"The Allison"

I was going through some photos this weekend, looking at many from Wissahickon in fact. I was reminded of driving from Lake St. Catherine to Bennington this summer to join our family friend Reg for a show at the Oldcastle Theatre Company. I lived with Reg in Vermont the summer between my junior and senior years in high school because he had arranged for me to intern at the Oldcastle Theatre Company...in fact, I was their first intern ever. I remember doing everything from selling tickets in the box office, to helping the actors with quick dress changes behind the scenes, to having a small walk-on role, to painting sets, and always helping to tear down the sets each last night of a show. I remember having a humongous crush on Chip (yes, I can hear you all snickering), which nothing ever really came of although it turned out he liked me too...I remember having my first whole bottle of beer, Molson Ice, and what a novel experience it was when the room moved really fast each time I moved my head back and forth. And I remember my last night, which was a night where I was helping to tear down the set from- well, I can't remember which show it was. Everything went pretty much as normal until I hit the floor when something really heavy hit my head. As it turned out, a 4-step stepladder had fallen off the scaffolding (so from about 20 feet up), no one really had time to shout out a warning, and I was unluckily in its path to the floor. I don't remember much about the rest of that night, or the following day, except that my friend Katie McGonigle who'd come up to visit me drove us both home to NJ since no one wants to ride with a concussed driver (never confirmed by the way, as I never went to a doctor...huh.)

So as I was saying, this summer (11 years later), I went back to see a show with Reg, who works in the Covered Bridge Museum attached to the theatre. And I learned that I am infamous at the Oldcastle Theatre Company...as Reg introduced me to the stage manager and other staff, he spoke about how I had been the first intern ever in their now well-established intern program. A light went on in each person's eyes...oh, you're Allison. Turns out that stepladder is still in use and referred to as "The Allison."