Returning to the stage again!

March 22, 2026 / edebock / 4 Comments

It’s been almost two weeks since I last published a blog post, but what a busy and fun two weeks it has been! After a hiatus of several years, I returned to the stage last year for our community theatre group’s very first musical. That’s all it took for me to realize how much I still loved performing, so when auditions for this year’s production were announced, I read the script and decided to try out.

Gramercy Ghost, a comedy by John Cecil Holm, was originally published in 1951. It’s the story of a young woman, Nancy Willard, who inherits the ghost of Nathanial Coombes, a young and handsome Revolutionary soldier who was ambushed and killed in 1776 and is now doomed to an earth-bound existence because he failed at his mission to deliver a vital message. Much hilarity arises when Nancy is the only person who can see and communicate with him. Adding to the fun for me was the fact that both Nancy and Nathaniel were played by former students of mine!

I specifically asked for a small part in this year’s play as I’m not sure that I could memorize the vast number of lines that I was once able to. I was absolutely delighted to be given the role of Augusta Ames, a somewhat ditzy lawyer who appears in just one scene early in the show. Our local newspaper, in their very positive review, described my role this way… “Elaine DeBock is hilarious as the solicitor; it’s not a big part, but she makes the most of it.”

This was not the first time I played the part of a lady lawyer. You can read about the last time in this post. It was also during that show that I first tried my hand at prompting and discovered that I really enjoyed it, so as soon as I came offstage this time, I took over that role for the remainder of each performance.

Over the past two weekends, we entertained three dinner theatre audiences followed by a matinee showing yesterday afternoon. Coming to the end of a production is always bittersweet. This afternoon we got together one last time to tear down the set, pack away our costumes and props, and clean the community hall.

One of the aspects of theatre that I have always loved is the costuming, especially when we’re doing a period play. As soon as I was assigned my part, I started researching 1950s fashions and hairstyles. Although our group has a large collection of costume pieces, I couldn’t find exactly what I wanted there, but a couple of visits to our local second-hand store were all I needed to put together my costume.

I also started growing out my hair so that I could attempt to replicate a 1950s hairdo. Using this photo of actress, Dianne Foster, as my inspiration, I practiced until I was able to manage a fairly good imitation.

Here I am after our last performance.

Now that the play is over, I have an appointment for a much needed haircut later this week!

A love of acting seems to run in our family. All three of our kids thoroughly enjoyed being part of the high school drama club when they were growing up and this Thursday, we’ll be in the audience watching one of our teenage granddaughters onstage!

How far would you go for a party?

March 9, 2026 / edebock / 8 Comments

This weekend I did something I never imagined that I would do. I flew all the way to Vancouver for a party! I left Friday morning and was back home again by supper time on Sunday! It was a whirlwind trip, but I’m so glad I went.

It was over ten years ago that I wrote this post about my older brother. More than a decade before the measles vaccine became available, Donald, an infant at the time, suffered irreversible brain damage due to encephalitis, a severe, often fatal, complication of measles. Although my parents were told that they should put him in an institution, they refused and we grew up together. He has, however, been in care all of his adult life. Since 1981, before the Community Living Society that now provides residential and personalized community-based support to individuals throughout Vancouver and the Lower Mainland of BC, came into existence, Trudy M has been one of Donald’s primary caregivers. After 43 years with CLS and even longer with Donald, Saturday’s party was a well-earned celebration of Trudy’s retirement. How could I not be there?

Over the years, Trudy has become family. Mom and Dad adored her and as I said when asked to say a few words on behalf of our family at the party, four of us became siblings by birth, she became our sibling through hard work and dedication.

The only reason that I had considered not going to the party and the reason that my stay in Vancouver was so short was the fact that this is the beginning of what we in my community theatre group call “hell week”. This Friday is opening night of our latest play and it’s all hands on deck to ensure that we’re ready to entertain our audiences. Thankfully, our director is also a close personal friend who knew how important it was to me to be able to slip away for Trudy’s party.

Although I was in Vancouver for less than 48 hours and in spite of the fact that it was a damp, drizzly weekend, I arrived in the city on Friday in time to watch one of my grandsons play a game of rugby. That was particularly meaningful to me because he attends and was playing for the same high school that I attended 60 years ago!

