“Right Here in River City”

[Editor's Note: Besides teaching English at Touchet High School and being a contributing writer for The Times, Shauna Fletcher is an accomplished actress and stars this summer in WWCC Foundation's production of "The Music Man" at the Fort Walla Walla Amphithe- ater.]

"Y ou're not listen- ing, Marian!"

Harold Hill whispers to me, "Look!"

Only we both know I'm listening intently. Because in actuality, I'm waiting for my cue to move to center stage; and Harold Hill is really actor and director Kevin Loomer.

We are three weeks away from opening "The Music Man" at the Fort Walla Walla Amphitheater, and we are having a blast adopt- ing our characters' world of River City.

Since my last notes, the cast and crew have success- fully moved rehearsal from WWCC to the Fort Walla Walla stage. We have been donning bug spray, dancing, laughing and figuring out how to move and place 97 actors in the various scenes of the musical. It's tremen- dously entertaining, and I am loving every minute of it.

By now, the cast has es- sentially learned all of their lines and lyrics. We call this miraculous feat being "off book," and it is always my favorite part of the rehearsal process, scary as it sounds. This is because carrying a script in one's hands- especially a rather bulky script with an entire musical score-can really hinder body movement. Plus, it's a real drag when something exciting, like an intense moment of romance and passion arises, and someone needs to pause and read the next few words they are sup- posed to say. It's a necessary process (how else would we memorize all that stuff?), but it pretty much kills the mood.

Get the words from the page into the brain, and voila! The characters we are trying to create are suddenly liberated-quirks, free range of motion, and all! This is when a show, for me, starts to feel believable. And I can feel that we are close to performing.

That's not to say that we don't get lost now and then. For a few more rehearsals, at least, if we happen to forget exactly which phrase comes next, we simply "stay in character" and shout out "LINE!" Then the wonder- ful Barb McKinney, stage manager and life saver, feeds us a word or two, and we keep moving forward like it was completely natu- ral. Eventually, we will fly solo, and the show will play out seamlessly. And it will appear that everything our characters say, sing, and do is happening organically, as each thought pops into ex- istence before an audience.

Although I caught a nasty summer cold last week, and didn't have much of a voice, at Monday's rehearsal I was able to sing again. It was also the first evening that we ran through two of my favorite scenes without our scripts. I finally felt that awesome sensation where my character takes over, and I sensed Marian the Librarian's presence as she tried to avoid Harold Hill's advances, and nervously bumped into the bench on her mama's front porch. Priceless!

"The Music Man" runs at the Fort Walla Walla Amphitheater July 11-13, 18-20, and 25-27. Tickets are on sale now at Earthlight Books, Book and Game, WWCC Bookstore, and the Fort Walla Walla gift shop. You can also get them and more information at summermusical.wwcc.edu/ tickets.

See you there!