As early as 2006 I attended auditions just for the practice and always said that, if I got a part, I wouldn't know what to do with it. Well, I was dumbfounded when I was selected to play Anastasia Petrovna, the grandmother, in "Russian Dream"and I got the chance to see what I could and would do. It has been a wonderful experience, so much to learn and I loved every minute of it. That's me, the perennial student, just like my dad and grandmother.

After the play began there were many people (friends and others) who told me they thought I did a good job but they didn't either "like the play" or understand it. On Sunday, April 26 in a panel discussion with Marina Balina, Illinois Wesleyan University Professor of Russian/German Literature we had the benefit of her explanation of the Russian culture and the reasons why this play was a good example of their mindset and the political climate at the time. She also said that in our culture the audience tries to "understand" a play instead of just rolling along with it and getting what they can out of it. We also had a visit with Melissa T. Smith, who had translated the play and had not seen it performed before. She said she wished she had done less of a literary translation and had realized the words should be diffent when they were being performed but that we were "right on" in our portrayals.

I noticed such a difference in the audiences. Several nights the laughs came frequently and it seemed infectious. Other nights it was almost silent. Given my limited experience, I don't really know what this means but it was more rewarding to me when we seemed to reach the audience.

This page is devoted to my experience and here you'll see the production photos as well as a few I took myself or someone took for me with my camera. Thanks for looking and, for those of you who came to see me, thanks "three times over".

Here is a link to a slideshow of the production photos,
©Jerry Dellinger, Photographer 324 N Hamilton Street Lincoln, IL 62656 (217) 732-4777

And here you'll see the director, producer and the cast taken with my camera after the show one night.

And to top it all off, here's a picture of some very special guests, my daughter, her mother-in-law and granddaughter. I was thrilled that they got here to see me.