My sister and I also fit in a long walk on Saturday morning. Coming from Alberta where we still have sub zero temperatures and lots of snow, we enjoyed the humidity and the signs of spring that we won’t see here for awhile yet.

Returning to the stage!

March 21, 2025March 20, 2025 / edebock / 5 Comments

For many years, community theatre was a big part of my life, but the last time I was on the stage was pre-COVID. By the time the pandemic restrictions were lifted and our local theatre group began working on another play, I had moved on to other pursuits. For their next two plays, I was a member of the audience which definitely felt weird!

Then early last fall there was an audition call that I absolutely could not pass up. For twenty years or more, the group had been talking about doing a musical, but we just didn’t have the talent necessary to pull it off. That has changed, however, and Flagstaff Players had finally decided to tackle Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. I didn’t even stop to think about whether or not I could fit this into my schedule. I had to do it!

I am not particularly musical, but I can carry a tune in a group and I’ll be singing in the women’s chorus. This is the largest cast we’ve ever had and I have the honour of being the oldest member! For me, one of the the greatest joys of acting in community theatre has been sharing the stage with some of my former students. This time, not only am I doing that, but the youngest member of the women’s chorus is the teenage daughter of a former student! Does that make me feel old? Not really! Being part of a production like this absolutely energizes me and I didn’t realize until this week that I’m probably old enough to be the mother or grandmother of every other member of the chorus! That’s okay; I’m sure there were older women in Canaan and Egypt. After all, Joseph lived to be 110 and his father, Jacob, died at 147!

There are a lot of superstitions connected with the theatre. Many stage actors swear that a bad dress rehearsal means that opening night will go well. Our final dress rehearsal on Wednesday wasn’t bad, but there were certainly some little glitches that we are keen to correct. Tonight is opening night and we are ready! We’ll be doing four shows in total; two this weekend and two next. If you’re local, I hope to see you there!

Onstage again!

April 7, 2019April 7, 2019 / edebock / 5 Comments

Over my many years of involvement in community theatre one of the greatest joys for me has been sharing the stage with former students. Some of them even got their first taste of acting in my junior high drama classes. Never did I imagine, however, that I would someday act in a play written by one of them!

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❤ This photo absolutely warms my heart. On my right, is my former student Kelly Berg, author of Silent Jim, in his lead role of Marshall Henry Jackson. Standing on my left, in the role of Jesse Longstrand, the blacksmith, is a young man I’ve known since he was a preschooler. I taught him Sunday School back in those days!

Silent Jim is a western murder mystery with a mix of intensely serious moments and hilariously funny ones. Thursday evening was opening night. We performed again on Friday and have two more shows next weekend. Our cast of 23 ranges from preteen actors trying out the stage for the very first time to seasoned veterans like myself.

Cast photo

Cast photo: Brenda Grove

I have a very small onstage role this year. In fact, I only have nine lines to deliver! Silent Jim is set in the small fictional town of Buffalo Skull in the American west in the late 1870s. In the original version, my character was a judge but, like any western, the play has a lot of roles for male actors and far fewer for females. We had to do a bit of adjusting. There were no female judges in the US in the 1870s, but the first female lawyer, Arabella Mansfield, was called to the Iowa bar in 1869. We could change our judge’s role to that of a lawyer and remain authentic to the time we were portraying. Our lady lawyer needed a name, however, and that’s an interesting side story.

One of the aspects of theatre that I absolutely love is the costuming, especially when we’re doing a period play. What would a lady lawyer have worn in the 1870s, I wondered. I turned to the internet in search of photos and as so often happens when I’m online, I ended up going down a variety of interesting and unrelated rabbit trails. One of them led me to an amazing find; my grandmother’s 1909 graduation photo from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia!

Gran - Eliza Clara Walker - BA Dalhousie University 1909

Though the photo is apparently signed “Lizzie Walker. Dal. 09.” I know that Gran’s full maiden name was Eliza Clara Walker and that later in life she chose to use her middle name. Though hers wasn’t a law degree, there weren’t a lot of university educated women in her day and I thought it would be a wonderful idea to honour her memory by naming my character after her. My fellow thespians agreed and so I became Clara Walker, Esquire!

