Memories of Theatre

The short period of time that I was in secular college, my major was Theatre and Speech. I was an eager Thespian, It was such a passion of mine, I worked at Longstreet Theatre at the University of South Carolina.

I was so excited about working the box office; I received free tickets to all the productions preformed at Longstreet. Not only that, I was able to get a glimpse of the occasional high profile stage directors and actors. But for the most part, I loved it because I absolutely loved theatre.

It was fascinating, the theatre was. It was an arena theatre with an hydraulic elevator on the stage deck, allowing set changes in the basement between scenes. I never had the opportunity to perform at Longstreet, but I did get to work there as a costume mistress for a main stage production as part of my practicum. The play was Anton Chekhov's "The Three Sisters".

Although it sounds like an easy task, being costume mistress was challenging. When the hydrolic stage would descend, the actors/actresses would scamper to change into their next costumes. Not only were we responsible for having our assigned actresses costumes on hand, we were responsible for helping them change. Easy? Not really. This period piece required costumes that had hook and eye closures, sometimes as many as 30-40 closures on the back of one single dress. And the corsets were a different story altogether. Bottom line: I had less than 1.5 minutes help change clothes and shoes and hook up to 40 closures. Exhilirating!

Those days are gone, but I still have a devout love for good, wholesome theatre. Sometimes I google the names of people that I encountered and acted with at USC. I haven't found any that were famous, but one comes pretty close.

My first Theatre professor was Karen Eterovich. She was working on her Masters while I was at USC. I didn't know then (perhaps it wasn't true at that time) that Ms. Eterovich is somewhat of a Jane Austin oficionado. She has written an original work, "Cheer from Chawton: A Jane Austin Family Theatrical", which won raving reviews at the Jane Austin festival in Bath, England. I know this isn't fame according to Hollywood, but stage wise, it's an incredible accomplishment.

How odd...I didn't realize Ms. Eterovich had such a passion for Austin works. If there's anything I love, it's a good Jane Austin story. I don't know if Karen is planning to tour the US with her works, but if she does, I will be first in line to see her perform!