If 13-Year-Old Me could see me now...

...Man, I wish I could go back in time and tell an anxious, picked-on, teenage me that, one day, you WILL get to combine your two loves and people will come and pay to see it...

Middle school was not easy. Not that it is for anyone, but kids can be extra mean when you pick an extra-curricular activity like acting, and it isn't made much easier when you like things that are considered "nerdy". Like Star Wars. And Star Trek. And Fantasy.

Nope. The first half of Middle School was NOT fun.

Then, your mom goes into the office to file the paper work because you will be out of class for the first part of one certain day, and the office lady looks at the calendar.

"Oh, but she'll miss the field trip they have scheduled that day!"

And your mom gets to respond: "No, she IS the field trip."

Because the field trip is a viewing if "To Kill A Mockingbird" at the local community theatre, and yours truly is playing Scout.

And I don't think I am blowing my horn TOO much when I say I knocked it out of the park.

Yeah, middle school got ALOT easier after that day.

But, let's take small side trip: Westgate Mall...Waldenbooks...a 10 year old Star Wars fan uses some of her PRECIOUS allowance to buy "Heir To The Empire."

My love affair with the Star Wars EU exploded and I never really looked back. I stuck through the good times and the bad times, (Callista that blonde, whiny, wimpy, B...(looks at young co-stars possibly reading this) um...yeah, never mind).

I'll be honest: I had lost track of the EU (this was before the internet was as prevalent as it is) and so didn't even know the "Hand of Thrawn" books were out until I saw a friend reading them during a rehearsal. I made a comment about how much a certain farm boy and a certain red head just needed to get over themselves and get together. He snorted in derision and the subject was dropped until Tech week when he called me over and whispered "I hate you for being right," and showed me the end of a certain paragraph at the end of a certain chapter (page 481-82...not that I have it bookmarked or anything...shut up).

Stupid thin walls between greenroom and theatre; I wanted to scream in joy and I couldn't.

To make a long story short (TOO LATE)...Fast forward 16 years.

A local company is remounting a production, and are holding auditions:  "MacBeth" set in the "Star Wars" universe.

Um, YES PLEASE!

If nothing else, I figure I can pick up the Lightsaber the director owes me from backing the Kickstarter from the original run. So I sign up for a slot, show up, do my Rosalind, speak the speech, swing a lightsaber in a fight, and head on my way home.

Then the e-mail comes in, and 13-year-old me screams in joy...

More to come as we go into rehearsals, but I cannot begin to say how excited I am to be a part of this production and working with this company. These are good folks, and this is a great cast, and I am looking forward to helping transport the Bard to a galaxy far, far away...