The Baker's Wife

Springtime in Mebane means more than longer days and warmer temperatures. It also means that The Mebane Acting Company puts on their annual adult musical production of their season. This year, that production was The Baker's Wife, a story in which the bickering residents of a small Provencal town at last find peace and contentment in the heavenly bread of the newly arrived baker and his attractive young wife, but when she is lured away by the attentions of a handsome young gigolo, the middle-aged baker loses all zest for life and baking, throwing the community into chaos.

Jeff Overstreet was once again running the musical end of the show, so I happily agreed to play in the pit orchestra. Rehearsals were Monday-Thursday, with performances Friday-Sunday. Since I have a decent camera now, I was able to get a few shots at the rehearsals and warm-ups. Regrettably, I didn't take enough pictures. I don't have shots of everyone, nor shots while people are performing the show. Remind me next year to get these!

Click here for the full Mebane Acting Company smart set.

Director Tamra Kress (with Marilyn Fox playing bass in the background)


Musical Director Jeff Overstreet


AIMABLE CASTAGNET - Wayne Leonard


GENIVIEVE CASTAGNET - Joni Creekmore


DENISE - Ann Imrick, and THERESE - Blair Dowling



ANTOINE - Mike Lopp, and PIERRE - Christian Moore


M. LE CURE - Joshua Benjamin


DOUMERGE - Ross Hurteau


M. MARTINE - Thomas Drago


PHILLIPE - Matthew Enig and SIMONE - Jenny Smith (my apologies to Matthew)


BARNABY - David Lynch


M. LE MARQUIS - Ed Kroliczak


CLAUDE - Jim Bailey


DOMINIQUE - Michael Williams and INEZ - Lysandra Penn-Bartoo


Apologies to NICOLE - Mackenzie Lunden, and HORTENSE - Vivian Senical whom I didn't manage to take any decent photos of, as well as the rest of the crew, producers, etc. Maybe next year I'll take a shot list with me.

So keep an eye on the Mebane Acting Company's website for all the great upcoming performances, including dramas, comedies, childrens, musicals and improv!

It's Almost Spring

It's still winter, but spring is in the air, and so is Easter. This past weekend included two Easter Egg Hunts, and lawn mowing, two sure signs of spring.

Saturday's egg hunt was at Cedarock Park again. This year, Tristan and Zoe had a strategy. The plan was to sprint to the far end of the egg field, and start working backward from there, putting as much time/space between them, and the horde of slowly forward-moving kids that started from the start line. Tristan executed it flawlessly, even ignoring the "official" who admonished the kids "No running!" Yeah right. Zoe got sidetracked, making it about halfway back through the field, as the lure of all the easy eggs she was overstepping on her trip to the far end was too much for her. None the less, both kids made out great, although they didn't find any of the holstein cow-looking eggs (and their year's supply of Chik-fil-A kid's meals) nor the legendary "Golden Egg," which may or may not exist.


The Easter Bunny (Rabbit of Easter) obviously does exist, and he wears Docksiders.

Sunday's egg hunt was at the Mebane Presbyterian Church.


This one went more traditionally, as the egg:kid ratio was pretty high. T and Z really moved, and ended up with a goodly amount of eggs.




We brought our neighbor, Foster (who was also at the Cedarock Park Egg Hunt, btw). And since he was the only kid there in his age group (he's 2), he scored as many eggs as he could fit in his basket.

Tristan escorted Foster home, and thus concluded another successful egg-hunt season.

Peach

Fourteen years ago when I moved to Georgia, I gave my mom rose bushes that grew peach-colored roses, for her birthday, to remind her of me. Today would have been her 70th birthday. Happy Birthday, Mom.

Birthdays

It's not every day your young woman turns eight.

In what's become a Roth Family tradition somehow, Zoe was determined that she was now able to tackle her first Big Mac. We had our doubts, seeing as the weight of the beef alone in the Big Mac is about 0.5% of the weight of an uncooked Zoe. Since Zoe is not one to be told what she cannot do, she did it.


We hurried back to the house for present time. The big gift was a Canon A570IS digital camera.


Opa came down to celebrate with us, so on Saturday, we partook of another birthday tradition: the birthday meal of teppanyaki-style Japanese food at Kanki. The kids always request Kanki, so we've been going there two times a year for several years.






No birthday is complete without a birthday party, so on a different Saturday, we had one of those. Zoe, seven of her friends, and Tristan spent 90 minutes being gymnasts at Kidsport in Burlington.






That's probably enough for one birthday. Keep an eye out on Zoe's Zooomr stream for new and better pictures from her and her new camera.