My favorite past-time....theatre.

These past two months Mallory and I have been privileged to be in another production with the Family Community Theatre in Hutchinson. The Flag, the theater itself, is rapidly becoming a second home, the other actors we've met a surrogate family of sorts. The kids, the adults, those who work backstage, those who join us onstage, those who sort through and find costumes, those who keep tabs on our whereabouts when we don't show up to rehearsal, those who have the vision and guide us through the seemingly never-finalized process of bringing to life characters in make-believe worlds to tell a story...these people who make up the FCT at the Flag hold a special place in our hearts and lives.

Mallory and I as Aunt Tilly and Zuzu Bailey in It's A Wonderful Life, The Musical.

The Flag, home of the Family Community Theater in Hutchinson, KS.

I was involved in theater as a child. Did you know theaters have a distinct smell? I initially thought it was just the Little Theater in Junction City that had that smell, but I know it every time I enter the doors of the Flag. I think it's probably the wood from the stage, but there it is, welcoming me and taking me back to my childhood.

Theaters are empty boxes. Loud, empty boxes. Loud because their is usually little on the walls to break up the acoustics so sound just bounces around. Add to that adults who's volume knobs broke off some time ago and kids who are just by their nature boisterous, and the cacophony of laughter, lines, music and who-knows-what else mixes together in a rambunctious symphony of creation.

The backstage areas are never big enough. "Excuse me", "Coming through", "Make room!", "Are you really supposed to be down here?" "Where are we going to put the wheelchair?!" Bodies, props, furniture, costumes, all jumbled together in organized chaos. It works. It may not look like it works, but it works. Just don't get in the way of the backstage crew....

Dressing rooms....talk about organized chaos....everyone stakes out their "spots" as soon as we move costumes in. At the Flag, the boys dressing room is downstairs, the girls dressing room is upstairs, the backstage area is in the middle, much like a split-level ranch home. Many of us have done multiple shows and naturally gravitate to specific areas in the dressing rooms. This show, though, my usual spot was taken by a hussy named Tracey. ;) It's cool, though, cause she's a nice hussy. And really, she only plays one on the stage. While the dressing rooms are gender specific, inevitably everyone migrates upstairs. One reason, that's where the bulk of the make-up is housed. Another reason, the only bathroom backstage is located up there, too. But I like to think it's because we are a great big family and want to hang together.

Things you hear in the course of normal conversation in a theatre setting is vastly different from what you'd hear anywhere else.

• "Are you my husband, or my son?"
• "We will call the leg's 'Smith.'"
• "Do my eyelashes look right?"'

There are a whole host of others, but alas none had been written down. (The biggest lie I tell myself these days is "I'll remember that!") 

The current show Mal and I are in began our second (and final) weekend of performances last night. Tonight, tomorrow and Sunday then we turn in the costumes, the music books, and say goodbye to our characters. But not to each other. The theater family will regroup, in par, Monday evening when we begin production and rehearsals for our next adventure into the land of make-believe with the amazing show Mary Poppins. I'll miss this group of cast mates and friends and our almost daily interaction, but I know that our paths will cross again and that the friendships we began in Bedford Falls will continue to grow. 

My girls. Me, Dashona, Neoshea, and Tracy. 

Tracy and I as Aunt Tilly and Violet Peterson in It's A Wonderful Life, The Musical.