New Season...New Play by Kristin Wallace

For the last year, I've been involved with a drama troupe at my church. We do dinner theatre. Last July was the first production, and in February we staged an old-fashioned, Western melodrama. We’re moving close to summer now, which means it’s time to start all over with a new play. 

For the past several weeks, we’ve been holding auditions. Every week, we get together to read through, switching off parts so everyone had a chance. This play happened to need 7 men, which can be tricky when it comes to casting. This is totally a volunteer operation, and it’s hard to find enough men who have time to commit to it. Plus, I’ve generally found that in any drama group, the women always outnumber the men by like 4 to 1.

Well, the final auditions were held 2 weeks ago and last Tuesday, the cast was announced…I DID get a part again!!! I was not sure I would be cast in this one. There were only 4 parts for women and 2 of them were much older. One was younger, but doable, and the fourth seemed ambiguous as far as age, but maybe leaning older than me. In the end, I got the more “ambiguously” aged part, lol. Her name is Beulah. If that doesn’t give you an idea of the timeframe of this play, the names of the older women are Maude & Myrtle. The play is called, How Does A Thing Like That Get Started. Basically, it’s about how a made-up rumor can morph into something much different. The director has decided to set the play in the 50s and in the South. So, think Mayberry and Andy Griffith if you’re old enough to know about that show. Everyone meets in the town park to discuss the news…and gossip…of course. Beulah is a busybody with a Chicken Little complex. She’s the town crier of gossip and is always ready to pronounce that a disaster has befallen the town.

Setting the play in the South means I have to don a Southern accent. I love doing accents, actually. They’re so much fun. A Southern accent is pretty easy. So easy that you often end up speaking that way long after you’ve stopped rehearsing.

One thing has become clear over the last 3 productions…

Last summer I played a woman who was hysterical over her missing cat (lots of crying and loud wailing), and then a diva opera singer (who likes to sing very loudly and very badly), and now a histrionic busybody who is also wails a lot…I’m beginning to think I might now be typecast playing loud, boisterous women. Anyone who knows me well would laugh at that description, as I’m usually very quiet.

I hope you’ll follow my personal blog for updates on how the play is going. This week, we begin blocking. No more sitting and just reading aloud. Now, we start moving around, figuring out where we should go on stage. Should be FUN!

Kristin Wallace is a USA Today Best Selling Author of inspirational and contemporary romance filled with “Love, Laughter and a Leap of Faith”. She is the author of two best selling series, Shellwater Key Tales (sweet contemporary romance) and Covington Falls Chronicles (inspirational romance). Book 3 in the Shellwater Key Tales, LAST STOP PARADISE, launched in April and is on sale now at...

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