Or...don't try this at home kids!

All through high school, when I was stuck in the chorus, my opening night celebrations tended to include rushing home to catch the last 15 minutes of Love Boat or Fantasy Island.

So at university, when I finally landed a major role as Gladys Hotchkiss in Queen's Musical Theatre's production of The Pajama Game (directed by Mike Stotts who now works as Managing Director of the Long Wharf Theatre in Connecticut) I wanted to do opening night a little differently.

We opened at the Grand Theatre in Kingston on a February Friday night in 1984 so of course Kingston was cold and very snowy. (And of course I wore a Laura Ashley shirt with shoulder pads to the opening night party).

I was taking a Commerce degree at Queen's University so when I joined Queen's Musical Theatre, I had finally found a place where I fit in and felt like me (even though I was the only Commerce student in the production!). Mike Stotts had been worried about my performance as Gladys and I had to have some extra rehearsals. I tended to be a performer who (not on purpose) holds back in rehearsal and really comes alive in front of a live audience. So on opening night (according to audience members) I had really done a bang-up job as Gladys and landed my funny lines and created some good onstage business. Needless to say I was flying high, even before the party started.

I don't...umm...remember much of the party...umm...but I do remember walking home through the snowbanks with a couple of cast members, still wearing my character shoes (hey, they were black and went with my party outfit!). I also remember arriving at Chown Hall residence with only one shoe on. I had lost my shoe in a snowbank! Worse than that I had lost one of my dancing character shoes in a snowbank! Part of my costume was gone! And I had a show the next night, which my parents would be attending!

Now, back in the 1980s in Kingston, character shoes were hard to come by. I had bought my size 9s at Malabar in Toronto. I was totally freaked out (as only a hung over university student can be...). How was I going to do "Steam Heat" without my trusty character shoes?

So I screwed up my courage and called my mother first thing Saturday morning. I told her I was missing one shoe, so she just had to rush down to Malabar and get a pair of size 9 black character shoes before she and my father hit the highway to drive to see me that night. "How did you lose your shoe," she asked.

I believe my answer was sufficiently vague and guilty sounding that somehow she understood. She couldn't guarantee anything but she would try. So I waited in agony all day -- would I have shoes to dance in? Would my theatrical career end before it had even started? And worse, how was I going to break it to Mike Stotts? He would be none too pleased...

Well, the theater Gods smiled upon me that day and my parents showed up just in time at the stage door with a brand new shiny pair of size 9 black character shoes and I sang and danced my way to a standing ovation (well, at least my mom and dad were standing!). I even got a smile out of Mike. But I never found the missing shoe.

As for the closing night party...let's just say, I remember it well.

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