To all who saw and enjoyed the Whiskey Flat Melodrama at Kernville School earlier this month: Just a note of appreciation to the fellow who stepped in at almost the last moment and saved the production. On Feb. 9, we knew we had to get a replacement for our leading man, who had unavoidably dropped out.  This was a big difficulty, since whoever was going to do it had to learn the part overnight, in order to do the rehearsals and the performance on Feb. 12.  The others in the cast had had six weeks of rehearsals to get their parts down.

Not only did he successfully memorize the part, some hundred lines of dialogue, but got all the cues, the body language, the blocking, and the unique vocalizations of his character, who suffers from comic debilitating shyness. He rose to the level of the other actors’ proficiency in a day and a half, and at the public performances it was impossible to tell that he had only just been drafted into his role.  This fellow’s name is Josh David Burns, a valley resident.

Mark McGuire, for Sierra Performing Arts Onyx