When I was early pregnant with Andrew, I was doing a play. It was a crazy, intense King Lear. When I was doing that show, I had no idea it would be seven years before I did another one. I have done a couple films , several commercials and an industrial since having my children. But no plays. Plays tend to be a bigger time commitment, weeks or months rather than days. And then, figure in all the months of pregnancy and then nursing  times three when I couldn't have done a show. And then, Jeremy has been doing shows at least once a semester ( our life is lived in semesters, even now that he is not in school, he's teaching in one ) if not more. Then, I didn't want to sacrifice all that time away from my family and the inconvenience of balancing schedules to play a tiny part. I figured since I was in a new place - Austin and now Tucson - I might have to pay my dues and start small and work my way into good roles.  And then, after all those years away I was starting to forget my audition monologues and then started to worry if I was even good enough to do a play anymore.  And that brings us up to March 2009. Jeremy's play Medea closed and he wanted to take a break from acting for a while and my baby is getting big (He is almost two). I came back from Houston where I went to Time Out for Women with my family and thought that it was okay for me to have these desires. I checked out the Tucson Theatre Blog just to check to see if anything was available that I could play, that wasn't inappropriate for me, that fit our schedules and wasn't too long a commitment.  And amazingly enough, I found something.  I emailed about an audition and a whirlwind of auditioning the next day, being offered the role and rehearsals beginning the day after. It was a little too quick to process it all. 

It has worked out really well. The rehearsals have been pretty flexible, Jeremy was able to watch the kids every time, except the one performance when he came to see the show. It isn't a long run, only four shows. It is a play about women dealing with postpartum depression. My character tries to hold on tight to control after the birth of her second children and then almost commits suicide.  It is a meaty role with a great character arc. On Thursday, we will perform for the last time. We have performed in hospitals and a community center in various cities in southern Arizona. Our audiences are doctors and nurses, women who have PPD or pregnant women, or people interested.  Everyone has responded well to it. I have really enjoyed putting myself out there, finding this character. I have enjoyed being a part of something beyond my little family. The subject matter is close, I never had PPD, but I had some difficult adjustments times after two of my babies.  And one line in the play is : After my son was born, I put my personality in a box and didn't take it out until he was two years old. I think I have struggled with finding out who I am again after these huge changes in my life.  I think that is pretty common.  It has been a great experience. But, I have also remembered all the not so fun parts of performing in a play.  Working with a cast of creative people, can be wonderful, but also hard at times. Dealing with a director with different ideas about your character is hard to solve. Three of our performances have been out of town, which means at least a couple of hours of transit and performance time and set up and take down time. So they tend to take up most of the day, which stresses me out and makes me feel guilty for being gone so long.  This is the first play I have done where I have had to balance a family. It is hard to leave for rehearsals when Andrew was saying, Mama please don't go. I want you to stay home. Jacob, 

with a brave face, Mama I will try to be happy. Michael, crying every time I go.  Overall, I am still glad to have done this. Pulling part of my personality back out of that box after seven years. And although it is not much at all the $200 stipend is helping get a new table for the house we are moving into this week!

And while I was rehearsing for my play, Andrew's Kindergarten class was practicing one of their own. Andrew played Kevin. It was so cute, they performed at the Celebration/graduation last week. Today is his last day of school, I can't believe he will be in 1st grade soon!