A few years ago I was persuaded to be an actor in the local
Cemetery Walk. I can say with certainty
that I have no prior acting experience except maybe in elementary school so it
was a rather brave thing to try.
Memorizing lines sure did not come easy for me, but other people seemed
to have just as much trouble. The first year I even tried rehearsing into a tape
recorder and playing it back. Getting
everything to absolutely match the script isn’t critical but too much adlibbing
makes it tough for the other actors.
Remembering the cues from the other actor’s lines can be tougher than
remembering your own lines.
The skits we did lasted no more than 5 minutes but on a
weekend day you might have to perform this over twenty times. This was in the fall of the year and it could
be cold at times, it was also a very pretty time of year with the changing
color of the leaves. Some of the performances
were in the morning for area school children and the weekend performances were
for the general public. It was the
biggest money making activity for our local history center.
I see from the pictures that I had done these four years as
I appear in four different costumes. The first year I was an undertaker, then a
railroad engineer, not sure about the third year. Last year I was a fire chief in the great “egg
scandal” in our city, a mayoral candidate bought votes by selling eggs for
cheap.
I think I did alright although I am sure not a natural
actor, it has to be good to get up and speak in front of people. Most people myself included would mess up
once or twice and then do fine. It was
almost like you had to get the mistake out of the way and then the stress eased
up. A few weeks later you can not
remember any of the lines and the next year you forget the character you
played.
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| 2013 I Play an Ice Cutter (2nd from Left) |
Bill Kuhl
