Rest in peace, Betty Hutton.
Betty Hutton's turn as Annie Oakley in the film version of Annie Get Your Gun was such an inspiration for me when I unexpectedly found myself in the same role on a local stage last summer. I loved her wonderfully goofy presence, her no-holds-barred performance.
A friend recently forwarded me some photos from the dress rehearsal--I didn't have any pictures from the show at all, and haven't seen a copy of the dvd yet, so it is wonderful to relive memories of the experience. In one of these photos, I'm my country bumpkin self handily winning a shooting contest (I'm the one crouching with the rifle near the back of the stage--something you probably wouldn't expect to see a peace activist do!) In the other, I'm at a ball in my honor; in that number ("Sun in the Morning and the Moon at Night"), I got to dance on a table and get lifted in the air and carried all around--great fun! The whole experience has felt like a dream to me; it's good to see these pictures and remember it really happened.
6 comments:
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Thanks, Edward. I knew I wanted fruit on my blog, so I just did a search on "fruit" "blogger" and "template" and found this one. It was easy to copy the html and paste it in...
xo
gayle
Gayle,
Finally I get to see the pics of your stint as Annie Oakley.
When I was visiting your cousin Bob, he was very amused by the very thought of "Gayle the gun-toting redhead!"
Thanks once more for the workshop last weekend. Now I'm off to redo my novel outline.
Rach
I'm curious how you felt as a left-leaning type towards the politics of "Annie Get Your Gun." After all, this is a story about a woman who (if memory serves) deliberately loses at her greatest skill in order to get a man. How will she live with herself if she accepts that secondary status from that point forward? Just curious...obviously, it's not your story.
Hi Rachel and Kit!
The play definitely raised a lot of my lefty hackles, but I actually worked with the director to change parts of the script to make it a bit more progressive. We completely cut one song which was full of awful stereotypes about Native Americans, and made some changes to make the references to Native Americans throughout the play more respectful. And even though we didn't change the final scene, where Annie loses a contest to win the guy, I tried to play it in a way that this was a one time thing for her, that she was doing him a favor, not giving up her power, and she would definitely continue to be feisty and empowered in their life together. I hope that came across in the performance!
xo
gayle
p.s. Thank *you*, Rachel, for such a wonderful workshop. Such a treat!
WOW Gayle. Look at you! Look at that DRESS! Woo hoo!
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