I got this note from The Lamplighters in email today/ It's from the guy who is now the head of the company and is about an upcoming performance: Lamplighters in the cast include Jonathan Spencer as the insanely jealous Mr. Ford; Max Ary (our next Frederic in Pirates), Wayne Wong, and Michael Desnoyers as rival suitors of Anne Page; Jayne Diliberto in the ensemble as a town gossip (and Anne Page cover). Cast also includes Steve Kahn and Marcelle Dronkers as Mr. & Mrs. Page; Abigail Bush as their daughter Anne; Leora Gilgur, Ian Harris and Michael Villareal in the ensemble, 2024 Hurst Artist Kenneth Kellogg as Sir John Falstaff; and 2024 Reznikoff Artist Rena Harms as Mrs. Ford. Robby Stafford conducts a 10-piece orchestra from the piano, and I stand at the back of the room as stage director.
In that paragraph I know only one person, Jonathan Spencer...I don't really even know the guy who wrote the letter. And the Lamplighters was a huge part of my life for many years. Walt and I started going to shows before we were married. We ushered for many shows and when Gilbert Russak, my favorite patter man, was in the show, we ushered for several performances of the same show. The performers always joined the audience for cookies after the show and you got a chance to talk with them, but I was too shy and I don't think I spoke with any of them, but I loved being around them.
Then came my opportunity to volunteer with two other women to record the 25 year history of the company. Our work, which took two years, involved many interviews and I did start to talk with the performers I had enjoyed for so many years.
When the book was published, I was offered the chance to volunteer to help put all of the card catalog onto their new computer and when I finished that, I just stayed around and volunteered for many years. Walt always teased me that I waited until we moved 80 miles away before I started volunteering in San Francisco.
During those years, I made many close friends, and Gilbert Russak became one of my best friends. I saw every show the company did and many we saw more than once. (Since Gilbert & Sullivan only wrote 14 operettas, only 12 of which are usually performed, that's a LOT of Gilbert & Sullivan).
I remember one year when Ann MacNab, the co-founder of the company, who had been gone for many years, and Georgia Prugh, my favorite leading lady, who also had not performed in many years, came with me to a show. We were having the downstairs meet with the actors after the show and I couldn't understand how these two women, for whom the company had been so important, didn't seem to be interested in what was going on at all. Both of them remained friends of mine, but they never came to another performance. (Except for Ann, who was honored by the company with her co-founder, Orva Hoskinson at a performance).
Now I understand their disinterest. The Lamplighters was my whole life for so many years and I read that opening paragraph and I can't get the least bit interested. In the 1960s, we went to shows to see them for the first time and we started to see performers whom we liked. Then I got involved and I went to shows to see how my friends were performing. Now I know almost nobody in the company and it would be like starting over again and I haven't the least interest. I did it. It was wonderful. And it's over.
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PHOTO OF THE DAY
Yeomen of the Guard
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