Peter Pan and Wendy cast members answer... "What do you like about your part?

The auditorium at Saline Middle School was bursting with energy Monday afternoon as the cast and crew of Peter Pan and Wendy gathered for the first run through on stage with scenery, lights, sound and many costumes (not required until the next day).  I had the privilege of catching a glimpse of the action and talking to the kids in the show behind the scenes.  The play is directed by Kristen Glatz and is put on by the Saline Middle School Drama Club.  It is an adaptation of J.M. Barrie’s 1911 novel about a boy who won’t grow up.

Clearly, these young thespians are an enthusiastic lot. One of the best parts of being involved in theater is taking on the persona of someone totally different than you, and developing that character.  It is clear that these kids are into their parts and have thought about them too.  I struck up conversations with many of the kids in the show to ask about their characters, why they liked playing them, and some of their favorite lines.  Here’s what they said:

There were a number of “lost boys” hanging around, so I tried to find out what they liked about being lost boys.  Maddie said that she gets to “have fun” and “I don’t have to “memorize lines”.  Sammie said the lost boys “don’t need to follow any rules.”  Lexi and Olivia play twin lost boys and they enjoyed shopping together to get their twin outfits.  Per Lexi, “we’re twins and get to say half the lines together”.  Per Olivia, “we’re young and get to do immature things” - some of those things - hitting people with a pillow and sticking out tongues.  “Art” (his “alias” and the only male lost boy) said that he likes the part because there isn’t much talking… rather they get  “to act it out – it makes it a lot more like drama.”  Jeannette likes getting away from the middle school routine and “being young.”  Ayla (with twigs coming out of her hair and big rips in her pants) said that she enjoyed making the costume.

Daniel is playing a pirate named “Bill Jukes” in the play.  He likes it because he enjoys dressing in costume and gets to be covered with tattoos.  He doesn’t know yet how many of the washcloth tattoos it will take to cover his body, but will find out before opening night.  One of his favorite parts is that he gets to scream (he’s been practicing) and die at the end.  Another pirate, “Smee,” played by McKenzie is like Captain Hook’s right hand man.  She says that Smee has always been her mother’s favorite character in Peter Pan.  Her favorite line:  “What’s a mother?”  Julie, her good friend, plays Captain Hook and enjoys “randomly saying lines during school and having people laugh at them if they’re in the play, while those who are not in the play try to figure out what I’m talking about.”  Her favorite line:  “A codfish!?”  Audra is enjoying working on screaming like a little girl. 

I met Gabi before rehearsal started.  She was hopping up and down constantly as she told me about her part of Michael, the 5-year old boy, and said that her friends think she is perfect for the part.  She likes wearing footie pajamas and is small and definitely energetic.  Her teddy bear, hugged tightly to her chest, adds to her character.  Her “father” in the play, Mr. Darling is being played by Ethan whose enjoys his loud and boisterous character and whose favorite line is, “then let them, let the whole world hear!”

Tinkerbell is played by Cora who says that that acting this part is something “I would never do otherwise – I hope I’m not rude” (in real life). She likes her death scene when she almost dies, and also when she gets mad at the lost boy who almost wakes her up.  Lindsay, who plays Tiger Lily and describes her character as “brave” and “rebellious,” enjoys the part because she has friends who are pirates and “we’re supposed to be enemies and I get to roughhouse with them.” 

Robin plays Never Bird and gets to roll around in a big nest that she made with her Dad.  Her favorite line:  “You dunder-headed little Jay – why don’t you just do as I say?” to Peter Pan.  I didn’t get to interview Peter Pan or Wendy or many of the other cast members, but could tell that they were all having a good time.  To quote Peter Pan, “… I just always want to be a little boy and to have fun.”

I had a delightful time meeting these kids and seeing them so invested in their parts.  The show will go up on Thursday and Friday nights, April 19 & 20, at the Saline Middle School at 7:00 for the general public.  Tickets are $5.00 at the door.  

Why do we do this?

Who would choose on purpose to skip or rush through dinners for weeks on end, get home after 10 p.m. every night exhausted and ready to flop in bed, collect so many bruises that you don’t know where they start and end or where they came from, ask your spouse to do all the childcare for a month, miss your loved ones, throw family dinners out the window, abandon the laundry and the housekeeping, and feel exhausted most of the time? And then when it is over, subject yourself to the blues where you feel malaise and exhaustion for days to come?  The answer:  your neighbors and friends who love community theater.  Putting on a production takes an inordinate amount of work, but it’s worth it. 

