A Melodramatic Birthday!

What a fun birthday!
What could be better then getting your hair done, makeup done, and then parading around stage being silly and having everyone clap and cheer for you! The Melodrama was a hoot, and the Birthday Carrot Cake was yummy!!!!

I thank everyone for making my day so special:

My long time friend Nina Campbell Erickson My adoring husband

My cousin Conor Carter, his wife Amanda, daughter Ashley and My kids!

Special Bouquet from Jessica:

And of course the Cast and crew of Hartburn Hotel!

Standing: Rod (Ron Crutcher), Sheriff Ulysses S. Graft/Mr. Spoffingford-Sykes (Kyle Berthiaume), Pa Clupepper (Stephen Horner), Mrs. Spoffingford-Sykes head of the Calamady Gulch School Board (that's me)

Sitting: Ivory Keys (Mary-Lynn Theel), Princess Prettyfoot (Joann Fruhling), Jasper Jones/Jasmine Sincere (Bryan Winkel), Polly Sincere (Nicole Read), and Ma Culpepper (Marci Ramsey)

Upstaging us all: the evil Sahara Harburn (Jenni Springer)!

Not pictured: Wood Shipp (Director), and of course the very needed prompter Genevieve Berthiaume!

It was all so fun!!! Yes, I'm glad it is all finally over, but I will miss all the craziness. It was great to get to know these good people. Oh the stories we could tell! The audience was fantastic, both the kid matinee and the adult show- they were very different! The kids got real into it, yelling at the evil Sahara Hartburn and calling her a liar! The adults were quiet and got the jokes! They booed, awed, and cheered in all the right places, and laughed with us as we tried to cover up our unexpected mishaps on stage!

During my big scene where I am telling my sob story- Jasmine (really Jasper dressed as a girl so he could sneak out of the hotel unnoticed) gives me a hankie which is really attached to all his womanly stuffing. It unravels as I walk around the stage (not knowing of course). Well part of the trail of clothing etc got unpinned- so Ivory nonchalantly hands it to me (so the effect of the scene wouldn't be ruined), unfortunately the safety pin gets stuck to my glove- as I give up and pull that glove off (while saying my lines of course and sobbing)- the pin then gets stuck to my other glove- so off it comes too! But ON WITH THE SHOW! . . .I continue to sob, and tell my woeful tale and add my gloves to the string of items- which when I release gets shoved back into Jasmine's dress!

It was fun backstage to see every ones reaction to the audience's cheering. It is so much better to perform for an audience! This was the 4th melodrama that I've done in this ward, and I have to say it was pretty much the best yet (although I still think my favorite character to play was the German spy dressed as a saloon performer!) We had a great cast, great costumes, well written scrip, and wonderful friends to watch us make fools of ourselves.

Brian videoed both performances and took lots of pictures. I've posted several pictures on my facefook album so you can look there. We are now in the process of making copies for the cast.

Mrs. Spoffingford-Sykes, the head of the Calamity Gulch School Board, and the very timid new school teacher Polly Sincere.
"It was perfectly scandalous! The school teacher in Cedar City somehow got it into her head to parade through the streets of town wearing a red dress!"

A murder -means a scandal, which causes Mrs. SS to swoon and moan (my favorite line!)"oh-oh-oh-oh-oh!"

"Is this true? My estranged Husband a bank robber? How could you do such a thing?" The End