Photo by: N.L. Belardes
One Bakersfield Woman's Blog to Mankind
Monday, September 11, 2006
Picnic
Last Thursday night NL and I went to the Bakersfield Community Theatre to watch Julie Jordan Scott in Picnic. I was looking forward to seeing Julie perform on the stage, I really enjoyed the play Five Women Wearing the Same Dress that she had directed.
We were early, too early to go into the theatre so we drove around our old childhood neighborhoods just a few streets over from the BCT. “Show me the house you grew up in, and I’ll show you my house.” I said to NL.
We drove by his house first then mine located just a few blocks from each other where we grew up and went to Junior High and High School together not far from South High School. “It looks so small now.” I said pointing out the house I grew up in.
“The neighborhoods have changed a lot.” NL said.
Yeah they have… I thought as I was inundated with childhood memories.
We headed back to BCT having successfully killed enough time with our trip down memory lane. Little did I know that trip would set the tone for the rest of the evening…
The 1953 Pulitzer Prize for Drama winner Picnic, is a story that takes place in the 1950s small-town Kansas but its themes transcend its small-town setting. As Julie Jordan Scott writes on her myspace page:
“What's Picnic about? It is about following your dreams - and what happens when your life gets cut off in its prime... it is about beauty... and lack of beauty. It is about being comfortable with who you are and also being resigned with what you have become...
It is about listening to the eerie sounds in a train whistle and allowing it's tones to see directly into your soul. It is about connecting to your friends, having family beyond your blood, it is about loving those you really love instead of those you are expected to love... or maybe not.”
While all the cast did a great job, there were three story lines in the play that I was drawn to.
From the opening scene between Flo played by Jill Kelbert and her daughter Madge played by Kelci Lowry I was drawn to what was going on between mother and daughter. Here was this beautiful girl, the prettiest girl in the town and she seemed to be longing for so much more out of life. Madge was dutiful, played the role she was given in life, did what her mother said, dated who her mother pushed on her, while stifling her own dreams. I’ve been that girl. I’ve been the dutiful daughter, I’ve dated the guy my parents liked in order to please them even though I didn’t like the guy at all, I’ve pretended to accept the role I was given in life… until just like Madge in Picnic, the most alive, most vibrant and totally wrong man came into my life and I fell head over heels in love and ran away with him despite my parents.
Jill Kelbert as Flo and Kelci Lowry as her daughter Madge
Flo instructing her daughter Madge how to dress and act...
Madge and Alan (the boy her mother wants her to date) played by Travis Glen, Sam Hall as drifter Hal also pictured.
Alan woos Madge...
Madge and the drifter Hal (that she falls in love with and runs away with) played by Sam Hall
Madge and Hal in love...
Flo after her daughter Madge has run off with Hal...
And then there was the relationship between the two sisters, Madge and Millie played by Jodi Lowry. The pretty girl versus the smart girl. Real life sisters, Kelci and Jodi Lowry played these parts to perfection. Kelci’s performance of Madge with her pristine sometimes emotionless beauty and her acceptance of her role as the pretty girl while envying how smart and alive her sister is was right on. I believe the stiffness in poses she gave her character lent to the emotion she was trying to portray through her character. I’ve seen that exact emotion and stiffness in my own family from time to time. I've held those poses...
Kelci Lowry as Madge poses pristinely...
Madge in one of her many pretty looks...
If smart girls are supposed to be plain or ugly, they cast the wrong girl in the role of Millie. You can’t hide Jodi Lowry’s beauty behind braids, boy’s clothes, and books. It just shines through that much more. She did a great job playing the smart tomboy who envied her sister’s beauty while blossoming herself through out the play.
Jodi Lowry as Millie hiding her beauty as the smart tough sister...
Millie with Rosemary and mom Flo...
Dressed for the picnic, Millie's beauty has blossomed...
And then there was Julie Jordan Scott’s performance as spinster school teacher, Rosemary Sydney. A role Julie seemed born to play as she preens and frets over what is missing in her small-town life and her relationship with her boyfriend Howard played by Mark Tarango. Rosemary wants the fairytale. She wants every woman’s dream, to be married. In one emotional scene she begs Howard to marry her, he promises to call in the morning but the scene ends with the audience wondering will Rosemary be disappointed by Howard or will he really call.
