How The West was Won

How The West Was Won was my first professional job after finishing acting school. I auditioned for it in New York, and when they called to offer me the job, they said that I would be flown out to Utah and put up in a motel for nine weeks while we rehearsed and performed the show.

It was a fabulous experience! If you ever have the opportunity to spend time in the "four corners" region of Utah, I can't recommend it enough! This is the largest venue I've ever played--an outdoor amphitheater with a natural red rock canyon wall as the backdrop. It was a stunningly beautiful theatre and such a fun show! I got to sing, dance and act my heart out. My entire family came to watch me perform, and I just loved it! 

The above photo of me as a saloon girl with a cowboy was featured on the front page of a local newspaper. :)

I'm so thankful God gave me the opportunity to work this show. What an amazing memory!

Return: to College Theatre

I decided it might be fun to share some photos from different shows I've done through the years. This photo is from the first major production I was cast in at Baylor. I played air-headed maid "Peg" in William Congreve's The Way of the World.

It was an itty-bitty part in a great big play, but I had a ball and found a lot of joy in making this small part a larger than life, living, breathing character. The actress in the photo with me who played "Betty" is Allison Lamb. She is a very talented performer who does a lot of acting work in Charlotte, NC.

More acting photos to come!

Simply Breathtaking Talent!

In case you missed the Tony Awards on Sunday, Lea Michele and Matthew Morrison from GLEE performed with such panache and brilliance and apparent ease, it would simply be a crime for me not to share it here on my blog.

Lea Michele (who is very nearly Barbra Streisand II) performs one of my favorite Streisand songs, "Don't Rain on my Parade". Her performance brought me to tears and makes me thank God for allowing so much beauty in the world. Talent like hers is truly inspiring. Enjoy:

Remembering Lynn Redgrave

Yesterday actress Lynn Redgrave passed away. The stage and the silver screen have lost a shining star.

In the mid-90s, my mother took me to see Lynn Redgrave perform her one-woman show, Shakespeare for my Father at the Alley Theatre in Houston. We waited to meet her after the show, and she was gracious and kind to us strangers.

I remember how brilliantly she used Shakespeare's plays to revisit her relationship with her father (Sir Robert Redgrave, a giant of the English stage). I admired her vulnerability, as she laid bare her soul's deep desire to know her deceased father better, and I respected how she could be honest about her own emotions (a deep longing for a closeness with him that he wasn't really able to give) while still honoring her father and his legacy.

You might remember her turn as the wife of prodigy pianist David Helfgott in the film Shine. Sheer genius! She brought such joy to her eccentric character, and I remember it vividly, even though I haven't seen the film for over a decade.

Thank you, Lynn, for YOUR legacy that lives on in your writings and film performances. And thank you most of all for your performance in Shakespeare for my Father that lives on in my memory. Your vulnerability on stage touched something in my soul, and I'm grateful.

I like to think of you reunited with your father in Heaven, finally getting to know each other the way you'd always hoped.

Lay her i' th' earth,

And from her fair and unpolluted flesh

May violets spring!

~Hamlet

Reaching Across the Aisle

While watching the State of the Union address tonight, I became convicted that perhaps I have more left-wing leanings than I thought. Sure, I might be a card-carrying Republican, but I'm also a member of a union. Yes, I like my government on the smallish side, but I also want the National Endowment for the Arts to keep live theatre, well...alive!

The thing that really made me realize that I'm reaching farther across the aisle than ever before? Nancy Pelosi and I...

...totally have the same haircut! See?

Now I know you're thinking, "Please, Tracy, you have bangs and Nancy doesn't." But to that I say, "I'm trying to keep things non-partisan around here people! Sometimes you have to overlook the little differences to find the things shared in common."

Mary Poppins, The Musical: A Backstage Tour!

This is my friend Troy. His stage name is Troy Edward Bowles. He's the most amazing dancer I know. We first met each other eleven years ago doing a show in Utah called How the West was Won. It was my first professional show, and Troy became a good friend.

It is always a wonderful thing when a friend goes on to achieve great success, and Troy is one who has gone on to do amazing things! He's been on Broadway, played Radio City Musical Hall, and is currently touring with Broadway Across America's Mary Poppins! He's the dance captain for the show, and he also performs as a swing (covering many different roles in the show).

When I heard his show would be coming through Houston, I was so happy I'd get to see him again! Although he wasn't on stage that night, he did take Brian, me and our friends on a tour of the stage and backstage area!

Here are the chimney sweeps' brooms:

and the back side of one of the chimneys:

The theatre had the most amazing fly systems I've ever seen!

As part of our backstage tour, I got to sit on Mary Poppins' special device that makes her slide up the bannister. It was a little bit awesome:

Our friends and us at Jane and Michael Banks' home!

Jane Banks' doll house is a replica of 17 Cherry Tree Lane. Cool, huh?

The many umbrellas of Mary Poppins:

If you have a chance to see the show, iiiiiiiiiiiiiiit's supercalifragilisticexpialidocious! (You could say it backward, which would be dociousexpicaliisticfragicalirepus, but that would be taking it a bit too far, don't you think?)