Makin' Time...

It's hard for me to pin down one life lesson impressed on me in the past month while working on Underground, but the title of the song my character, Mindy Lee, sang called Makin' Time, does a good job of summing it up.  Make time for the things and people who are important to you. 

My name's Cindy Marie Martin and I hail from the small town of West Union in North Central West Virginia.  Not a coal mining town, like the town of Mindy Lee, but just as small and just as community driven.  As a very little girl, I grew up with my daddy workin' in Weirton Steel and my mama at home.  Both their families were from good ole' Doddridge County, and when my father retired from the mill, we moved back there.  I was in sixth grade.  I spent the rest of my schooling in West Union... and couldn't wait to leave.  Everyone knows everyone else's business.  And if they don't, they think they do.  Which is just as good and probably more interesting.  It felt suffocating to this young girl. 

But, distance lends perspective, and after five years in Northern Virginia where neighbors don't know your name and the traffic eats up a good quarter of your day, sometimes I miss the slow pace and close knit community of the mountains.  I certainly have a healthy appreciation for it now that I lacked as a teenager. 

And that Appalachian mindset is what I love about West Virginia and why I wanted to do this show so badly.  Folks there never seem to forget to take their time and smell the daisies.  Honestly, they pretty much forget to move fast at all.  And family is always on the top of their list — everything else can wait.  James McManus' script really captures that.  I felt he had a show that honestly portrayed West Virginians and their values, as well as the hard lives of coal miners.  I felt proud of this script and wanted to help put it into the world so others could experience what I knew about West Virginia, instead of the punch line of someone's stereotypical joke. 

And what all went into putting Underground onstage, at least for me?  Makin' time for some intensive training on the guitar from my husband, Lonnie, for one.  I had to play the guitar (at least a little) while I sang Makin' Time.  I took lessons in high school, but I haven't played since then.  So, that was a fun adventure for both he and I.  Thanks are due to fellow actor, Clay Steakley, for the loan of his guitar for the past month.  That was a lifesaver. 

The biggest challenge was just making a decision, making an acting choice and going with it.  The rehearsal process was so fast that there wasn't time to try out many different ideas.  But, ultimately, I think that made for some very strong choices for the whole cast.  There wasn't time to question a bold decision too hard — just go for it.  It was actually liberating to be free of the deeply intellectual process that actors normally go through for a role.  Table work, endless discussion of characters and motivations, and my personal favorite — the analysis of each line and it's subtext.  My script usually looks like a gaggle of children were turned loose on it with highlighters and pencils.  The time constraints of the Inkubator Festival forced us to boil down the process to essentials only.  In the words of Sir Lawrence Olivier to Dustin Hoffman, "Just act, dear boy.  Just act." 

And, we did.

Inhabiting Mindy Lee has been so much fun.  And it's reminded me to make time for what's important.  And maybe the process itself has reminded me to take less time creatively.  Because isn't it sometimes better to go with what feels right over what's analytically the best choice?