This was a strange little play at First Presbyterian Theater, November 23-December 2, 1979. It was directed by Godspell's choreographer, Lynn Hillsamer Blosser, with whom, for some reason I can't remember, Beloved and I spent the night once and enjoyed a hash and eggs breakfast.
A piece of direction I received in this show sticks in my memory. I was putting a lot of volume and anger in a particular line and Lynn suggested I try the line again, but to hold all that emotion inside. It instantly made the whole scene feel better and actually gave that particular line MORE power.
The young gal (maybe 10 at the time?) who played my youngest sister, Melanie Wharton, was super smart and cute. She once spent the night with Beloved and me. It must have been that she came home with us after a Sunday matinee performance because she came to the little radio station in Decatur, IN where I did a Sunday night shift (kinda like a hobby I got paid for). We ordered a pizza from a little place across the street and when she brought it into the studio, she plopped it down on the turntable...that was currently playing a record on the air. I did a little "Augh! No!", she screamed and ran out and I may have traumatized her for life.
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| No, that's not me on the left, but I think we all know which part I'd play if I was doing the show NOW (2023) |
"Dewey Roth as Jakin and Melanie Wharton as Carilan capitalize on the juiciest parts in the play and are thus able to establish definite characterizations which the other principals fall short of doing. Wharton could be called a modern Jane Withers. She's so insufferably whiney and snotty that you tend to cheer Roth on when he tells her to shut up." [Roxanne Mueller - Journal Gazette]