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In addition to my small onstage role, I also act as prompter for the first three quarters of the play. I was surprised to discover that I really enjoy that position as I’m fully involved in every moment of the show.

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Curtain call photo: Caity Moore, Clouded Creations

Fashion is art

April 20, 2018April 19, 2018 / edebock / 10 Comments

In a recent post, fellow fashion blogger, Pam Lutrell of Over 50 Feeling 40, wrote that “all fashion is art”. Her statement resonated with me because I also believe that fashion provides an opportunity for each of us to be creative and to express who we are through what we wear.

My involvement in the arts is largely in the area of community theatre which actually intersects with my passion for fashion in an interesting way… costuming. I’m especially fond of period drama because it involves researching the fashions of a particular time in history and doing our best to recreate them onstage. As a small town theatre guild, we don’t have a large budget to work with. We have an incredibly talented costume mistress who can create amazing and elaborate costumes when they’re needed, but much of what we wear onstage comes from our own wardrobes or from the group’s substantial collection of clothing that has mostly been donated or purchased at thrift stores.

Our recent play was set between 1928 and 1946. I played the role of a household servant and was dressed accordingly. That’s me in front holding the serving tray.

Auntie Mame #2 - Marlaina Eldey copy photo: Marlaina Eldey

For one very short scene, however, I wore a dressier outfit that included a little velvet jacket from our costume collection that I absolutely fell in love with. It’s always bittersweet when a production comes to an end. After entertaining four dinner theatre audiences and having so much fun doing it, the time came to strike the set and put the costumes and props away, but I couldn’t part with the little velvet jacket. In my mind, I could imagine myself dressing it down with a pair of jeans. I just had to give it a try, so with permission, of course, it came home with me. It will eventually go back and be hidden away in the giant bin labelled “jackets” until it’s needed onstage again, but for a little while I plan to have some fun with it.

First, I tried it with a simple black camisole and then over my white Indulgence Tank from cabi’s Spring 2017 collection. Since I’ve been told that a woman should be able to style every piece in her closet at least different three ways, I also tried the jacket over a column of colour, in this case my camel coloured cords and camisole. I loved all three of these looks!

With the gold embroidery design on the jacket, I decided to keep the jewelry at my neck simple or nonexistent, but I did try it with my antique gold-finished Flapper Earrings from cabi’s Fall 2017 collection, reminiscent of the 1920s.

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Do you agree that fashion is art? Please tell me what you think in the comment section below.

With script in hand

February 4, 2018February 4, 2018 / edebock / 9 Comments

Community theatre has been an important part of my life for a very long time. I first took to the stage in the late 1970s playing Bob Cratchit in Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol followed by the Empress in a stage play of Hans Christian Anderson’s tale, The Emperor’s New Clothes. Then came many years of raising a family and being too busy to perform.

The stage called my name again in 2002. My children were grown and I was going through a low spot in my own life. I needed to do something that was just for me, so I auditioned for a part in the old Christmas classic, It’s a Wonderful Life. Returning to the stage after such a long hiatus, I expected a bit part, but instead I was cast in one of the lead roles! I played Mary Bailey, wife of the main character, George.

My love of acting returned full force and I was completely hooked! Over the ensuing years, I’ve played many and varied roles in local theatre productions. In 2003, I was Vera in a female version of The Odd Couple and in 2005, Doris in The Cemetery Club. The story of three Jewish widows in their 50s who meet once a month for tea before going to visit their husbands’ graves, this was definitely one of my favourites. The picture quality is terrible, but that’s me (aka Doris) on the left. The guy with the beard is my husband, Richard. We’ve always had difficulty finding enough men to fill the male roles, so we roped him in and he’s been in several plays with me.

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The following year, the role that I was least happy to be cast in probably became my most memorable! I was Vonga, the jungle girl, in Jack Sharkey’s hilarious comedy, One Toe in the Grave. Even though it wasn’t the role I wanted, I decided to have fun with it. I made my own costume and still have it hidden away.

Vonga - One Toe in the Grave

In 2007, I was acting as assistant director for Arsenic and Old Lace, a classic comedy, when at close to the last minute, the actress cast in one of the lead roles wasn’t able to perform. With little time to learn the lines, I stepped in and became Abby Brewster, one of the somewhat eccentric but seemingly genteel elderly sisters who made it their mission to help lonely bachelors die happy by serving them elderberry wine spiked with arsenic! Here I am sharing the stage with two of my former students. Again, that’s me on the left.