Julie Jordan Scott as Rosemary preening while Millie buries her nose in a book...
Rosemary and Howard played by Mark Tarango
Rosemary had another emotional scene at the beginning of Act 2 where she had been drinking and was fed up with her small-town life and angry at the world she let drifter Hal played by Sam Hall have it while he sat dejected. She was screaming at Hal that he was nothing and would never amount to anything but all I heard was Rosemary saying that Rosemary was nothing and would never amount to anything.
Julie Jordan Scott as Rosemary lets Hal have it...
...as Hal played by Sam Hall sits and takes it.
Julie Jordan Scott nailed both of these emotional scenes perfectly. She was crying on stage and I was squirming in my seat having battled all of these emotions in my own life. I was completely sucked into Julie’s performance, she was channeling me, I was Rosemary.
After the play we were greeted by the cast outside the theatre. “You were really great!” I told Julie Jordan Scott.
“How did you prepare for that emotional scene?” NL asked her.
“During the intermission I sat alone and told myself over and over again you’re worthless, you’re unworthy, you’re always going to be alone, you’re going to die alone and no one but the minister will be at your funeral.”
I couldn’t believe it. Julie Jordan Scott who’s inspirational and uplifting writing I always seek out when I’m feeling worthless, that always makes me believe that I’m not worthless and who I am and what I do does matter, was telling herself that she was worthless to prepare for an emotional scene on stage. In that moment I loved her.
Go see Picnic at the Bakersfield Community Theatre, you might find something of your life on stage.
Picnic show times and dates here.
Read Julie Jordan Scott's Behind the Scenes Picnic blog...
NL has a different experience at the Picnic...
Last Thursday night NL and I went to the Bakersfield Community Theatre to watch Julie Jordan Scott in Picnic. I was looking forward to seeing Julie perform on the stage, I really enjoyed the play Five Women Wearing the Same Dress that she had directed.
We were early, too early to go into the theatre so we drove around our old childhood neighborhoods just a few streets over from the BCT. “Show me the house you grew up in, and I’ll show you my house.” I said to NL.
We drove by his house first then mine located just a few blocks from each other where we grew up and went to Junior High and High School together not far from South High School. “It looks so small now.” I said pointing out the house I grew up in.
“The neighborhoods have changed a lot.” NL said.
Yeah they have… I thought as I was inundated with childhood memories.
We headed back to BCT having successfully killed enough time with our trip down memory lane. Little did I know that trip would set the tone for the rest of the evening…
The 1953 Pulitzer Prize for Drama winner Picnic, is a story that takes place in the 1950s small-town Kansas but its themes transcend its small-town setting. As Julie Jordan Scott writes on her myspace page:
“What's Picnic about? It is about following your dreams - and what happens when your life gets cut off in its prime... it is about beauty... and lack of beauty. It is about being comfortable with who you are and also being resigned with what you have become...
It is about listening to the eerie sounds in a train whistle and allowing it's tones to see directly into your soul. It is about connecting to your friends, having family beyond your blood, it is about loving those you really love instead of those you are expected to love... or maybe not.”
While all the cast did a great job, there were three story lines in the play that I was drawn to.
From the opening scene between Flo played by Jill Kelbert and her daughter Madge played by Kelci Lowry I was drawn to what was going on between mother and daughter. Here was this beautiful girl, the prettiest girl in the town and she seemed to be longing for so much more out of life. Madge was dutiful, played the role she was given in life, did what her mother said, dated who her mother pushed on her, while stifling her own dreams. I’ve been that girl. I’ve been the dutiful daughter, I’ve dated the guy my parents liked in order to please them even though I didn’t like the guy at all, I’ve pretended to accept the role I was given in life… until just like Madge in Picnic, the most alive, most vibrant and totally wrong man came into my life and I fell head over heels in love and ran away with him despite my parents.
Jill Kelbert as Flo and Kelci Lowry as her daughter Madge
Flo instructing her daughter Madge how to dress and act...
Madge and Alan (the boy her mother wants her to date) played by Travis Glen, Sam Hall as drifter Hal also pictured.
