Lola

Rachel Bouza, a Bethany College rising sophomore, is playing the part of Lola, in Broadway RFD's production of Damn Yankees.

Bouza's from Tonganoxie, Kansas - another small town with an odd name. She's had lots of experience on stage and behind the scenes at her High School, but due to scheduling difficulties she's only worked behind the scenes at Bethany. She designed hair and makeup for Talley's Folly and worked on choreography for Godspell.

My favorite role, among her many, was her role in Philadelphia Story. There she played the Katherine Hepburn role, Tracy Lord. There are several reasons that connection is amusing. One you'll have to google for yourself (or your can check it out on IMDB). Spell the first name with an i and add an S to the last name.

The movie Philadelphia Story, however, is on my list of movies to study to try to understand comic views of Swedish Americans. In this movie the reporter, Elizabeth Imbrie, (played by Ruth Hussey) has a line about being impervious to criticism because she comes from Swedish stock. That's off the point, but this is a blog and anything is fair game for blogging.

So, little Rachel is playing Little Lola, who gets whatever Lola wants. This is, she says, a bit of a stretch. She has the self confidence to play a seductress, but she needs to "fine tune" some of the moves of seduction.

She's got a good grasp of character. She sees Lola as growing through the play - not being a Margaretta (this is an adaptation of Faust, says Director Whetstone) - but Lola grows from being Applegate's tool to being a fan of the game to being in love with Joe Hardy. That should be an interesting transformation to watch on stage.

It almost makes Damn Yankees Lola's play.