Today we spend a moment in the woods with Pamela Garcia Langton! Many will remember Pamela from her performance as the fiery Camila in last years In the Heights. This year she plays a very different type of mother - one she was surprised to find she had more in common with then she previously had thought.
When I auditioned for this show I knew who my favorite
characters were and that out of all the characters, I probably would not want
to be Jack's Mother. She's not
attractive, she is a nag, she's grouchy and well, no one really ever likes
her. Guess what, I got Jack's Mother.
Now, I have seen Into the Woods about a million times, no
exaggeration, but it wasn't until I started working with Adam that I am seeing
Jack's Mother in a different light. And
it is scary!! All of this time I never
thought of her as real person with real feelings and problems, just some fairy
tale old lady who yells a lot and wears bad clothes. But she is and worse, she is a little too
much like me!!
Now let me explain, I am not too bad looking, I am not a nag
or grouchy all of the time and I think people like me. But, she and I have had similar experiences
that have made us the people we are.
Like Jack's Mother, I too was a single mother. After reviewing the show again, this time
with a different eye, I imagine she has gone through similar things as me and
is the way she is because of those things.
For instance, maybe she fell in love with the bad boy of the
neighborhood, followed her heart, made some bad choices and became
pregnant. Upon finding out she was with
child, he left her to deal with the problem. She may have been made to believe
that it was shameful to have a child without a husband. She was terribly hurt that she lost most of
her friends because they were disappointed in her. She might have been
humiliated by the fact that she was not allowed to have a baby shower because
unwed mothers didn't deserve to celebrate the birth of their child, so she had
to dress her baby in hand me downs and thrift store clothes and use old
strollers and yard sale items for her nursery.
Her siblings may have expressed to her what a loser she was and that she
was never going to amount to anything because she was stupid enough to get
pregnant at age 21. Eventually, she may
have even felt it was the biggest mistake of her life to have a child and so
after a while she started resenting Jack and took to alcohol and other things
to be able to cope.
I did experience all of those things, luckily, the latter
didn’t. I fought hard to prove to
everyone I was going to become something, I could raise my child alone and I
survived slightly wounded by my experience.
Without going through any more detail, let me just say it was the
roughest time in my life and I apologize to my beautiful daughter, Kelly, if I
ever made her feel like I resented her or didn't want to be a mother. I love her with all of my heart and soul and
wouldn't give up being her mother for anything in this world. If it wasn't for her I wouldn't be the woman
that I am today, she is so very special and I owe her my life!!
Jack's Mother however has yet to learn to cope with all of
it. She has never gotten over the fact
that she had little support from family and friends, especially not Jack's
Father. She hasn't gotten past the
humiliation and shame and has become sad, powerless and unable to truly see the
beauty in having a child and being a mother.
It isn't until she thinks she is going to lose him that she realizes how
lucky she is to have this child and her love for him is stronger and worth more
than Golden Eggs or Singing Harps.
We can all learn a great lesson from this. When things don’t go how you have planned, don’t
cry about it, fight to survive and know everything happens for a reason. Be
grateful for every day that you are alive and for all of the people in your life. Love your family; be there for your children.
Take every experience as a lesson, make the most of everyday and be thankful
for everything God hands you.
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| Jeremy Coca, Aigner Mathis, and Pamela Garcia Langton star in Artes de la Rosa's INTO THE WOODS |
SUCH a great photo!
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