Photo by Marc Norberg:

Pictured here is the full cast of THE VAUDEVILLIAN. I wrote the play in collaboration with Kevin Kling for the 100^th Anniversary of The Southern Theater. The vision was to recreate the first vaudeville show that played the Southern Theater in 1910. When I read the grand opening playbill there was a tap dancer with a band, I immediately thought of Scott Crosby and The Medicine Show. Next on the bill was a two-person juggling team with a WC Fields’ style trick pool table. Arsene Dupin is the only performer I know who can match WC Field’s attitude on stage, plus we had already worked up a juggling act together, so the choice was hauntingly obvious. Finally, the spookiest discovery was that the only woman on the bill was an eccentric musician named Rose.  Who do you suppose could play that role?

Standing here on stage are well over one hundred years of show business experience. I remember being backstage before each show.  Arsene would be busy preparing all the magic apparatus, while Rosie sat with Scott and the band telling jokes. Rosie has always been able to hold her own in our male dominated business.  As I watched her, I imagined the ghosts of the original cast circling around Rosie telling her jokes, and laughing.

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