Having just finished Saline Area Players’ production of The Carol Burnett Show, I asked myself, and my fellow castmates and crew…. Why in the world do we do this?  I mean there must be a reason that we put ourselves through this incredible ordeal.   The answers I got were rich and thoughtful.

One says “I have found that I am rarely happier, more comfortable, more truly myself than when I get to sing, act, and (only when necessary) dance on stage. There is something akin to magic when cast and crew come together, bringing a piece of their hearts and souls to the stage. Something comes alive among us - and having the audience there magnifies it. It is as though a whole world is created there, and having a hand in bringing that about feels like nothing else I've ever done. And when it is finished, we each get to take a tiny piece of that world - and of each other - home with us. My life is immeasurably enriched by those I've met. I wouldn't trade such a treasure for any amount of mere earthly wealth.”

Another says “I find theater folk to be incredibly generous people. We give of ourselves emotionally and physically to people we hardly know, or don’t know at all, in order to truly bring our characters and their stories to life. We have to put every bit of ourselves in front of people…We give our audience and fellow cast members whatever we can to tell the story and make ‘em laugh (or cry, whatever the case may be.) So, I’ve always found it a pleasure to work with theater types, present company, especially, included! … Working together on a production, while often exhausting, is a worthwhile way to spend one’s time when the outcome means that [many people] get to be taken away from whatever life is throwing at them into a place of joy!”

In answering the question, “why do I act?”, another says… “Some people pretend to be someone they're not for at most a few hours a day…And they bound it by saying, ‘Rehearsal or performance happen at this time and the stage is in this place.’  Other people live almost all of their waking hours pretending to be someone they're not. Which of these is more healthy?”

And another says… “For me it gives me the opportunity to use skills that I have little opportunity to employ at home.  It allows me to spend time with some people that I know and enjoy, and to meet new ones that I never would have met otherwise.  I enjoy the camaraderie, the gatherings after, the parties - it all adds spice to my normal mom/wife role.  …. I grow as a person through the course of a production - I am able to be more of an individual instead of a person filling a role (mom, etc.), no matter how important the role may be, and I can take pride in what is accomplished.  I enjoy being part of something that gives so many people pleasure.”

Another comment…. “Being a part of these theater shows (on or off stage) feeds a part of me that nothing else can.  It's not the attention or applause (which are great), but the whole process, constant changes, quick thinking, and immense creativity that physically and mentally can be a drain or a stimulant!  Now that the show itself is complete, there is an emptiness that can only be filled by the next opportunity.”

These responses were amazing…  And, finally, I asked myself my own answer to the question I posed?   From the behind-the scenes angle, I like bringing people together…perhaps it is my social worker background or my age in life or my upbringing, I like mentoring people and watching those individuals who have an interest, develop new skills, grow, and find a niche.  It excites me.  And I love the closeness that comes with many people working together for the same goal.  And there is a thrill for me in seeing my publicity efforts go out and create a buzz.  And for the onstage part, I love the challenge of taking on a totally different character, which is more interested than my real self.  And, I’ll willingly admit that I love making people laugh… it gives me a high that nothing else can.

Another reason … “It’s fun!”  There are many reasons that we do theater.  There have to be, to balance the huge time commitment, the bruises, and the suspension of “real life” for awhile.   But it is worth it!

If anyone is interested in seeing what opportunities are available for you in Saline, check out the Saline Area Players website at www.salineareaplayers.org.  And, if you’re so inclined, leave a comment on this blogpost about why you do community theater.

Jr. Theater presents The Marvelous Misadventures of the Munchkinland Mayor

I popped into the rehearsal for the upcoming Saline Community Education’s Junior Theater production of The Marvelous Misadventures of the Munchkinland Mayor and experienced a fun twist on the Wizard of Oz written by Saline’s own Brian Cox. The show is directed by Rebecca Groeb-Driskill, with choreography by Kristen Hall, and music direction by Linda West Klepacyzk.  Leo Babcock created the sets.  The junior theater is comprised of kids from grades 1-8 and does one show per year, a winter musical.  I’ve caught many of them and am always struck by the talent of the kids in this town.   The show is March 23-25.

The rehearsal I saw was a “rough run” in which that they were going through some of the show in a short time, putting the pieces together, which is always a bit rugged since all the transitions haven’t yet been worked out.  I saw a snapshot of what will be the full production.

