Bombshell? Me?? OK.

I’m in the middle of rehearsals for The Man Who Came to Dinner at the WCT. I got cast as Lorraine Sheldon, bombshell. The thought still makes me giggle, because I so don’t think of myself as the bombshell type. I wasn’t actually up for the part originally. The director only had one person read for it the night that I auditioned; but when she got up there and started to read (in the same normal voice she had used for all her other readings), I happened to glance at the director and saw her shuffling her papers, shaking her head and muttering to herself in reaction. Well, based on the description she’d given us of the character and the fact that her first word in that scene was “Darling” I had a decent idea of what she was looking for, in the voice, at least. So at the end of the night, when she asked if anyone had wanted to read for a part and hadn’t gotten to, I raised my hand and asked to read for Lorraine. The producer told me later that the director cast me in the part as soon as I started reading. It’s been a fun show, quite apart from playing a vamp, because Tredessa’s in it too (as the female romantic lead), and it’s always fun to play with her! Plus in this show we play rivals, so even more fun.

I’m working on two projects at LibriVox right now; I’m still working on Pride and Prejudice (on the sly, so to speak). I’m more than two thirds of the way through it. And for my “public” project I finally decided on a compilation of short stories by Pedro Antonio de Alarcón. I have one left to go, and it’s the longest in the bunch, so I’ve broken it into three sections, to keep the file sizes manageable. I’m thinking of going back for more Scarlet Pimpernel after this; specifically, the Elusive Pimpernel, which is the book that comes between the two I’ve already done. My output has dropped lately, though, as I’m spending my evenings at the theatre and can only record on the weekends.

I went out to CHS with MB last Saturday to see Mandy’s production of Seussical. It was fun to compare similarities and differences in the costumes, because Mandy costumed the production we did at the WCT a few years ago. It was lots of fun, anyway. And Mandy played Mayzie; I’d always wondered how she would have played the part if she’d auditioned for our production (because I’m pretty darned sure she’d have gotten that part), and it was fun getting to see.