i've begun implementing my secret plan to humiliate myself in public (more, i mean) by wheedling my way into the reston community players as a volunteer carpenter. my goal, of course, is not only to achieve serene fulfillment in the creation of the perfect piano stand but rather to be "discovered" and give my family and what few friends i have left more reason to be embarrassed to know me.
but i don't care.
while we've always been aware of the rcp in our nine years in reston it has only been in the last year, sadly, that we have attended performances. this even though we realize community theater is precious and we are lucky to have a troupe in our own little town. a company, mind you, which, at 39 years, is nearly as old as the town itself.
the catalyst to attending for the first time was the daughter of friends, who has been cast in the past three rcp productions, including "beauty and the beast," nominated for 25 (!) washington area theatre community honors, in which she shared "chip" duties with another young thespian. previously she had done a turn in "honk" and most recently in "the crucible", which just ended its run.
there is no chance that even i have the gall to audition for a musical, although my only tread of the boards was as captain von trapp in the 1969 production of "the sound of music"* (*at public school 149 in new york city, when i was in the sixth grade) but the next rcp production that hasn't been cast yet is the british farce "run for your wife."
perfect. i used to work for reuters, and my acting ambitions are farcical. it's a sign.
of course, i may not muster sufficient courage, although that's why god invented alcohol. and there is certainly no reason to believe that i'd be cast for anything, including "potted plant (stage left)." but every single person i've met so far that is associated with the rcp is exactly as i would have expected and hoped, and it is way fun to be involved in community theater -- even if my destiny is merely to perfect the technique of engineering ersatz spinning plates.
