Saturday, January 05, 2008

It's My Party

January 6 is Epiphany, Twelfth Night, Kings' Day, a.k.a. La Fête des Rois. It is also my birthday! While the rest of France is stuffing themselves with scrumptious, flaky galette des rois and hoping to get the slice with the fève to be the king of the day, I have other plans. My birthday decree is that I get to be Queen for the Day anyway, right here at Polly-Vous Français.

No cardboard crowns for me. It's my party and I'll do what I want to. So I took a wee birthday stroll down Memory Lane (rue de la Recherche du Temps Perdu?), and look what I found! Another French Party.





Oui, that is none other than Polly-Vous Français, moi-même, the lady with the double-strand pearl choker and hair piled high. I was playing the role of the Marquise de Merteuil in a community theatre production of Les Liaisons Dangereuses. Yup, that's right. Me and Glenn Close, soul sisters. So, maybe I don't rank as Queen for the Day. Marquise for the Day.

Trivia about the production:

I'm convinced that I was cast in the lead role of Marquise not because of any superior acting talents, but because I was the only one who could pronounce Merteuil at auditions. Ironically, I never had to mention my character's name on stage.

The rest of the cast called me Myrtle.

Theatre trick #1. My hair was poofed up over a pair of rolled-up knee-socks (clean ones!) and fastened with 42 bobby pins.

Theatre trick #2. We all had painted-on cleavage. We women, that is.

This photo of cast and crew was taken during the First Bush administration, and I haven't changed an iota, except for the big hair, right? Can you tell by my expression that I couldn't breathe in that corset?

The gold curtains were discards from the living room of the house I'd just moved to.

I was married at the time, and had to kiss the dashing Valmont live, in public, on stage. In rehearsals and performances. No fake kiss, either. That was fun...

And then I um.

Oh, sorry. Where was I? Let's see, my dress weighed 25 pounds. It had hundreds of quarter-inch mirrors sewn into the bodice and the folds of the skirt so it totally dazzled the audience every time I swept regally across the stage. Good thing the dress dazzled them, because my acting sure didn't.

The review in the local newspaper said "[Polly] did a fine job with a difficult part." (How do you say to damn with faint praise in French?)

My next on-stage performance, several years later, was at the Emerson Theatre in Boston. I was a dancing Palm Tree.

That was my final acting role.

12 comments:

Going Like Sixty said...

Happy Birthday!
And... I knew you were a star!

Mo said...

Happy Birthday Polly!
Love the 'do, so the knee socks were they those white cotton tube socks with the stripes? I was a Christmas tree in the 2nd grade at good ole St Augustine's. I had a bad case of stage fright and couldn't say my lines. That's what ended my stage career.

blueVicar said...

Joyeux anniversaire,
Joyeux anniversaire,
Joyeux anniversaire, chère Polly,
Joyeux anniversaire!


And to think, I just watched Dangerous Liasons on DVD about two weeks ago. I cried at the end...Funny,though, I never thought of you a single time when watching Glenn Close. I'll just have to watch it again!

And...now I have a mental image of ma chère, Polly...with a beehive and double strand pearls. We will have to meet someday!!

Meilleurs voeux!!

Anonymous said...

Happy birthday, Polly! Lots of love to you from C'Ville.

Polly-Vous Francais said...

Merci, all.

Mo - at least you had speaking lines as a Christmas tree. As a Palm Tree, all I got to do was sway & boogie.

BV - Dangerous Liaisons is such a great movie; I'll have to rent it again. Scenery, costumes, acting, wow. All filmed on location.

Molly - I still have a little sign that says "Star in Your Own Damn Show"

francophilia.com said...

Yummy Valmont, lucky Myrtle.

I can't tell you how glad I am you finally have comments!

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday, Polly. May the French be with you . . .

R in CA

Anonymous said...

Happy birthday from Boston's left bank! I found my way here a few months ago and enjoy your writing very much. Again, Happy Birthday!
K in MA

Anonymous said...

So that's where my knee socks went!
XOXO from your sister in St. Croix

Polly-Vous Francais said...

I had a swell birthday. Merci!

- Anonymous sister: I said they were CLEAN knee-socks.

P.S. I got an update after lo these many years from the director of the wonderful Piedmont Players Theater, where this Liaisons Dangereuses was produced. (Valmont-the-dashing-kisser is now a judge and a new dad.)

He didn't, however, try to correct my statements about my acting talents. Sniff. The truth always stings!

The Late Bloomer said...

Happy Belated B-Day, Polly! Sorry I'm just catching up on lots of your posts now -- but I couldn't miss any of your old posts, I enjoy them all! So as long as it takes...

Polly-Vous Francais said...

A new production of Liaisons Dangereuses has just hit Broadway:

http://theater2.nytimes.com/2008/05/02/theater/reviews/02liai.html?th&emc=th

Locations of visitors to this page
Travel Blogs - Blog Catalog Blog Directory blog search directory Targeted Website Traffic - Webmasters helping webmasters develop high value relevant links. Promoting ethical web-marketing using the time trusted pillars of relevance and popularity.