Summer outdoor theaters sprang up all across North America after the Second World War. With the austerity of the war years gone, blackouts a thing of the past, open air theater was the perfect place to celebrate this freedom. The proscenium lights blazed out across the night the spirit of a new beginning. Old operettas, the mainstay of summer theater for so many years, were now being moth-balled, eclipsed by an exciting new musical genre, vibrant with the energy of the post war years. Fresh young talent, ready and eager, flowed into the theaters of New York and London, and the renaissance of the musical, transformed for the times, began.
Theater Under the Stars was still young when I waltzed into in 1947. Waltzed? More like stumbled, but the right word is lucked! Never mind my ineptness, I had tasted the wonder of performing in front of an audience, the excitement, the sudden quickness of the heart when the overture begins, the lights, the music, the thrill of the stage. Forget how embarrassed I was at my clumsiness, I remember only the joy that surged through me when I sat down at my makeup table each night.
Dig that eyebrow! |
Late at night, as I lay in bed, exhausted from the excitement of performing and the performance itself, and before slipping into dreams where I performed dizzying feats, I often wondered if my longings for a career in the theater were not akin to that of a mountain climber as he gazes at the lofty peaks he strives to climb. Thinking only of arriving at their summit, he gladly accepts that whatever it takes to achieve that goal he will willingly do.
The program covers of twelve of the shows (shown earlier) -- except for Brigadoon -- are all I seem to have left of the 36 shows I was fortunate to be in during my six years with TUTS. Musicals like Oklahoma, Carousel, Finnian's Rainbow, and others, -- the latest Broadway hits -- were now the mainstay of the seasons. The old operettas may have lost their place, but they were never forgotten by either the audiences they transfixed or by the scores of performers who strutted them across the stage. Those wonderful old pieces, highlights of earlier periods in the history of the musical theater initiated summer musical shows. Their worth must never be made light of as the musical theater moves forward.
How full, busy and exciting those seven years were. Classes with Kay and Betty, summer theater, ballet school, cabaret, exhaustive classes and rehearsals with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet. The RWB's many performances, and tours across Canada and into the States. And of course a film, which I shall save for a latter post. So much more to write about, all of which I shall worry out of my keyboard in following weeks.
2 comments:
What memories your post brings back! Lots of good times, lots of hard work, and I remember four or five of us being at the back of a bus one time and figuring out that we were making about 12 cents an hour!! Of course it was a little more if you were lucky enough to be chosen to be a member of Equity -- think we made $35 a week then, rather than $25!
You're right! My salary with the Ballet Company was $100 a month! I somehow managed, with the ballet and with TUTS to save enough in those 7 years to pay for my train and boat ticket to England! What glorious memories, oh yes!
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