{"id":687,"date":"2020-02-23T04:44:39","date_gmt":"2020-02-23T04:44:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/gennarojane\/?p=687"},"modified":"2024-01-14T21:12:21","modified_gmt":"2024-01-15T02:12:21","slug":"meeting-of-the-witches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/gennarojane\/meeting-of-the-witches\/","title":{"rendered":"A Meeting of Witches"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Meeting of Witches<\/p>\n

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iPad coloring of \u00a0pencil drawing from 1962<\/p><\/div>\n

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\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Ancient manuscript of Scary Halloween, Meeting of the Witches\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

Look at all those witches! I drew this story in fourth grade. It\u2019s about a little witch who wants to go flying with the big witches. At that point, I had never been a witch. The only person I ever knew who\u2019d turned into one, (and I didn\u2019t know her personally) was Grimhalde the<\/b><\/span><\/span>\u00a0Gloria-Swanson-like queen in<\/span><\/span>\u00a0Walt Disney\u2019s 1937 masterpiece, \u201cSnow White and the Seven Dwarfs\u201d. <\/span><\/span>\u201cMirror Mirror on the Wall,\u00a0who\u2019s the fairest of them all?\u201d The answer was Snowhite, so\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/em>Grimhalde concocted and threw back a bubbling potion that turned her into an ugly old crone, replete with hooked nose, wart on chin, and rogue hair sprouting out of it. (Turns out if you live long you\u2019ll be sprouting\u00a0<\/span>chin-hairs too, but that\u2019s another story.)\u00a0<\/span>Meanwhile, the old hag offers Snowhite a poisoned\u00a0<\/span><\/span>apple.\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u201cDon\u2019t eat it! I tried to warn Snow not take that shiny red apple in the witches bony claw.<\/span><\/p>\n

Snow falls into a deep sleep in a glass coffin and I end up in my bed with nightmares; two of them playing at once. I\u2019m sleeping on my side dreaming the Grimhalde is descending a stone castle staircase, coming to get me. but I sort of know I\u2019m dreaming, so I turned on my side with my<\/span>\u00a0face now on the cool side of the pillow, where two big brown bears in yellow and red satin boxing shorts are pummelling each other in the ring, of a smoke-filled dream full of cigar-chomping bald-headed men urging the bears to beat each other to death. \u00a0So I turn back to the other side only now the witch has gotten even closer! So I scream, but nothing comes out! I wake myself up. Then there\u2019s The Wizard of Oz Wicked Witch scaring Dorothy and \u201cYour little dog too\u201d. Toto took her in stride. It\u2019s not like was haunted by witches. \u00a0<\/span>I actually inhabited a <\/span><\/span>few as<\/span><\/span>\u00a0an actor when I grew up.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Mid 20th Century kids aka my brother, sister, cousins and me in homemade Halloween costumes. I\u2019m the Gypsy.<\/p>\n

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As a freshman at SUNY Fredonia I was cast as one of seven princesses \u00a0in a children\u2019s theatre tour of \u00a0\u201cPegora the Witch, but Pegora was\u00a0<\/span><\/span>the role I wanted! \u00a0When I transferred to\u00a0<\/span>the State University of New\u00a0<\/span>York in Cortland I had better luck. \u00a0I was cast in a p<\/span>lay about a\u00a0<\/span>coven entitled \u201cDark of the Moon. I\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0played Conjuror Woman. Supernatural powers! This\u00a0<\/span>was more like it! \u00a0No\u00a0<\/span>actual covens existed on campus. <\/span>I joined a sorrority-Nu Sigma Chi. \u00a0For a charity event known as \u00a0<\/span>Beta\u00a0<\/span>Frolic\u2019s, we did a send-up \u00a0of\u201cThe Wizard Oz\u201d. \u00a0The fun role of <\/span>the Wicked Witch\u00a0<\/span>was snatched up by a senior sister. I played\u00a0<\/span>Glinda, the Good Witch.<\/span><\/p>\n

I dropped out of college and moved into New York City enchant the larger world\u00a0with my magical talents. I was twenty years old and determined to turn myself\u00a0into a star overnight. <\/span>My fourth grade friend and fellow actor, Faljian (fortune teller in Armenian) enticed me to join\u00a0her at the Metropolitan Opera\u00a0where they were hiring supernumeraries.\u00a0Aka \u201cspear holders\u201d, the opera version of an extra\u2014What enticed me to join the ranks\u00a0of human scenery gracing the stage of the\u00a0Metropolitan Opera House aside from the fact that I would be on stage at the Met, was\u00a0Faljian dangling Tony Randall, a witty actor famous as Felix Unger in the television adaptation of the 1965 play The Odd Couple by Neil Simon. Mr. Randall\u00a0<\/span>was a huge opera buff, who according to Lynne Faljian Taylor occasionally joined the ranks as a supernumerary. We might meet him in person! \u201cMaking it\u201d was about \u201cwho you know\u201d, and just think! We might get to know Tony Randall! On our first call Faljian and gathered on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera House with the other supernumeraries to be cast as Nobles, Knights, Guards, Monks, Priests and Penitents, Warriors, Virgins, Children, Spirits,Courtiers, Populace;\u00a0when to my utter thrill, the Director selected me out \u00a0to play a non-singing role!<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0I was to portray the Princess Bathilde, who would elegantly saunter across the expansive stage, sung on by the Metropolitan Opera chorus in a procession of courtiers, ladies in waiting\u00a0and footmen. I was being presented as a gift in marriage\u00a0to the leading man, Roland, who would reject me because he was under the spell of Esclaremonde.<\/span>\u00a0At which point I was to fall into a dramatic swoon. Lifting my hand to my forehead\u00a0without allowing my enormous\u00a0damask sleeves to block my face, or toppling the two ton two foot wig\u00a0crowning my head like the leaning Tower of Piza.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/span>Heartbroken by rejection, I\u2019d \u00a0collapse\u00a0into the arms of the chorus.\u00a0Imagine, being rejected\u00a0on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera House!\u00a0Rejected in a temple where the voices of the world\u2019s greatest singers,\u00a0composers, musicians, scenic, lighting and costume\u00a0designers resonate in the seasoned woodwork. What an honor! No rejection could ever top this! Perhaps it was an omen, that from now on I would be cast in everything I auditioned for and never be rejected again! Of course only an \u00a0astonishing \u00a0Sorceress could secure a spell of such good luck. Alas, Dame Sutherland had already granted one wish for me. She had autographed my libretto so I would just have to cross my fingers and count my \u00a0lucky stars.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\t\t