Thought for the day - Camelot

Last Wednesday, i spent the afternoon doing some cleaning and thinking of theatre.....a strange, but not so strange combo LOL  i have a very random way of choosing records to play and this afternoon the rotation ended up on the original cast album of Camelot...one of my favorite scores ever.  i have 3 different copies of this score on vinyl.  i'm not sure where today's particular copy came from.  The 1st one i ever heard belonged to Mom and it had this cover on it:

i love this cover!  These 3 leads were simply amazing!  The 2nd copy i have from this score i bought at a yard sale at Mrs. Goodson's, across the street from us when i was growing up.  This was the cover of that album:

The 3rd copy i have has this cover:

i got this one at one of the used record stores we like to frequent.  i didn't really need it but think i bought it because one, i didn't have this cover, and two, i don't know why any music theatre lover would let go of this score  and i felt like i needed to save this record from just sitting in the store LOL

Anyway, Camelot is one of my favorite scores ever.  The show has some definite book problems, but its score is full of beautiful melodies and clever lyrics.  It is one of those shows that, if i could go back in time and see the original cast perform, this would be in my top 5 choices...but i'll save that for another blog.  i was listening to this score and it made me miss theatre.  

King Arthur was a dream role of mine.  It's a lead role in a musical and you don't have to have a great voice to do it.  How perfect would that be!  i have always wanted to do it and it saddens me that now i have aged out of the role....thank you, 40's.  i remember really wanting to do this show in high school.  Looking back now, it would have been costly to design the show, but we did have resources we could have used.  We could have cast the show easily, but Mr. Robinson wasn't interested in it.  They ended up doing Fiddler On The Roof instead and i couldn't be in it because of a prior church obligation.  Oh well.  

It's interesting to me to think back on how theatre fueled me for so long and to realize that now it does not.  It was a wonderful thing at the time and it was what i needed and where i needed to be.  i do not regret studying theatre at UNCG.  It was what i needed to do and i made so many life long friends that became my family.  i would not trade that for the world.  But, there are times that i regret that it's no longer a priority in my life.  i need to seek it out again, either as an audience member or a performer.  And maybe add to my collection of cast albums lol  It's an enriching part of my life that i have let fall by the wayside and i need to revive it in some way.  

This is part of the whole process of rediscovering what i love and what gets my juices flowing.  They've been inactive for a long time due to the monotonous routine of working a job that i did not love anymore.  But, now that i am back in school and starting to enjoy other things again, i definitely see some kind of theatre in my future.  Now, if only i could turn back the clock about 10 years and find a production of Camelot to do, that'd be great!

Don't let it be forgot

That once there was a spot

For one brief shining moment

That was known as Camelot

Cheers