>Reeling

>One of my very favorite memories of college is the summer I spent in appearing in my local theater’s production of Noises Off.

I was in a lot of plays growing up, but Noises Off was definitely the most complicated- and the most fun. It was a play within a play and had a two-story set that contained lots of doors and rotated 180 degrees, so that the audience could see both what was going on backstage and what was happening “onstage.”

The comedic timing was dependent on the players coming in and out of those doors on the set at just the right times, with just the right props and saying just the right things. We rehearsed and rehearsed and rehearsed and then we rehearsed some more. The small cast included a few University of Georgia students like me and a few seasoned actors who were permanent residents of Athens and very involved in local theater. With all that rehearsing, we got to know each other quite well in a short period of time.

At first, I was a little afraid of the adults in the play. I was worried they’d look down their noses at my youth and high school theater credentials. Well, they couldn’t have been nicer. The hilarious tone of the play carried over into our rehearsals and parties. I remember endless practical jokes and laughing and carrying on and I remember that within a week or two, it seemed like we were all old friends, and had been for years.

Although it was an ensemble production, top billing went to a woman named Marie Bruce, who was a fixture in Athens theater and played the batty old housekeeper in the show (Carol Burnett played the role in the movie). She was, as you’d expect, tremendously outgoing, always up for a laugh, and incredibly helpful to me. She always had good advice on how to play a scene, and she even let me borrow her lingerie for the show, since I was required to run around in my underwear during most of it and I didn’t own anything appropriate myself. Thanks in part to Marie’s leadership, there was no upstaging or scene-stealing among the cast which, as those of you who’ve done theater know, is saying a lot. We all worked together to make the play great.

And our hard work ended up paying off; Noises Off was a tremendous hit and got a wonderful review in the local newspaper. The local theater critic, I remember, actually laughed until she cried, even requesting a box of Kleenex during intermission. Thanks to her review, we played to packed houses every night at the newly-renovated historic Morton Theater downtown. We even made the front page of the local newspaper’s weekend section. I couldn’t have asked for a better experience.

I saw the cast members on and off over the next three years, and acted in a few more plays with some of them. Then I graduated from the University of Georgia, moved to South Carolina, and never heard from them again.

Until Saturday night.

I was checking my e-mail when I saw a headline on the Yahoo! homepage: 3 dead, 2 hurt in Georgia shooting; professor sought. Ordinarily, I wouldn’t even have clicked on it, but the ‘professor’ in the headline caught my eye. I clicked on the story. The dateline was in Athens, where I’d gone to college. I read on.

The shooting had happened in front of Athens Community Theater. My heart began thudding.

According to the story, on Saturday morning the professor had driven with his 8 and 10-year-old children to the theater, where a reunion of sorts was taking place. He left the kids in the car, went inside, targeted three people, and shot them multiple times. Among the dead was his wife.

Her name was Marie Bruce.

I sat, frozen, as all the memories came flooding back. Marie’s crazy cockney accent in the play. Marie’s wild backstage stories of theater intrigue. Marie’s help with makeup and costumes backstage. Marie’s laugh.

Marie had been shot and killed by her husband.

I began looking up other stories on the shootings. Another cast member from our play had been at the reunion as well, and had spoken about the shootings on CNN. It was surreal, having so many old memories stirred up by such a horrific event.

By Sunday morning, stories had emerged that went into greater detail about her personal life. Marie had been busy in the years since I had known her. She had gone to law school, become a prominent defense attorney in town, started directing plays in addition to acting in them, and had two children. She was 47 years old, president of the local theater board, and by all accounts, in her prime.

At first, I couldn’t decide whether or not to tell this story on my blog. But in the end, I wanted to write about Marie because I want her to be more than a headline for those of you who read this post. She was a mother of two. She was an incredibly talented actress. She was kind, even to naive 19-year-old girls. She was making a difference, as a mother, as an attorney, and as a member of her community. She didn’t deserve to go out this way.

In 2006, Marie Bruce not only directed “Noises Off” in Highlands, North Carolina, but also took the opportunity to recast two of the actors from our original play in Athens. In a newspaper article about the play, she’s quoted as saying, “I was lucky to be in Noises Off 12 years ago and it was one of the best theatrical experiences I have ever had.”

Me too, Marie.

Rest in peace.