First show come and gone....

Sorry I have been such a slacker iwth this blogging thing kids... Me and my xbox have been spending way to much quality time together. You can find me there a lot on xbox live, "call me nero"

My solution for this was to see if any other makeshift folks would ike to contribute. Christine Walsh just finished playing Sabina in RAPUNZEL, and I asked her if she would mind letting us in on her experience with the show... so here that is and I am going back to my xobx.... xbooooooooxxxxx... I need help.

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The People, the Places, and all the Cool Kids!

Hi there! My name is Christine and I just finished playing Sabina in the show, “Rapunzel” with Makeshift Theatre. I had a great time working with this company and being on stage and here’s why:

The People!
Everyone in the cast and on the crew was very nice and welcoming. We all became friends from day one and had a great time working together. We would joke offstage and be even funnier onstage. Patrick, who played the part of the handsome prince and Paul, who played Rapunzel’s father were always seeing who could “out-joke” the other.

As goofy as we could be, though, when it was time to learn lines and memorize songs, we got down to business. I was really impressed when Kristen, who played one of the minstrels, wrote all of the songs for her part herself. And she sang them while playing the guitar! That’s not easy.

I love dressing up and the costumes were a special treat for me. Thanks to the costume designer, Deb, we all had marvelous costumes. Vinnie, who played a minstrel, looked great with snazzy suspenders and very high socks. And of course Molly, who played the beautiful Rapunzel, looked magnificent with her soft blue dress and long flowing hair.

When you act, you always need to use a lot of energy – to be seen, to be heard, and to let the audience know what your character is like. I think Laureen, who played the evil witch, did a great job of that. Her energy was always high and she did a great job of scaring everyone – even me and I’m her friend!

There is a lot that goes into creating a show like Rapunzel and the actors aren’t the only ones who work very hard. Our director Shaine and our stage manager Coral did a fantastic job of keeping us organized. Shaine helped us get into our characters and encouraged us to have fun. Coral was always there to place a prop right where it needed to be. And Mr. Rhodes helped by creating the entire set! Talk about your big projects!

The Places!
I loved both of the theaters we performed in – Arlington’s Regent Theater and Winchester’s NextDoor Theater.

The Regent Theater was a big theater with many long velvet curtains on the sides of the stage. Sometimes, because the backstage area is dark, we actors had a hard time finding a way to get on stage through the curtains! The theater had two levels and Mr. Rhodes went up to the second level in order to help with the lighting of the stage. The audience sat on the lower level so they could see us easily and be closer to the action.

The NextDoor Theater was very colorful and fun. It was a smaller theater, so the audience felt like they were right smack dab in the middle of the play with us! It was so nice being able to see the kids’ faces and know that they were having a great time laughing at Prince Rupert and his fake horse or getting nervous as the Witch cut off all of Rapunzel’s hair.

The Cool Kids
Finally, the best part of this experience was the kids! Every kid who came to see us was so very nice and polite and interested in the show. It was a pleasure to perform for such great groups and I cannot wait to do it again!


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Christine R. Walsh