"Angel Street"

My life at MC was full and very enjoyable. There were choir practices, The Naturals performed for nearly every Baptist church and Rotary Club in the Southeast, and then there was, of course, the perfunctory going to class and studying. My thoughts for my future were to become a psychologist. Am I the only one here who thinks that's the funniest statement so far in this entire blog? After the first week of sitting through Intro to Psychology made it abundantly clear that I was barking way up the wrong tree. However, there was a cute boy who wore Evan Picone cologne that sat behind me and that made my time in that class visually and aromatically tolerable.

Not long after my parting with psychology, I noticed a flier about auditions for a play called “Angel Street”. So, at the appointed time, I showed up in the basement of Aven Hall to audition. A little background about the theatre department at MC. It was small and the department heads were Doctors Hollis and Julia Todd. Very sweet people who were relics of a time when only religious dramas were allowed to be performed at the school. There was also a college radio station in Aven with the call letters of WHJT. Slowly more modern day productions crept their way in. The drama teacher/director extraordinaire was a woman named Judy Lewis who is still a dear friend today.

Let me put this story in reverse for just a second. It might make, at least this post, a little easier to understand. For his horrendous behavior on the night on my high school graduation, Walter sent me to the dentist and had veneers put on my gray/green/gross teeth. I had long before, with my babysitting money, bought my first pair of contact lenses. My hair was big, my make-up was heavy and I thought I was fine. Certainly not the finest, but for the first time in my life, I looked in the mirror and liked what I saw.

Back to my audition. I have no idea how many others were auditioning for the role of “Nancy”, the housekeeper. Probably at least 2 or 3 (small school, remember?) so I was nervous. There was no singing in this play so I had to rely on my acting skills. But, when you think about it, my acting chops were probably the best talent I had. All my life I had to act like I wasn't wearing an ostomy bag on my side, acting like I didn't have a bi-polar step-father at home who made nearly every day of my life as miserable as he could and acting like I had a mother who would stand up for me.

So when it came time for me to read I went up on stage with all the confidence I had. I was reading with a tall, dark, handsome man. It was a little difficult to do a cold reading and try not to stare at him. He was now my new crush! I found out later that he was a very talented graduate assistant, elusive and, of course, gay. Somehow that did not deter me at all. Weird, but true. For some crazy reason it made me even more determined to get to know him better. I was also sure I would be the ONE who would “turn” him, we would be married and live our lives out in absolute bliss. I have mentioned I was crazy, right?

Amazingly I got the part! It was a period piece set in the late 1800's. It was made into a film called “Gaslight”. I wore a long-sleeved, full-length black dress with a white apron. Sort of an Amish French maid's uniform. Scott played the diabolical master of the house who was slowly trying to drive his wife insane. His character was also carrying on an affair with me. When I say affair it was basically just a couple of kisses but the audience got the picture.

The night of dress rehearsal, Scott colored in his already short beard, mustache and eyebrows with a dark eye pencil. Our director, Judy, was a complete purist in that a dress rehearsal was an actual performance. She brought in 7 or 8 folks to watch so our nerves were a little on edge. When it came time for Scott and me to kiss for the first time we pulled away from each other with our eyes meeting and he burst into uncontrollable laughter. It seems that the color he had penciled in his mustache and beard with had made an exact color impression around my mouth. It was as if we were both wearing Scott’s facial hair! Of course I went haywire, the audience nearly fell off their chairs and Judy Lewis was not pleased with us at all! Throughout the rest of the play's run Scott made sure he sealed his facial hair because, after all, the play was not a comedy.