Cast members of Respect: A Musical Journey of Women toss their cowgirl hats in the air at the conclusion of a dress rehearsal last month. Rachel O’Hara is fourth from left. They all wore clear plastic masks to limit the potential of spreading COVID-19. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star
By Rachel O’Hara
Being born in Delray Beach and raised there for almost 13 years was something truly special. Besides living near the beach and enjoying beautiful weather year-round, I was lucky enough to be involved in community theater.
When the acting bug bit me around the age of 7, my mother looked for places where kids like me could get involved in theater. I spent the next six years being in shows at Little Palm Family Theatre in Boca Raton. My weeknights were for rehearsals and my weekends were for performing.
I couldn’t have been happier.
When one of my theater friends mentioned going to classes with other kids at the Delray Beach Playhouse, I asked my mom if I could go, too. Those days were filled with theater games, vocal warm-ups and plenty of improv.
I moved back to the area in 2017 to be the communications associate at Gulf Stream School, after I had been living in Sarasota and working for the Herald-Tribune. Lucky for me, our music teacher, Toni Stamos, remembered me from my days at the playhouse and encouraged me to try out for Annie Get Your Gun that fall.
It had been a decade since I’d been involved with community theater and it felt so good to be performing again.
Here we are in 2022 and I’m in my third production — Respect: A Musical Journey of Women — at the Delray Beach Playhouse and my fourth production since I got back home. We are an ensemble cast and our characters/roles/attitudes change with whatever song/scene we are in. I go from being Betty Boop for one song to a member of the USO to a young woman working in a factory during the war.
ABOVE: Fast forward to this season. Rachel took a selfie of the Musical Journey of Women cast members after they read through the script for the first time at The Black Box. The majority of the cast is here in front of a mirror. Omicron had not arrived yet and they felt safe with everyone vaccinated and boosted. RIGHT: Rachel O’Hara as Piglet in The House at Pooh Corner at Little Palm Family Theatre. Her first big role! Photos provided by Rachel O’Hara
My other passion, photojournalism, stays alive thanks to freelance assignments for The Coastal Star.
When Editor Mary Kate Leming saw my Facebook post about getting back into theater after two long, pandemic-filled years, she asked me to keep a journal of how the rehearsal process was going. Is it the same as it was before the coronavirus? No. Has omicron come in and really stressed us all out? For sure.
But is it possible to get creative and talented people together again to create something beautiful for the stage? Yes, it is.
And you know what? I’m just as excited about returning to the stage as I was when I started at age 7.
Here are some excerpts from my journal.
Dec. 6: Doing a rehearsal in person and preparing to get back on stage again feels so exciting and I’m a little giddy. It’s great to see some familiar faces, but I’m having a fun time getting to know the people I’ve never met before as well.
The whole show, from director to cast to stagehands and even the band, is made up almost entirely of women. The show tells the history of women through music. That can be pretty raw at times and there is a lot of history worked in throughout the dialogue.
Many of these songs are ones that our parents and grandparents grew up with, so we need to make sure we really get up there and perform them as authentically as we can.
Dec. 7: Today is the first music rehearsal. Karen Nagy, the musical director, went through an extensive warm-up with us, which felt really good. I can’t remember the last time I warmed up my vocal cords and body in preparation to sing. We did some cool harmony exercises and did Do, Re, Mi in a round. It sounded awesome!
When I tell people I go to rehearsal from 7:30 to 10 at night and don’t get paid, some look at me like I’m insane. But there is a reason we all do it. We love it.
Dec. 9: We got to work in the Children’s Theatre tonight. There is a lot more room for us to spread out and that always makes me feel a bit safer, especially since we are singing a lot! We recorded ourselves tonight for our director Suzanne Dunn to pass along to Jeannie Krouch, the choreographer, so she can get us ready to start moving and grooving. Better get out my character shoes and start stretching!
Unfortunately, we won’t have rehearsal tomorrow because one of our castmates has tested positive for the coronavirus. She’s fully vaccinated and doing OK, but I feel terrible that she has gotten sick.
I think that’s everyone’s biggest fear with going back to doing live theater. Hopefully, this will be our only case throughout the rehearsal process and the run of the show. This show means too much to all of us already to be derailed by the pandemic.
Dec. 28: I’m back to rehearsal after being away for a week to see my family back in Cleveland. We continue to practice everything while masked.
Jan. 5: Finally! It’s 2022 and we are having our first full cast rehearsal in I don’t know how long and I am so happy to see everyone again. We have all been working hard on our own time on our songs, lines and choreography. But it just isn’t the same as being able to be all together in the same room.
Jan. 15: Today was our big Saturday rehearsal! Five hours of working on blocking, choreography and singing on the stage. Five hours sounds like a lot, but I swear it flew by. We also got to meet the band. Spensyr, Sara and I stayed a bit later to listen to them practice and they sound great.
Jan. 18: Tonight we reviewed trouble spots that we encountered during what Suzanne referred to as our first “stumble-through” on the stage the night before. I cannot believe that in nine days we will be performing for a live audience! I am extremely nervous and excited to be in front of a live audience again.
Jan. 27: WE DID IT! Tonight’s Family & Friends performance was so much better than I could have ever imagined. Having a supportive audience filled with friends and family for everyone in the cast gave us all so much energy and I don't think any of us ever stopped smiling. This cast has been a dream to work with and everyone is so talented, yet humble, and seeing us all come together and give such an amazing performance had me smiling from ear to ear all night long.
There are women in this cast that have only performed once or twice in a show and women who have been in national Broadway tours of iconic shows. Where else can you find a cast like that? Only in the wonderful world of community theater. I cannot wait to perform with this amazing group of women for the next three weeks. I know that when we close the show, I will be sad but also so grateful for the new friendships and the opportunity to have gotten back to being on stage again.
I hope that those who come to the show enjoy not only the performance but the feeling of joy about being able to attend live theater again.
If You Go
What: Respect: A Musical Journey of Women
When: Through Feb. 13
Where: Delray Beach Playhouse, 950 NW Ninth Street
Tickets: $38
Info: 561-272-1281 or https://delraybeachplayhouse.com
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