I’m a pushover for live theater. But movies? Not so much. For me it’s like the difference between canned peas and those picked fresh from the garden. Movies even COME in cans.
As a kid, I followed reports on every Broadway opening. I didn’t see live professional theater until I was a senior in high school. You can’t really count the touring repertory company which played in a revamped warehouse in downtown Yorkville which also served as our movie theater. It’s hard to think “professional” when the leading man is selling candy down the aisle during intermission.
Still, I relished every opportunity to perform and to try out personalities other than my own.
Each year Yorkville presented both a senior class play and an elementary school operetta. The seniors seemed professional to me, but my vantage point was limited.
My first on-stage role that I actually remember was as a member of the chorus in an operetta based on Mother Goose. I played Daffy Down Dilly. Dad said it must have been type casting.
A year or two later I had a bit part as one of the Cratchitt kids in a production of Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” and then, when I entered eighth grade, I was ready for the big time. I was cast as Becky Thatcher in an operetta based on Mark Twain’s “Tom Sawyer.” It must have been my pigtails. Surely it involved singing, but memory draws the veil.
I felt that I had no hope for the senior class play. We had moved to Sycamore and I was a virtual unknown in a class that had been together for 11 years. However, my home room teacher was directing “Arsenic and Old Lace” and thought I had promise. She cast me as the murderous Aunt Martha, a role I played again years later here at Community Theatre.
But all that was amateur stuff.
The first truly professional production I saw was in Chicago. Our drama teacher at Sycamore took us to see “Tomorrow the World” with Skip Homeyer cast as the Nazi youth who conspires against an American family who took him in. I wanted to climb onto the stage and do physical damage to Skip Homeyer. He made it so real.
I have seen professional productions since. One boyfriend took me to see a revue with Joe E. Brown and Beatrice Lillie, and my BF was my escort for “New Faces of 1952.” But no matter how often I go, amateur or professional theater never fails to work its magic.
When the lights in the auditorium grow dim, the curtain opens and the lights come up on the stage, a whole new world opens. I feel the same excitement at Community Theatre as I felt in London when the curtain came up on Alec Guinness.
I may know the play, but every play is different with a different cast. Even the same play with the same cast may be subtly different at every performance.
That’s simply not true with something which comes in a can.
Liz Ciancone is a retired Tribune-Star reporter. Send e-mail to opinion@tribstar.com.
Liz Ciancone
LIZ CIANCONE: Magic is always there with live theater
- Liz Ciancone
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Remember when clean clothes smelled like fresh air and sunshine rather than fabric softener and dryer sheets?
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Have you ever noticed the transformation between the arrest of an accused lawbreaker and the first appearance in court?
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LIZ CIANCONE: We always want more than we need
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I once owned a gun. Actually, it was Dad’s gun and I was allowed to use it. He bought an air gun which shot BB’s to protect our home — in a way.
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LIZ CIANCONE: A robin stops to welcome the spring
I saw a robin the other morning. It was not the first robin of spring, of course. A few of the more daring robins had opted to spend the winter and, although they looked pretty sorry about it on a few occasions, it was a fairly mild winter.
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I read in the newspaper the other morning that Punxsatawney Phil is being hauled into court and charged with falsely predicting an early spring. I am volunteering my services as counsel for the defense.
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The problem with expecting a groundhog to predict the arrival of spring is that there are groundhogs scattered all over the country. The Pennsylvania groundhog may not see the same kind of weather as the groundhog out here in Dobbs Park. In this way, false hopes are roused and the groundhog loses credibility as a meteorologist.
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LIZ CIANCONE: Not every other name smells sweet as a rose
It was either Romeo or Juliet who said, “What’s in a name? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”
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LIZ CIANCONE: Innocence appreciated when you’re growing up
I grew up rather stupid. I didn’t realize it at the time. Neither did my teachers who seemed to think I had “promise.”
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I’ve been following plans for celebrating “The Year of the River” with interest. Rivers have played such a role in my life that I’ve celebrated a good many rivers. The Wabash River is merely the most recent example.
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I was asked the other day why I write about dogs I have known, but never about cats. “What’s the matter?” they asked, “Don’t you like cats?”
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LIZ CIANCONE: Sharing the family history
My Grandmother lived with us. Ed and I were eager audiences for her family stories about the Cooks. Mom also shared her memories of growing up with three brothers.
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I’m told that a pun is the lowest form of humor. I guess that typecasts me! I love them, but then, I like any type of word play.
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LIZ CIANCONE: For now, justice is served in Bball Hall
News this past week brought justice of a sort. The folks who decide these things have declined to pick anyone to be enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame this year.
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Let me ask you something.
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LIZ CIANCONE: Movie memories don’t include many of the lengthy variety
There has been lots of reporting lately about how long movies are becoming.
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I am a creature of habit. I like to know what I’m doing and I need to know how to do it. That’s why I am annoyed when corporate America seems determined to drag me, kicking and screaming into the age of Internet.
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LIZ CIANCONE: Everyone has a favorite holiday
I suppose everyone has a favorite holiday. My guess is that, for most of us, that holiday is Christmas. It's a holiday with a miracle no matter how old we get.
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LIZ CIANCONE: Christmas season puts time back into focus
It’s a funny thing about time. It can speed along so that you cannot believe that your kids can possibly be old enough to have good sense, or it can drag its heels while you wait for that first grandchild or while you are saving up for something really special.
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LIZ CIANCONE: The bottom line is what drives ‘Black Friday’ sales
Why is it called "Black Friday"?
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LIZ CIANCONE: Have we lost the meaning of holiday?
I’ve been considering a lost-and-found ad to see if anyone knows what’s happened to Thanksgiving.
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LIZ CIANCONE: Magic is always there with live theater
I’m a pushover for live theater. But movies? Not so much. For me it’s like the difference between canned peas and those picked fresh from the garden. Movies even COME in cans.
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LIZ CIANCONE: Maybe the Cubs will win it all next year
I was relieved to have the World Series ending before the snow flies. Heck, it didn’t even last into November this year.
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LIZ CIANCONE: Holiday decorating better when personal, simple
I fear that I am becoming an old poop!
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I understand that the cost of pursuing my hobby will be going up by a penny come the year 2013.
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