Last week on Thursday, Mer and I had a school-night date, and a double-date at that. We met Jay and Lesa at our house, and then headed over to a close-by and excellent restaurant, Russo’s. Lesa is also an English teacher at CVCA, and she is much fun. Jay is a great guy, and so they are a fun couple with whom to hang out. We ate some excellent food (I got gumbo and a burger) and chatted, mostly about English things at CVCA. Jay is very patient!
After supper, we headed up to Hudson to Actors’ Summit. We got there a bit early, so we walked around looking at the very pretty and New-England-esque houses near the theater. It was a lovely evening, so it was a nice walk. We got back to the theater and settled in to see The Belle of Amherst, a play about the poetry of Emily Dickinson. Meredith and I are both very fond of Emily Dickinson, and that is saying something for me since I am not a big fan of poetry. But, the evening really was about Lesa – she adores the poetry of Emily Dickinson, and she was delighted to get to see it (we surprised her with the show – she had not known where we were going).
Mer and I (and Lesa) had seen a film version of the play from the 1970s, so we were familiar with the play. It really is a loose framework to get to the poems, but you also learn a fair amount about Emily’s life. The premise is that she has invited you (the audience) over to the house for a visit, and then she starts talking. Emily was played by MaryJo Alexander, one of the founders of Actors’ Summit, and a very strong actor. We had seen her in probably 8-10 productions over the last 7 years.
Thus, it came as quite a surprise when MaryJo forgot a line and had to be prompted. I was stunned – I had never seen that before at Actors’ Summit, in the 50+ plays we have seen there. And then it happened again and again. In an hour show, MaryJo probably had to be prompted about 7 times. In addition, I’m pretty sure she cut the play short – it really did only run about 60 minutes, and I think the film version we saw was at least 80 minutes. MaryJo may have decided to cut material since she was struggling a bit. I’m still at a bit of a loss as to what happened – she really is a very strong actor, and this was way out of character for her. I felt bad for her. Lesa was still enthusiastic about the play – she said she was impressed that MaryJo never broke character, even when she asked for a prompt. Jay did not give an opinion, but he is fairly quiet.
Anyway, we headed home, and Lesa and Jay dropped us off. Mer and I needed to put the car away from where Mer had parked it in the driveway earlier in the day. We both got in the car, looked at each other, and then ended up at Handel’s ice cream. It seemed a sweet way to end a school-night date.