. (starring Jessica Wray as Mulan and Peggy Wasmund as Wushu). In case y’all missed it the first time, be at the new Market Square in Reidsville (ummm… North Carolina) this coming Saturday, October 31st at 4 p.m. ‘cuz they’re gonna do one more performance. Come out and enjoy the show.

And you’ll still have plenty of time for trick-or-treating, too!...

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