Arsenic and Old Lace

In 2009, we brought A Christmas Carol back to the local stage. This time I played a couple of small parts. Then in 2012, just before leaving to spend a semester teaching English in China, I had a bit part in W.O. Mitchell’s The Black Bonspiel of Wullie MacCrimmon. Again, here I am sharing the stage with two of my former students!

The Black Bonspiel of Wullie MacCrimmon

Acting with former students, some who I taught drama to when they were in junior high, has definitely been one of the joys of participating in small town theatre!

Over the past few years, I’ve intensely missed performing. Though I’ve helped out behind the scenes on a couple of productions, travel and health restrictions have kept me off the stage. Once again, though, I’m at a point where I feel like I need to do something just for me and this time, the timing is perfect! We’ve just begun to prepare for four performances of Auntie Mame in early April. Life has been stressful lately and it’s been a few years since I’ve had to learn a lot of lines. I’m not sure how well that would go, so I’m delighted with my role as servant, Norah Muldoon. With many entrances and exits, I appear off and on throughout the play, but I don’t have any lengthy scenes or long speeches to memorize. Even so, I’ll be spending lots of time over the coming weeks with my script in hand!

So why am I so passionate about the theatre? We thespians are an interesting breed and it’s always a privilege to work with such a creative, talented and fun group of people! It takes many people working behind the scenes to put a production together and in a small town amateur group like ours, people often fill many different roles. Actors can often be found working on set construction, sewing costumes or setting up tables and chairs for the dinner theatre performances. Putting on a play is a lot of work but it’s worth it all when the lights go up, the play begins and we feel the audience respond. What a rush! I’m essentially a very shy person but when I’m onstage, I get to be someone else and it is so much fun! After all, where else would I dare appear in a teeny tiny jungle girl costume?

Hats, hats, hats

October 28, 2016October 27, 2016 / edebock / 9 Comments

October is usually a golden month here in Alberta, but this year it’s been grey and dreary. I did my seasonal wardrobe switch earlier this week, putting away my summer clothes and bringing my winter ones out of storage. This is not something that I enjoy doing as I dread our long, cold winters, but I do like the fact that the chilly autumn air means there are some hats that can also come out of storage. We took advantage of a few moments of sunshine this afternoon to take a series of hat photos with the remaining leaves on our weeping birch as a backdrop.

A hat is a great accessory that sets you apart, whether you’re at a formal event or just running errands. This jaunty tweed cap is casual, yet chic.

When I lived in Japan in 2008 and 2009, most of the older women wore bucket hats that often reminded me of upside down flower pots on their heads! It was in Japan that I found this black felt cloche, however, and I immediately fell in love with it. I was delighted that it actually fit my larger than average head.

In addition to looking at the hats, take notice of the fact that scarves are a great way to add a bit of trendy animal print to your fall and winter wardrobe.

Vintage hats can be a fun addition too. This “Saratoga Uncrushable” was made by Biltmore, a world-renowned hat maker, likely in the late 1960s or early 1970s. Though the hat was made in Canada, the tweed fabric, which is 55% wool and 45% cotton, was woven in Scotland. A little research online told me that this is actually a man’s hat and meant to be worn fedora style, but the soft, pliable material is easily reshaped as a cloche which is how I have always worn it.

The “Saratoga Uncrushable” is actually on long term loan from the community theatre group that I belong to. It was part of one of my costumes several years ago, but when the production came to an end, I hated to part with it! It will go back to the group when it’s needed again, but in the meantime, I continue to enjoy wearing it.

And finally, a real felt fedora! I’ve never actually worn this one except for for these photos. Made by the great British hat makers, Christys’, probably in the 1940s, it was my father’s. It even has his initials punched into the leather headband inside. When we were cleaning out his apartment and storage unit in preparation for his move to an assisted living facility a few years ago, I laid claim to the hat that he hadn’t worn for years. I knew that it, too, would make a great costume piece for our theatre group. It has been worn onstage several times by several different actors, but I’ve always been tempted to wear it myself.