Wednesday, June 17, 2009

An Old Man's Rambling Remembrances #26

AGATHA CHRISTY NEVER MEANT TO BE PLAYED BY TEXANS
5/12/00

Last evening when I got home, the show “Friends” was starting on tv.

“Courtenay Cox Arquette?” I remarked. “Did she think that marrying into a family of actors could turn her into one?” My wife answered with “She’s not all that bad”.

Once upon a time, in a lifetime far away, the people of my town looked upon me as a thespian.

My first attempt with our local community theater group was the part of doddering old General Mackensie in Ten Little Indians, a play in which everybody is supposed to die as poetic justice for sins that they had committed and escaped punishment.

One of the characters was a sweet young thing, who escaped the “death sentence” of the story because she was really innocent. She had been a governess, whose young charge, Peter, had drowned on an outing. The governess’ dereliction of duty was really something of an accident as she had been distracted by Peter’s Uncle, who had somewhat malicious intentions.

Ten Little Indians should never be played using an untrained girl from Texas to play the part of the young governess. I’ve watched the play many times by amateur groups here in Texas, and every time, I come away with the feeling that “If I ever play in that one again, I want the part of ‘Peter Zunkel’”.

Everyone I tell this says “There’s nobody in the play with that name”. I guess you have to expect that people living in Texas may be Texans.



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2 comments:

Rie Sheridan Rose said...

Awww, now, to be fair, Charlotte was one of the best actresses at Georgetown High at the time! It wasn't THAT bad. :P

And I think you would be great as Peter Zunkel...

Willie C said...

I wasn't talking about Charlotte in particular, I was talking about Texas girls in general. You should remember that the part was double-cast. I'm drawing a blank on Janie's last name right now, but they both said "Peter Zunkel".

OK I got it now, Janie Burson! Old folks have pretty good memories, but very slow retrieval. Sometimes it takes days or months.