Meredith Zehnder plays Dorothy.  At one point, a new line was added for her character, which she said with such beautiful expression the first time that she is clearly a natural.  I don’t want to give away one of the twists of the story, but suffice it to say that in this version “Hollywood got it wrong”.  The Mayor of Oz, Jon-Michael Taylor, plays a prominent role in the show and he demonstrates ease on stage along with great diction and fine expression in his portrayal.  The lion to be played by William Kiningham is appropriately cowardly and faints extremely well, and the Tinman, played by Gregory Pool, portrays his character with tenderness and some good scared shaking.  Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see the scarecrow who was sick that day, but I loved watching one of his stand-ins, Mackenzie Piche, who is normally cast as a guard and played her role with great enthusiasm & expression, tweaking her performance each time she was on stage.

The choreography is lively, with lots of fun steps, jumps, and creative hand movements.  You could tell that all of the kids felt ownership with their parts and played them with gusto.  The flying monkeys were some of my favorites that day.  Even though some of them are smaller than the lion, tinman and scarecrow, they bounded on stage with their noisy, menacing, peskiness that all but made up for their size.  The monkeys are being played by Jeff Blair, Drew Denlinger, Jimmy Lancaster, and Collin Wagner.  Munchkin Edwina, played by Miranda Patterson, delivered her only line with so much energy and animation that she shone!  I didn’t get to see the costumes except for a glimpse of a “tree,” but it was very creative and green!

During a certain part, the witch is scheming among the poppies, trying to figure out whether to squash Dorothy and her cohorts like bugs or perhaps to poison them.  Elaina Veasey, who will play the Wicked Witch of the West, was crafting her witchy-ness during the rehearsal.  To my delight, Rebecca asked me to come up and give them a demonstration of some witchy cackles and dialogue.  I had the honor of playing the witch in 2006 under her direction when Saline Area Players produced it.  I cannot tell a lie…there’s nothing like being put on the spot and, uh…well…loving it…. and the kids seemed to too.  Who doesn’t like an appreciative audience?  Interestingly, I talked to Sara Foley, who is playing a lovely and graceful version of the good witch Glinda in this production, who happened to be a munchkin in the 2006 production.  She remembered me and said that I scared her back then.  Ahhhh ha ha ha ha ha haaaaa! 

In my short time at the rehearsal, I was struck by the huge amount of energy that the kids showed, their naturalness on stage, which is telling considering that for many this is a first experience, their willingness to try new things, and their devotion to the production and working hard in whatever part they played.  The little moments were divine and will make the show.  Also, the voices are beautiful and, I won’t give away the finale, but will tell you that I’ll be bringing my tissues to the show.

Performances are March 23 & 24 at 7:30 p.m. and March 25 at 2:00 p.m. at Liberty School Auditorium.  Tickets are $5 and are available at the door.

Opening NIght

"Joyce" and "Marion" ... from As the Stomach Turns

Opening night of The Carol Burnett Show: Your Favorite Sketches was a success.  I can't write a review since I was in it... but I can tell you that it was great to hear hearty laughs and an overwhelming wonderful response from audience members afterwards.  


Some of the comments I heard.....


"The dentist put me in stitches."
"I saw those mutton chops and I lost control" from the man who literally fell out of his chair laughing last night
"It was super funny" from a SHS student
"Everything was great"


Enjoy some of the pictures from backstage!  For more information, go to www.salineareaplayers.org

The Insurance Adjustor

The Prison Nudge

Rat and Melody

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Show Week in Saline

For those not actively involved in community theater, tech week is the term used for the week leading up to opening night of a show when the theater group moves into the actual performing space.  This is TECH WEEK for The Carol Burnett Show: Your Favorite Sketches with the Saline Area Players.  Excitement and nervousness are in the air.  Up until now, we’ve all been working on pieces of our production and this is the week when all those pieces come together as planned and that overall vision of what the show will look like happens…. hopefully.  It is the week when tempers are at the ready and everyone is working overtime trying to put finishing touches on things and scrambling to find alternatives when plans don’t work quite as predicted.

In this show, most of us have a collection of costumes that we’ve been collecting to wear in the show.  I have 5 different outfits, at least 4 pairs of shoes, one wig, 8 pieces of jewelry, and one interesting headpiece.  Others have more.  We’ll be sharing the basement of Stone Arch Arts and Events for our dressing room and finding private nooks and crannies where we can change and keep our costumes, make-up, wigs, and accessories all together.

We’ve also been collecting props… a few of the interesting ones include:  two office intercoms, a hypodermic needle, a variety of cigars, jewel-studded fly swatter, a stethoscope that points out, a videocamera, a tacky velvet painting, a birthday party hat, a “how to be a dentist” book, fresh linens, and barbells.  Sooner or later, all these props will all be in the same place and make their appearance in the show.  Some of them appear in more than one scene so will have to migrate from one set to another and hopefully find their way back to where they started.    Some of the props are referred to as “personal props,” ones the actors bring with them on stage.  Stage managers remind cast again and again during tech week to check their personal props before going on stage. Others are pre-set on the stage before the action, like the coffee pot with the matching cups and saucers.  Some will be kept in little tubs denoting which scene they are for.

Then, there is the furniture for the show.  How do you find furniture for 11 scenes and 5 commercials and keep it all straight?  And how can you find ways to use something more than once so that you don’t have so much extra stuff hanging around.  For example, in a 1860-era scene the audience will see the back of the period-appropriate couch.  In another scene, it will be turned forward and covered with a tacky afghan to depict a home in the 1970s.  Same couch, but totally different uses… and looks!  See my blogpost “transforming sets” for pix of other set pieces that will perform dual functions.

Then there is the set itself.  Performing 11 scenes consecutively is quite a challenge.  In this show, the audience is in essence the “studio audience” of a television show.  As on a TV set, there will be more than one stage, so the audience will be directed to the current stage where the action is going on, while the others remain dark.  Each set will have walls behind them that are a neutral color.  To change the scene, the set decoration will change.  For example, there is a photograph of a grandpa-looking man with a long beard, rather scary really.  One set will have pictures from the 1970s.  Another will be an office and have the appropriate pictures on the wall. A desk may be switched out for an easy chair and a bookcase.  The stage crew will re-dress each stage to give the right look. 

Did I forget to mention the lights and the sound?  The lights will be mounted onto two lights poles with some additional lights added as needed.  The sound system will include all the multiple sound effects used in the show… let’s see there is a fly buzzing, a horn honking, so many doorbells I can’t keep track, a carriage coming down the road, and lots of funky music to match the action or the mood of the scene.

This is an exciting week for the cast and crew of The Carol Burnett Show: Your Favorite Sketches performed by Saline Area Players as we prepare for opening night on Thursday, March 8.  The only element that we can’t prepare for is the audience that is also a part of the action.  No performance is the same because the audience is always different.  You can be part of the action too… tickets are available at www.salineareaplayers.org

Finding the Right Voice

This is a continuation of the blogpost I wrote last week entitled “Creating Characters” which shares some of the work the actors are doing behind the scenes to prepare for their roles in The Carol Burnett Show: Your Favorite Sketches, a collection of some of the funniest sketches from the original show, performed by the Saline Area Players. 

So, what do you do when you play multiple roles within the same show and have to make them all different?  One of our cast members plays a number of very different characters.  Some of them are in parodies of movies, like Love Story and Gone with the Wind.  Watching the original movie helps an actor figure out how to parody it.  One actor says “for the humor to work, I think one has to do somewhat of an imitation.  So, I watched the film ‘Love Story’ and I’m trying to emulate Ryan O’Neil’s breathy vocal quality and to still make it youthful, since I’m portraying a college student (which is quite a stretch).  For Rat Butler, I watched the film and listened to recordings from “Gone With the Wind.”  Clark Gable had a kind of nasal and forceful style to his delivery and I am doing some of that, but I’m also adding a bit more of a southern plantation sound to it than he did.  It helps set the scene for the piece.”

Another actor talks about how he works at altering his voice for the different characters.  He changes accents – German & Brooklyn – to name a couple, and changes registers in his voice.  He notes that sometimes speaking faster or slower works for him.

Another actor who is versatile with accents and delights in trying them, says “I think the biggest challenge for me is literally finding my character's voice. The first few times I mentally read through the sketches, I listened to how each character spoke in my mind, not just the characters I would have the privilege and responsibility to bring to life but also the others that would be part of the interaction with my character.”  She asked herself a variety of questions including where is she from, in what class of society does she feel most comfortable, what’s her relationship to the others in the sketch, and what is her back story?  For one sketch she chose a NJ or Brooklyn accent for her character, but the director initially disagreed and asked her to play the character as if she came from the south with little education and lived in a trailer park.  To prepare, the actor said “I listened to several dialect examples online and settled with Loretta Lynn's southern accent with nasal-whiney overtones.  After a couple of weeks working with this character, the sketch just wasn't working. My character was complaining but not funny, which is somewhat critical in a comedic show. In the middle of a rather intense rehearsal, the director and I chatted about it briefly and she asked me to go back to the Brooklyn/NJ accent, which was now more difficult as I had memorized the sketch with the Appalachia accent and pronunciation. “ 

The next step required researching NY and NJ accents, “everyone from Snooki to Peg Bundy to the Brooklyn Beat on SNL” and to re-memorize the sketch in a new accent which turned out to be a lot funnier when tried on cast mates later in the week. 

In working on the character Mr. Tudball, the actor playing him recognizes that it is a fairly identifiable character from the Carol Burnett Show and is trying to capture that essence.  He says “I'm struggling to do that bizarre pseudo-Scandinavian accent that Tim Conway did, not that I feel an actor should necessarily imitate the original, but that character's dialect was always a part of the humor of the Tudball-Wiggins sketches.  So I want to have some of it in my portrayal.  His posture, pot-belly and uptight demeaner are also part of the physicality I'm going for.”

Check out the show and try to notice how the different actors change themselves to be different characters.  Perhaps you won’t even recognize them from one sketch to another.  The Carol Burnett Show: Your Favorite Sketches opens March 8.

It Only Takes a Moment...!

I just came back from the opening night of Saline High School’s production of “Hello, Dolly!” and want to share my favorite moments from the show.  I wouldn’t begin to suggest that this was a review, but rather, a serving of delicious morsels I saw on stage to whet your appetite.

• Austin Terris playing Barnaby was thoroughly enjoyable.   He practically stole every scene with his playfulness and incredible physical humor, with pratfalls, and acrobatic awkwardness that were perfect for his eager young character.
• Kaitlyn Mulder’s beautiful voice shone during her tenderly rendered ballad Ribbons Down My Back, and her years as a dancer gave her a maturity and posture befitting of her character.
• Sophie Skochelak’s wailing was marvelous – it definitely hit the high registers and I loved when everyone in the courtroom leaned back before her final wail.  She also stamped her foot in true tantrum style. (In talking to her mother at intermission, I learned that luckily for her family, she didn’t rehearse that at home).  Her tall counterpart Ambrose Kemper (Joel Stralnic) was a doting boyfriend.
• One of my favorite kids, Sushrut, was a standout in the male chorus, mostly because he was the shortest and clearly a good sport in being the brunt of much of the humor.
• The male chorus blended wonderfully during It Takes a Woman.  And overall the singing throughout the show was outstanding with superb diction, which is no doubt attributable to Norma Freeman’s musical direction.
• Favorite lines:  “I hate hats” from Mrs. Molloy.  “I’m fine” from Mrs. Rose played by Aubrey LaVasser”.  Loved the way Minne Fay (Carolyn Pedersen) said “cherries and feathers”
• Favorite accent:  Rudolph’s German accent (played by Michael Doa) who strutted around the stage in pompous command of the waitstaff.  I liked that he joined in the dancing at the end!
• Favorite scene was probably the Motherhood March – loved all the antics that went on behind the singing and loved Cornelius and Barnaby dressed in the ladies hats.  The set was luscious filled with colorfully decorated hats.
• All stops were pulled for Before the Parade Passes By with a full ensemble coming on stage complete with ballerinas, suffragettes, band members, a drum major and star moments from many.  And lots of dancing moves by the full chorus!
• Who wouldn’t love the 3 dancing chefs with their leaping dance moves, and the pirouette that went on and on and on, and the two waiters who tried to impress with their somersaults.
• I remember the chill that went through my body when Dolly (Audra Davison) came down the grand staircase in her beautiful red gown.  And the Harmonia Gardens set was so tall and elegant with the three chandeliers. Leo Babcock’s sets were wonderful with lots of levels for the actors to use.
• Loved the human “train” in which the colored parasols were the wheels in Put On Your Sunday Clothes.
• Ernestina’s character (played by Maddie Montambault) was larger than life and she milked every move she made while on stage.
• I found myself just plain smiling during Cornelius’ (Aaron Mukerjee) song It Only Takes a Moment… he, like his counter part Mrs. Molloy, had a beautiful voice and the scene was moving.
• Horace Vandergelder ( Jackson Marchilewski) was appropriately stuffy yet comically flustered.  And I recognized what we dubbed as the “Captain Crunch” costume that he wore in the parade from the HD show I was in a few years ago (along with a number of other familiar costumes).
• And what a poised and lovely Dolly Levi to grace the Saline High School stage.  Her graceful yet purposeful movements portrayed her self-assured character.  And her lovely voice was easy to listen to.  I especially enjoyed her playfulness during So Long, Dearie.
• Mostly, I love that practically every person in the cast had “a moment” in which they could shine.  I wish I could put them all down, but suffice it to say, the production is worth seeing and a true Saline community theater event!  Two more shows – February 25 at 7:30 p.m. and February 26 at 2:00 p.m. at the high school.