Tricia Wayne has performed locally for The Western Stage, Staff Players Repertory Company, Unicorn Theatre, and The Forest Theater Guild. She teaches drama at Alisal High School and writes the Teen Scene column for this newsletter. She comments, "Others run, swim, work out. My chief 'other interest' is doing plays."

Tricia is recognizable because of her very low voice. When she was three years old she had pneumonia. As she describes it, "They were trying to figure out how to get an air passage, because I couldn't breathe. So they shoved something (I think a laryngoscope) down my throat. Then I could breath, but I have stretched vocal chords; they're like strings on a bass guitar."

Tricia always liked performing. When she was about ten years old she organized weekly neighborhood shows. She remembers one she called DIAPER DITHERS, mainly dancing and singing, on roller skates. As a child she watched a lot of Mickey Rooney/Judy Garland movies and knew all of Doris Day's dance routines. She often attended Sunday movies -- sometimes from 11:00 in the morning until 8:00 at night. She began dancing when she attended a boarding school in Washington D.C. and then in Cleveland. She refused to act on stage because of her deep, raspy voice (kids called her "Froggy," mainly from a Buster Brown commercial.) Then her 9th grade English/drama teacher convinced her that a deep husky voice could be an asset and persuaded her to try out for a play. After performing as eccentric old ladies in ARSENIC AND OLD LACE and HARVEY while in high school, Tricia decided she wanted to be an English/drama teacher. She continued doing community theatre, primarily as either eccentric or old women. As she states it, "Now I'm the age of the roles I've been playing since I was 14."

Tricia wasn't able to begin her teaching career until she was 38 years old. She married at 18, had children, helped her husband earn his PhD, was widowed at 27, and became a para-legal. She moved to California in 1968 and began working for the California Public Health Department as a public health assistant. She returned to college under an affirmative action program which required that she study social sciences for her job. She started teaching in 1978 and then got a second B.A. in English, as well as a Masters in Education.

Tricia now teaches the one and only drama class at Alisal High School. The school was built with a real theatre complex (The Richard Mullins Theatre -- he joined the staff as a drama teacher just as the school was being built and helped with the design of the theatre). Being in a real theatre, her class is quite large; it always has about 50 students. Since the school is predominantly Hispanic, the students began to ask for "ethnically relevant drama." So in 1993 her class presented EAST SIDE STORY in which the Sharks and Jets became the Vatos and the Vandals and danced the Lambada instead of the Cha Cha. In their next production LONG LIVE ROCK AND ROLL the characters were Mexican. Her students also do two productions a year which are performed for elementary school students. Since many of the younger students understand little English, the characters would insert a Spanish narration as a part of their role.

Tricia finds that she has to overcome the students' cultural concept that acting is either useless or unmanly. It has helped having plays about gang members or jocks. As she states it, "By the time I get finished with the semester, about thirty really enjoyed it and recommend it to their friends and feel they gained self-confidence. The other twenty, I just baby-sit." Tricia also includes drama in her other classes -- when she teaches government, economics, or history. The students role-play, write scripts about historical events, and as Tricia explains, "They don't think they're acting or being sissy. It reaches the kinesthetic learner; it also helps kids who don't have a good command of the English language."

Over the years Tricia has performed primarily in Cleveland, Ohio, Del Rio, Texas, Concord and Sonora in California and eventually in Monterey County. She became involved with The Western Stage through her association with Al Strunk, who assisted her with technical aspects of theatre for Alisal High School. During the summer of '89 Al invited her to work on sets for The Western Stage. Then, when she was talking to Taft Miller, he suggested she do some acting for them. Thus began her re-entry into community theatre.

As for the future, Tricia states that a role she'd like to play is Hecate in MACBETH. She also thinks about what will happen when she retires from teaching. She'd like to open a stage shop -- with costumes, make-up, and props. As far as acting she says, "It's a lifetime involvement. When I get to the point that there aren't any roles for me, I'll sell tickets, make costumes. It's an outlet for my creativity, and I'm extremely creative."