Southern Arizona Light Opera Company (SALOC) was a community theater in Tucson. My dad is a fabulous tenor who I love to hear sing. He just makes me smile. My dad started auditioning for this theater company when I was 9. This theater was nice and big and seated 2300 people. My dad's first show was Fiddler on the Roof. I remember going to the show and being overwhelmed by the size of the place and how much I loved the show. I remember a scene where there were 2 young girls and was blown away that there were kids like me, my age in this show. How did they do that? The youngest had to be my age for sure. I must have expressed this to my dad, although I don't remember how it all happened. But I was hooked and auditioned for the next show...The King & I. That young girl from Fiddler quickly became my best friend...Cassie. Here we are in The King & I.
The next show was The Wizard of Oz, this was a blast!
Here we are as the Coroner (me), the Barrister (Cassie) and the Mayor (i can't remember her name)
Me as an emerald city soldier and my dad.
Me as a flying monkey for the Wicked Witch.I had a lot of costume changes for this show, it was awesome!
The last show I did was The Music Man. Since I had just started to play the saxophone, and I had way short hair I was dubbed to be in the boys band. It was fun, I had a major major crush on Buddy Savage so it was worth it to hang with the boys. I had the absolute best time being in these shows as well as the rest of my family, at one point or another every member of the family was in a show except for my mom. Someone had to cheer us on. My brother was also in this show. My dad had been in several shows by this time and was in the barbershop quartet, he was FANTASTIC! Again, I just loved to hear him sing.
The only names I remember in this photo are me on the left, girl in the middle, then Tommy. Tommy, Cassie and I were always together. Cassie is in the green dress and the girl in the white I can't remember.
Me and Cassie!
I stopped auditioning when I got my first major let down. I auditioned for Peter Pan and wanted desperately to be in it, how fun would it have been to be a lost boy and play around on the set. Anyway, my voice cracked during the audition and needless to say I didn't get the part. It scarred me for awhile. This is the main reason why I don't do karaoke. Cassie and Tommy were both in it so it was fun to watch them at least. And they still claim to this day that I was there. Sweet of them. Cassie and Tommy were both exceptional actors, Tommy still does Musical Theater and Cassie has since stopped, but she worked as a dancer on cruise ships for awhile. I on the other hand never auditioned again. So tragic as a child.
I don't remember which show this was for, but I remember my Dad telling my Mom after an audition that my singing got an A and my dancing got a C. I think that might be the reason why I sorta let the singing go and focused on dancing. I danced through high school and think my dad would have to switch those grades to a C in singing and an A in dancing. The things we do to have the approval of our parents.
During High School I stuck to just theater and left the singing out, until I was 21 and did A Chorus Line with Jim. This was in the first month or so of being married and I was jealous of a girl he did theater with so I had to audition and stake my claim on my man. I guess the jealousy part overtook my phobia of singing in public and had a solo. Yikes! I have never sung by myself since. Ahhh, the good ol' stage days, so much fun.
I was never exceptional, but I sure did love it while it lasted. I suppose had I not given up and actually practiced a bit more and put in the time I would have stuck with it and actually been good. Let this be a lesson to never give up, my dad was in at least 25 shows. And I saw them all. If mom can figure out how to leave comments, I hope she actually writes in the actual number of shows he did. I am curious now.
Going to the theater with my family, watching my family was a highlight of my childhood.
The only names I remember in this photo are me on the left, girl in the middle, then Tommy. Tommy, Cassie and I were always together. Cassie is in the green dress and the girl in the white I can't remember.
Me and Cassie!
I stopped auditioning when I got my first major let down. I auditioned for Peter Pan and wanted desperately to be in it, how fun would it have been to be a lost boy and play around on the set. Anyway, my voice cracked during the audition and needless to say I didn't get the part. It scarred me for awhile. This is the main reason why I don't do karaoke. Cassie and Tommy were both in it so it was fun to watch them at least. And they still claim to this day that I was there. Sweet of them. Cassie and Tommy were both exceptional actors, Tommy still does Musical Theater and Cassie has since stopped, but she worked as a dancer on cruise ships for awhile. I on the other hand never auditioned again. So tragic as a child.
I don't remember which show this was for, but I remember my Dad telling my Mom after an audition that my singing got an A and my dancing got a C. I think that might be the reason why I sorta let the singing go and focused on dancing. I danced through high school and think my dad would have to switch those grades to a C in singing and an A in dancing. The things we do to have the approval of our parents.
During High School I stuck to just theater and left the singing out, until I was 21 and did A Chorus Line with Jim. This was in the first month or so of being married and I was jealous of a girl he did theater with so I had to audition and stake my claim on my man. I guess the jealousy part overtook my phobia of singing in public and had a solo. Yikes! I have never sung by myself since. Ahhh, the good ol' stage days, so much fun.
I was never exceptional, but I sure did love it while it lasted. I suppose had I not given up and actually practiced a bit more and put in the time I would have stuck with it and actually been good. Let this be a lesson to never give up, my dad was in at least 25 shows. And I saw them all. If mom can figure out how to leave comments, I hope she actually writes in the actual number of shows he did. I am curious now.
Going to the theater with my family, watching my family was a highlight of my childhood.
5 comments:
You are sooo Cute..
Such a fun post. I had no idea you were such a performer. I love the stage too. Everytime I was a play/musical, I'm just itching in my seat to be up there dancing along with them. Love all the photos! And way to have a comeback with Chorus Line. Jim probably thought, "Kate is so hot right now."
Oh my gosh, well, under the list of things we have in common you can put MUSICALS!!!!!! Who knew?! I totally grew up doing musical theatre too! I love it! I basically stopped performing in high school but I sure do miss it and will always have a little "performer" inside of me. Makes me want to go down memory lane with my musical history on my blog too. I gotta get a scanner! So fun to learn those things about you. We should put an act together and go on the road! Ha! Although, my dancing skills seriously lack and it sounds like you rock in that area. I'm curious what you thought of Mama Mia. The best way I can describe the movie for me was "awkward and fun". I don't know if that makes any sense.
Oh, and I totally forgot to tell you that when I lived in Utah . . . Dan and I listened to Showtune Saturday Night too! I'm not kidding! I would put it on the radio and sing along really loud to all the songs as we drove around in our car. Gosh, i forgot about that radio station. Memories . . . like the corner of my mind. . .
Katy, I loved the SALOC memories flashback! You were absolutely the cutest on stage. I was so very proud of you. Still am. I've always said that your dad did 27 shows. You guessed 25. He is saying maybe 25. Let's split the difference...he did 26 shows. We'll have to brainstorm someday to get a completely accurate list.
Mom XOX
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