Two shows, and more waiting

After Thursday's night's new plays at GTCC, Kathy and I then, together, took in "Nunsense" at Clemmons Community Theatre (performed at the New Hope Presbyterian Church) on Friday night, and last night was "Ethel Waters: His Eye is on the Sparrow," at Triad Stage.

I thought the CCT did a very nice job indeed with "Nunsense," a very amusing tale of the nuns at Mt. Saint Helen's and their efforts to raise some money to properly bury the last four of the 52 nuns who died when the convent's cook's vichyssoise went bad. The "talent show" they are trying to put on runs into a variety of challenges, and each nun gets a chance to shine and/or save the day. All of which, as Sister Hubert points out, would have been unnecessary if the Mother Superior hadn't taken money from earlier fundraising to buy a VCR.

We enjoyed the singing and the performing, and were especially pleased to discover what a great singing voice was displayed by Lee Ann Chrisco as Sister Hubert. Her number near the end of the show was awesome. Though she is pleasingly humble about the whole thing in real life, that's a voice you'd want to hear again, for sure! And young Charis Jeffers, who we hope will be our Meredith in "Conversations in a Cafe," was a pleasure to watch as Sister Amnesia. Though we didn't know the other three performers, they all played their characters quite well, and they all seemed to be comfortable together and enjoying themselves.

If only the sound had been better ....

The Triad Stage show was a good one, essentially telling the story of Ethel Waters with one fine actress reflecting through flashback, and a piano player accompanying her when she sang, and sometimes providing "mood music." I'm not familiar enough with Ms. Waters' recorded music, but we agreed that the singing portion was not quite as strong as hoped (esp. having heard Ms. Chrisco the night before!), and for me, about five minutes cut from each act would have made it more pleasing. But all in all, still a good night of theater!

The playwriting continues, in fits and starts, as I'm working on a short piece for which the core idea was created during one of those shows in Phoenix. And I need to return to "Patent" and try to get more pieces of that glued together. Maybe this week ... as I wait to hear something one way or the other on the fates of two short plays I have submitted. One of those delayed its submission deadline by a couple of days ... so that more competitors could come in!! Whee! ... and then delayed the announcement of its finalists accordingly. Grrrrrr ......

It's FUN trying to break in as a playwright!