My Ragtime Family
Sandy Burns, Me and Joy Gerst
At the auditions (late July, 2004), I had no idea that I was about to receive the leading female role in this show or that I was actually pregnant at the time. As it turned out, the week I was cast I also discovered that I was about 6 weeks pregnant.
The first trimester was, well, hard. Many times I wanted to call the director and say that I just couldn't do it. But, with a little help from my good friends Joy, Sandy and Erin (who were also in the show with me), I made it through. No one knew I was pregnant until October, when I announced it during a rehearsal after someone asked me why I'd never go out with them for drinks after rehearsals. I'll admit that it was pretty funny with everyone calling me "Mother" (the name of the character) and no one knew that I was only a few months away from becoming one!
Luckily, the show closed when it did. By the final weekend, I was almost five months pregnant and starting to show. The first dress I wore in the show (a gorgeous Edwardian cream dress with white hat and pearls) took three dressers to get me into - two to hold it together and one to zip me up.
If you can manage it, you can do anything while pregnant - even a show! Of course, it was pretty cool when Rebecca (then she was called "Spike") would start to kick me around 10pm when I began to sing "Back to Before".
I love being "Mother" and a mommy and I hope to have the chance to do both roles again someday!
