When I was in 7th grade (my last year in Amherst, Mass) I joined the school Drama Club. It was one of those Junior Highs (old style) that went from 7th-9th grade, and the Drama Club President was a really cool 9th grade boy named John Gray (no relation to the "Mars and Venus" guy - at least I don't think so). John welcomed all of us to the first club meeting by saying, "Congratulations! Some of you might have been fairly normal kids before, but now...now you're all flaky Drama Club kids!" I, of course, knew that I had never been an even "fairly" normal kid, so I figured I must be in the right place.

At Drama Club meetings, we did all sorts of improvisations and "trust exercises." We had to stand on tables and fall backward into each other's arms. (I never did work up the guts to try that one). We led each other around the school building and grounds, wearing blindfolds. (That part was fun; I liked imagining myself as Helen Keller.) We also put on a production of "Fiddler On The Roof" in which I was a chorus member. 'Though I would have loved a leading role (the girls in "Fiddler" are all so intense and spiritual) I understood that the leads had to go to the 9th graders, who would be leaving the school at the end of the year, so I didn't mind a bit more dues-paying chorus girl work.  I loved the music and dances so much. I wouldn't have minded moving to Anatevka.

During my 8th grade year, we moved to San Francisco, where I didn't do any shows in school but got lots of performing experience (mainly as  singer and dancer) in the Holiday Shows produced by my adored dance teacher, Miss Jean Anderson. Miss Jean (I've written about her in this blog on quite a few occasions) was a veteran of Vaudeville, who could do almost every kind of dancing at least a little bit. In addition to very strong proficiencies in ballet, jazz, tap, acrobatics and ballroom, she had smatterings of hula, belly dance, can-can, flamenco, lots of folk dances (Israeli, Italian; Mexican) Irish Step Dancing and even a bit of Isadora Duncan technique. In the true Vaudeville tradition, Miss Jean considered the performing arts to be a continuum. In other words, dance students in her school were all expected to sing and act in the shows as well.

We did a show for every holiday (New Years, Valentine's Day, Easter/Passover, May Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving; Christmas/Hanukah) performing at hospitals, nursing homes, community centers and even, on one interesting occasion, in the middle of a cluster of tables at a diner. As far as Miss Jean was concerned, there was nobody who couldn't use a bit of entertainment now and then, and her students were just the entertainers to provide all that they needed. There was, quite literally, nobody too young or too old to perform in one of Miss Jean's shows. The youngest performer was probably the six-month-old younger brother of two of her nursery school aged students. The baby wore a little, velvet bull costume while his brother and sister danced the "Mexican Hat Dance" around him! He was a real trooper and didn't cry a bit. The oldest performer was probably a woman in her late eighties, named "Birdie" who took Miss Jean's adult tap dance class (which I was also in, since there were no classes specifically for teenagers). Birdie was the best tap dancer in the whole class and, in addition to doing the steps we learned from Miss Jean, she had invented several really cool (and difficult) tap steps of her own.

My heart broke when we had to leave San Francisco (for New York City, where I hadn't lived since I was in first grade) at the end of the school year. Miss Jean and I stayed in touch by mail (remember letters?) and the occasional, brief (expensive) phone call. She encouraged me to keep acting, singing, dancing and doing my best to bring joy with all of it. She would cut out pictures of beautiful ballerinas, from magazines, and mail them to me, because she knew I loved to draw pictures of dancers and would use the photos as models for my own work.  I missed her so much! But I was starting high school in the performing arts capital of the world, and was determined to find a way to make my own mark there...

Memoirs to be continued in the next post. I just want to note a few things about what's happening in my here and now, before I go and microwave leftover chicken soup for dinner (it's Lady Lucia's volunteer chaplaincy night, so I eat - and blog - alone).

Anyway...as y'all know, I haven't done a show in over two years. Other priorities, combined with being at a difficult distance from Manhattan (where shows tend to happen, for the most part) has made it seem unlikely that I'd ever perform again, 'though I really do miss it. That said...I had an email a couple of days ago from Fan Boy (one of the actors who worked with me in the Old Time Radio shows). Fan Boy is directing a  performance of a Fred Allen Show episode and wants me to be in it. Because I do not yet know the dates (for performance and rehearsals) or the rehearsal location (it would be much easier for me if he chooses to rehearse in downtown Manhattan, which is a shorter distance from Brooklyn than uptown) I haven't given him a definite "yes." I hope I'll be able to, though, once the details have been sorted out. Will let youse know, since I'm aware that you're rooting for me, and am grateful for it.

Now it's time for my "beautiful soup of the evening" ('though it's not "Mock Turtle.")

Blessings and well-wishes with a little bow...

Eva T.