6/27/2011 Getting My Act Together

Gretchen Cryer (top) Nancy Ford (bottom)

We attended the two production of I'm Getting My Act Together and Taking It on the Road/Still Getting My Act Together last night at York Theatre. Getting My Act Together was one of the first shows I saw in New York when it was performed on Bleeker Street at Circle in the Square downtown starring Gretchen Cryer, who wrote the show with Nancy Ford. I was so impressed with Gretchen's performance that I waited for her to come out and greeted her. Thirty years later York revived Getting My Act Together starring Jenn Colella this time. I liked her performance, but Bill was not taken with it. In Still Getting My Act Together, Gretchen came out as the same character 30 years later, and we discover what she had been going through in those 30 years. I really enjoyed the show. It needs a little cutting here and there, but it was a lot of fun.

While waiting for Still Getting to take our seats, I spotted Karen Ziemba. I attended Akron University in the theatre department when Karen was dancing with the Ohio Ballet. I have seen most of Karen's shows here in New York and have been a fan of hers. I went over to her and told her that I was at Akron U at the same time that she was there, and she may have seen the set and lighting I did for Dames at Sea. She was extremely gracious and mentioned that she had just completed a workshop for a musical written by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty (two of my favorite lyricists and composers) and Susan Stroman the choreographer. The plotline was about Degas and the ballerinas he painted. She said it was a wonderful experience. I then congratulated her on all her success. In the theatre, she was sitting across from me, and when a joke was made about moving back to Ohio, she glanced over at me and smiled. We both knew that we would never do that in a million years!

So it turned out to be an interesting evening, finally getting to say hello to Karen after all these years, and seeing Gretchen Cryer perform again on stage.