"COVID-19 canceled the last show I'll ever do"

Aberdeen Theatre

A couple of weeks ago, I was commenting on a thread on Facebook where we were discussing how COVID-19 shutdowns had canceled productions folks had been cast. Aside from the typical comments of being sad and angry that shows had been postponed or canceled, I saw a comment from someone who said the following:

“COVID-19 canceled the last show I’ll ever do.”

Very rarely do I do this but I messaged the person who made this comment, asking what they meant. Days went by before I got a response.

Turns out this person meant what they said, this pandemic canceled a show which this person was planning on being the last they would take part in. I had to know more. So I asked to hear their story, Virginia’s story.

~~~

Virginia’s not her actual name. She asked me not to use her name. So instead, she offered the name she wished her parents had named her. Born and raised in a small town, moved to another small town, Virginia has spent the past 52 of her 79 years in the same house. She moved in with her husband in the last 1960s when he got a job at a local engineering plant. They raised their daughter in the house, even hosted her wedding reception in the backyard. While her husband worked at the plant, she worked in various jobs - secretary, substitute teacher, a cashier at the local grocery store.

But the one constant in her life was theatre. She grew up loving being on stage. When Virginia was in college, she would often perform in productions. Thankfully, the town she and her husband moved to had a community theatre. Not long after they got settled, she started auditioning for their shows.

“It took three years before they cast me,” she said. “But I made sure to volunteered to help out backstage so they would get to know me.”

Finally, she was cast in a production of The Sound of Music. She was cast as Elsa Schraeder.

“I loved that role,” she told me. “I was so nervous but everyone put me at ease.’

She didn’t know it then, but that one production started a community theatre career that would span decades. The town grew and so would its local theatre scene. At one point, there were three theatre groups within driving distance of Virginia’s house.

I asked her how many productions she was in, she didn’t know. She stopped counting after 50. I asked her what her favorite roles were.

“Joanne in Company or Miss Hannigan in Annie, I had so much fun with those girls, one of them was my daughter.”

She had been in so many productions, she would sometimes be called just to fill roles that directors couldn’t cast. And like so many other actors, she had a hard time saying no to those opportunities.

“It’s hard to say no when someone offers you a role.”

Of the many things she loved about performing on stage, was seeing her husband sitting in roughly the same seat for every performance.

“He came to every performance. I couldn’t keep him from coming to the theatre. Sometimes I felt so bad he had to sit through the same show four times in a row. But he never complained. Not even when I did the stranger one-act festivals.”

He came to every show until his death in 2015.

Virginia kept performing because it would help take her mind off things and make her less lonely. But not seeing him at performances, that began to wear on her. She also started to notice other things that impacted her rehearsals and performances.

“I couldn’t move as well as I wanted to. I couldn’t remember lines as easy. I wasn’t even close to being the actress I was or wanted to be.”

Virginia told me that being in a production became too taxing on her body and mind. As much as she loved the stage, she knew it was time to step off. So last year she made the decision she would do one more show and then call it quits.

She would take part in the one-act festival she had been doing for the past 18 years. She loved it because the scripts were shorter, so less preperation and less lines. It was the perfect way to end her time on the stage.

Then COVID-19 arrived. The festival was canceled and worse yet, the local theatre company announced they were closing their doors indefinitely.

So Virginia’s tenure on local stages was over. More than 50 years and 50 productions, she’s done. Even if the theatre reopens and it’s safe to do shows again, she won’t come back.

“This was the last year I felt I could do theatre, that one-act was going to be the last time I set foot on stage. It looks like the health Gods had different plans.”

She’s also moving, leaving the house she first stepped foot in over 50 years ago. She’s moving to an assisted living facility about an hour away. She’s looking forward to it. She feels it’ll be safer for her there.

“Do they have entertainment there?”, I ask. She knows what I’m getting at.

“They have a singing group that performs concerts,” she replies.

“Would you join them? If they asked you to?”, I ask.

She smiles.

“It’s hard to say no when someone offers you a role.”