Mumbling Madly

My dear Josh took on The Stage this last Saturday. For those of you who know Josh, you know that he entertains his friends and family but never professionally. Josh willingly sits in the audience during every single one of my productions, but has never expressed interest beyond the technical side of theater. (Josh has assisted me multiple times in production, i.e.: shooting slides, taking publicity photos, etc.). Leave it to our good friend, Darren, to talk Josh into a small role in An Evening Of Percussive Dance. This show was really cool. It outlined each phase of percussive dance, starting with folk music, moving to irish step dancing, on to the musical theater genre, and than wrapping it up with contemporary tap and clogging numbers. (This included a cringe-inducing clogging rendition of C&C Music Factory’s “Everybody Dance Now.”) In between each genre was movie and video clips exemplifying each era. The house was almost sold-out, and the tap numbers left everyone on the edge of their seats.
Josh played The Professor in an excerpt from “Singin’ in the Rain.” He got many laughs in what was one of the only speaking roles. Rehearsal for him was minimal; His costume consisted of an old suit and these nerdy, googly, glasses that were so crazy he couldn’t even see out of them–this turned out to be an advantage when he realized he couldn’t see the audience. I, of course, was jumping all over my seat during the scene, thrilled and trying to hold down my energy. It was a rare switch: Me sweating it out in the audience and Josh up on stage.
I can’t explain how awesome it was to see Josh try something completely new (and yet so familiar). After the show I insisted on taking pictures of him by the stage–even though he had naively removed his costume. (Huge faux-paux, one is always suppose to come out in costume and be showered with flowers and photos). However, here are a few pics I shot of him in all his Professor glory:

Check out the creepiness of his eyes in those glasses!

Angela, still in her Ginger Rogers’ outfit, and her tap-dancing husband, Darren: