How does a director come up with the ideas that will eventually become a staged production? Where does this “vision” come from? This season, season eight, seemed dictated by a director’s vision that was originally stimulated by color. A palate of sepia shades, a rainbow of jewel tones, and the colors of the earth. Each concept adapted to a specific show to invent a very individual personality.
Most scripts come with a minimal set description inside the back cover. It is almost always just a floor plan sketch that was used at one time or another, in some production or other.
I have never seen a script where the idea for the overall “look” of a show was spelled out. What you, the audience, sees on the stage comes from the mind and inventiveness of the director and the designers he chooses. That is why you will never see the same show twice. Each production is a re-birth of a script as seen with a different imagination and creative mind.
The first production of this season has always been my favorite among all the shows The Players have produced. Obviously, that may be because I directed and designed it, and was very happy with the look that we achieved. Angel Street is a thriller that the movie Gaslight was based upon.
That term, gaslight, played in the recesses of my mind for a long time before we began production. I see things in bright color, so it was a surprise to me that I saw this show with very little, if any, color. A reproduction of a tintype photograph. The Victorian house that we built, the costumes, the lights, all were done in shades of black, brown, gray and tan. Carolyn Patton was in charge of decor, decorating the stage, and even went so far as to stain the inside of all the lamp chimneys to produce an eerie, amber, flickering glow to the entire production.
I was a little obsessive about the look of this show and want to take this opportunity to thank my very patient and able stage manager, Ed Kuhstos, for making sure all the details were exactly right. That is the job of a stage manager, by the way, to control the details. Maybe we shall talk about that position at a later date!
It didn’t hurt this production that Christine Lusardi-Stoner was at the very top of her game, as she recreated the role played by Ingred Bergman in the film, and turned in one of the finest performances I have ever seen in a community theater production. She was stunning as we watched her slowly driven mad by her husband.
The cast was rounded out by the extremely believable performances of Dave Hess, Darcy Wilson, and Mary Boscaino.
A Little Night Music was the rainbow upside down when compared to Angel Street. It was all about color, and plenty of it. This Stephen Sondheim classic musical was a jewel in its purest sense, both in hue, texture, and performance.
The chorus was clothed in sapphire, emerald, ruby, and citrine gowns, sequined and flowing. The set, a series of huge, moveable screens and platforms, was painted and wallpapered in tones of hunter, navy, and maroon. This color palate was tied together with a lighting design that incorporated blues, golds, violets, and greens to create the varied moods of the production.
Max Dick was excellent in the lead, the rich tones of his voice a beautiful compliment to the design. The large cast was assembled from a three county area, enticing newcomers and veterans alike.
Sondheim, however, is never easy. His music is difficult for the vocalists to sing, the dialogue is complicated, the scenarios are often convoluted, the results always dazzling. An example of the challenge in singing Sondheim can be emphasized by the travails of Carolyn Patton, who played the matriarch in the production. The words to her solo number, “Liasons,” were so intense and tongue-twisting, that TCP crew members ended up printing them on poster board and taping them around the surround under the balcony, out of view to any audience member, but in full view of the stage. We help each other wherever we can!
Neil Simon’s Fools is the antithesis of either of the previous productions, both in color and attitude. Angel Street and A Little Night Music were sophisticated, complicated tales of human emotion. Fools was not. This story of a Russian farming village and its less-than erudite inhabitants was a take-off of the classic fairy tale, Cinderella. It had a prince (who couldn’t remember who he was, or why he was), a princess (who was clutsy and fell down all the time), a mayor, a judge, a fismonger, a butcher and a cow.
A farce in its truest sense, Fools was produced in dinner theater at The Coachlite Restaurant in Vail, and provided us with our first opportunity to take a production on the road, into another county, after our run in our home theater was completed. The cast, including Diane Dierks as the princess, Tammy Anderson, Duana Gummo, Rick McNelis, and Ramona Ward in her only stage appearance as the Cow, each presented a simple, but hilarious, account of the life of each individual character within this tiny ecosphere.
Fools was as simple in its settings and colors as it was in intent. The earth that these characters worked was the color scheme that they were dressed in and lived in. Even the princess was attired in pale, lifeless colors. Do not, however, think that this created a dull evening of theater. Quite the contrary. This is a very funny script, with many underlying messages and stories, told to perfection by America’s master playwright, Neil Simon.
This season also marked a milestone in the Players’ growth and development. The theater in the YMCA was being vacated by the sporting venues that shared it with TCP, and the theater company was able to negotiate a lease with the Y for sole use of the theater. The lease was for a 10 year period, providing TCP with a sense of security about the facility, and allowing the theater company to begin making plans for some repairs to the theater space.
Not only were the productions of this season driven by a sense of color, but the theater space itself got a facelift with a new coat of paint (although it was still baby pink and blue).
Everything seemed to be going smoothly for this tiny company in this small town of Tyrone. An oasis, a respite from gray skies and leafless trees.
Next season would test the fiber of this company, however, and show everyone what they were really made of!
