The Value in Doing Things by Hand
Even better when learned in childhood
I had the great luck to be cast as Vera Walters in a play, Nana’s Naughty Knickers. Vera is the free-spirited side-kick to the main character, Nana.
Nana’s Naughty Knickers, is a fast-moving, fast-talking farcical comedy about two elderly long-time friends who are running a business from Nana’s New York apartment. The business is, you guessed it, making naughty knickers.
Hilarity ensues as the ladies try to keep the booming knicker sales a secret from Nana’s granddaughter and the landlord of the rent-controlled apartment.
In this theater, the actors did everything from, building and painting sets to making costumes and cleaning the bathrooms.
The talented costume chair didn’t know how to sew and I was called on to do alterations for the cast members. Sure, I said. Sewing was second nature to me. I was baffled that nobody else knew how to do it.
In that same play, my character needed to be able to knit while rocking in a rocking chair. I didn’t have to fake it. I rocked and knitted as my character, Vera, yelled at the top of her…
