My seven years of summer theatre in Moorhead, Mn continue to influence me... as one of my life's many neighborhoods.
As I wrote in previous blogs, the years tend to mesh as I possess few artifacts of that time... a couple of programs, a few pics from the Fargo Forum, some slides that are now digitized.
Among the pictures on the wall in front of my desk are four taken during summer theatre productions in Moorhead...one of these is of a silly, comedic version of Dracula - I'm not sure it was supposed to be that funny, but Les Sarnoff played Dr. Van Helsing. Enough said .
(Not positive Dr. Van Helsing is the character name - Wish I could find my old script. Probably donated years ago to the Los Feliz branch of the Los Angeles Public Library for one of their Saturday book sales.)
Anyway, Sarnoff's character was a vampire expert. And one of my favorite funny lines went something like this: "Here. Let me rub the juice of the batswort around these windows to ward them off."
It was hard to keep a straight face, but alas, as Mina, already bitten by Dracula, I was in a catatonic state, and not allowed to move a facial muscle.
In the pic above, Les is about to drive the stake into Dracula's heart. I believe the first name of the actor playing Dracula was Bruce. The character Jonathan (played by Kim Moerer, I think) is holding me back so I don't try to save the vampire. The actor in the middle of the pic is Jerry ver Dorn.
I'll post a couple more photos in honor of the 50th anniversary of Moorhead's summer theatre company, the Straw Hat Players - performing on the Minnesota State University campus in Moorhead.
My 7 years with the company somewhat blend together in my mind - without company lists and programs to help. I'm not sure about the date of the photo below.
Above is a long shot from one of my favorite serious roles, Annie in THE MIRACLE WORKER.
I'm lower left on pic with the young Helen Keller played by a girl named Heidi. She was beyond wonderful.
In one scene Helen signed letters into a dog's paw. And one night the dog in our cast walked offstage in the beginning of this scene. (Perhaps acting was not in his bloodlines.)
Mr. Keller and I continued the dialogue, knowing that soon we would reach the point when the father tells Annie that teaching Helen is a hopeless task - she doesn't know the signs are language - it's just a game... after all, she's signing to a dog.
With no dog I wasn't sure what we were going to do... But... about two lines from the moment we needed the dog, our Helen picked up her doll from its buggy. And she signed into the doll's hand. Mr. Keller substituted "doll" for "dog" and we continued on as written except for that one word.
During act break Dr. Hansen asked Heidi, "How did you think of using the doll?" Looking surprised, as if it was no big deal, she said, "Well, the dog wasn't there."
Photo is from production of a Neil Simon play:
LAST OF THE RED HOT LOVERS.
Great fun. My character was Bobbie. The lead actor was Les Sarnoff... an amazingly funny man.
Probably from the summer season of 1972... I recognize the pantsuit... think I bought it earlier that year in Fargo or Moorhead... for an après wedding outfit, something new and something blue...
