A Long Strange Trip it's Been

Wow, I have never had so much trouble putting on a play before "Sisters of the Sea". We started rehearsals in August with a full cast. Little by little, actors began to drop off. Some had day job commitments and others just flaked on us. By the end of October, a few weeks from our first performance we had only 6 actors out of 10. Let's go back a bit, though. We started losing people in August. One of our actors had to have eye surgery so he walked. It was funny because he actually wore a patch on his eye, but after the surgery there would be no patch. Then in late September, when we had already almost two months of rehearsal, our two leads, dropped out. We replaced one with an actor that was actually playing two small parts. He jumped right in and was a wonderful, Captain Jack Rackam (Abrahan De la Rosa). We were still missing a Mary Reed (Lead) and finally someone recommended the wonderful, Lydia Franz. This was the beginning of October, just a month and a half left for her to rehearse, find her character, and get the lines down. She did it. After finally getting our Mary and Jack, we still had to find someone to play the two small roles that Abe had moved up from, and two other characters. Tobias Sampson, James Bonny, Temple Lawes and Henri. We finally got a Henri, played comically by the very talented, Ivy Levinson. Our Temple Lawes finally appeared with just a few weeks to go. Then we split the characters, that were supposed to be played by the same actor. Well ah! Our James Bonny showed up with a week to go, and do you believe I filled the role of Tobias Sampson, just two days before our first show? Thanks to Keri Hendry (Anne Bonny), Abe de la Rosa (Calico Jack), Sherwood Cooper (3 characters), Michael Weeg (4 characters), and last but not least Chaz Maupin (2 characters) for sticking it out through 3 grueling months of rehearsal for only three performances. They are gems. All in all the Kudo's were many, and we had nice size audiences. It finally was a great cast and a great show. Onward and Upwards and C'est la vie!