RANDOM: Littlest Girl

Not many of you may know, but I was bit by the acting bug at quite a young age. My mom was always good at taking me to the theater. And she enrolled me in classes at our local children’s theater too. My favorite part was when we’d have staring contests with each other to practice our stage faces. To this day, I consider myself to be a Master of the Staring Contest.

Those classes even landed me a commercial! Not necessarily because I was particularly good at acting, but I was a blonde and about the right age for the part. I didn’t have any lines, but I was really good at sitting in my pretend mom’s lap and playing ‘sad.' I’d post the commercial for you, but I have no clue how to convert a VHS to anything viewable on the internet...

I continued joining the community theater classes for kids my age and shined on elementary gym stages all across the county! I still remember my favorite role... Abbott from “Who’s on First?”

After a brief hiatus in middle school I took up acting again in high school. Unfortunately, we did the best show my freshman year - Bye Bye Birdie. And as everyone knows, you can’t get a decent part until you’re at least a junior or senior. Oh well. The other shows throughout my high school years were okay and I had decent parts along the way, but nothing super memorable. Thus, the acting bug was a bit squashed.

I spent most of college performing in choir and stayed off the acting stage. After graduation I moved back home, and didn't do much theater, with the exception of a few roles in our church dramas. But those roles just didn't seem to stir the passion back...

So, that brings us to present day...my performance of Littlest Girl in Ruddigore.

As you may remember, until recently I had kind of forgotten that I had joined a theater group. And who could blame me? For the first few months of rehearsals we primarily had a choir rehearsal followed by happy hour. Once we started staging the show, I expected to be one of those chorus members who stands in the background and smiles as she sings. But no - I've been cast as Littlest Girl. Which means no smiling in the back for me - I’ve got to express BIG emotions so that it’s obvious I’m Littlest Girl. You’ll all be happy to know, I’ve busted out all of my previous acting experiences (including the staring contest skills) and believe to have created quite a believable, and dare-I-say, cutest Littlest Girl ever...

Would you agree?