November 2

This post is from Cameron MacManus. A trombonist by training, Cameron has been walking in the shoes of an actor as the protagonist of Big Shoes, Gordy.

A few days ago we Open Dreamers met again in room 126 of the UNCSA Drama School building to work on Julianne Harper's inventive new choreography for the upcoming Discovery Concert with the Winston-Salem Symphony. It was interesting to be in the same space that we had utilized for our teaching artist training at the beginning of our season. We are in a much different 'space' now, having performed, toured, taught, and lived together now for several months. I find myself getting a bit nostalgic for the strange, fun, amazing times we have shared and wondering if I'll actually miss the more taxing parts of our journey as well once we hang up Big Shoes in a few weeks. Yesterday, we performed for a wonderful group of students in Warsaw, NC in the eastern part of our state. Gordy - my character - had just fallen asleep in the robber's house when the commotion started. "Don't fall asleep!", "Lookout!", and all manner of concerned warnings came from the audience as The Robber (Ted Federle) slinked onto the stage to steal Alexander's shoes. When Gordy woke, peered out the window, and noticed The Robber, the cries grew still more emphatic. "Get out of the house!", "Jump out of the window!" exclaimed the children. It is great to have such an invested audience. A few days prior, Gordy managed to convince a whole gym full of children to turn and look for Blue Bear when in fact Ted's mid-season illness kept that character out of Topsy-Turvy all together. It seems there is still plenty of room in the toes of these old Big Shoes for more fun. I plan on enjoying every moment of our season as it all-too-quickly approaches its conclusion.