Alan woos Madge...
Madge and the drifter Hal (that she falls in love with and runs away with) played by Sam Hall
Madge and Hal in love...
Flo after her daughter Madge has run off with Hal...
And then there was the relationship between the two sisters, Madge and Millie played by Jodi Lowry. The pretty girl versus the smart girl. Real life sisters, Kelci and Jodi Lowry played these parts to perfection. Kelci’s performance of Madge with her pristine sometimes emotionless beauty and her acceptance of her role as the pretty girl while envying how smart and alive her sister is was right on. I believe the stiffness in poses she gave her character lent to the emotion she was trying to portray through her character. I’ve seen that exact emotion and stiffness in my own family from time to time. I've held those poses...
Kelci Lowry as Madge poses pristinely...
Madge in one of her many pretty looks...
If smart girls are supposed to be plain or ugly, they cast the wrong girl in the role of Millie. You can’t hide Jodi Lowry’s beauty behind braids, boy’s clothes, and books. It just shines through that much more. She did a great job playing the smart tomboy who envied her sister’s beauty while blossoming herself through out the play.
Jodi Lowry as Millie hiding her beauty as the smart tough sister...
Millie with Rosemary and mom Flo...
Dressed for the picnic, Millie's beauty has blossomed...
And then there was Julie Jordan Scott’s performance as spinster school teacher, Rosemary Sydney. A role Julie seemed born to play as she preens and frets over what is missing in her small-town life and her relationship with her boyfriend Howard played by Mark Tarango. Rosemary wants the fairytale. She wants every woman’s dream, to be married. In one emotional scene she begs Howard to marry her, he promises to call in the morning but the scene ends with the audience wondering will Rosemary be disappointed by Howard or will he really call.
Julie Jordan Scott as Rosemary preening while Millie buries her nose in a book...
Rosemary and Howard played by Mark Tarango
Rosemary had another emotional scene at the beginning of Act 2 where she had been drinking and was fed up with her small-town life and angry at the world she let drifter Hal played by Sam Hall have it while he sat dejected. She was screaming at Hal that he was nothing and would never amount to anything but all I heard was Rosemary saying that Rosemary was nothing and would never amount to anything.
Julie Jordan Scott as Rosemary lets Hal have it...
...as Hal played by Sam Hall sits and takes it.
Julie Jordan Scott nailed both of these emotional scenes perfectly. She was crying on stage and I was squirming in my seat having battled all of these emotions in my own life. I was completely sucked into Julie’s performance, she was channeling me, I was Rosemary.
After the play we were greeted by the cast outside the theatre. “You were really great!” I told Julie Jordan Scott.
“How did you prepare for that emotional scene?” NL asked her.
“During the intermission I sat alone and told myself over and over again you’re worthless, you’re unworthy, you’re always going to be alone, you’re going to die alone and no one but the minister will be at your funeral.”
I couldn’t believe it. Julie Jordan Scott who’s inspirational and uplifting writing I always seek out when I’m feeling worthless, that always makes me believe that I’m not worthless and who I am and what I do does matter, was telling herself that she was worthless to prepare for an emotional scene on stage. In that moment I loved her.
Go see Picnic at the Bakersfield Community Theatre, you might find something of your life on stage.
Picnic show times and dates here.
Read Julie Jordan Scott's Behind the Scenes Picnic blog...
NL has a different experience at the Picnic...
I saw Barry Wolcott talking about this on 17 news Sunrise. Professor Wolcott ran the easiest class I ever took in college - Theater 101. Thanks Teach!
I need to get back to the BCT and see something.
...sounds emotionally tugging. wow!
Ok why am I tearing up right now? And is this a sign for me to take a box of kleenex with me when I go watch Picnic?
I remain speechless... thank you. Thank you. Thank you, again. Wow.
Nah, Picnic is not a tearjerker, not unless you have some weird bond like Matildakay did... OK, I wanted to cry, but that's because Matildakay kept elbowing me.
I haven't seen this yet, but the review reaLLY pulled me in. Great writing and very cool pics! I have to go read N.L.'s now. Uh oh, I hear it's bitey!