Gateway, Part 3

By the end of the first day at Gateway we all knew a few things about how the summer would go.

The shop had no bench power tools: no table saw, no band saw, no radial arm saw, not even a hand-held laser cutter.

Our rooms were small, the beds were awful and the food was even worse.

From those who had been there the summer we heard stories before how bad the food had been and they told that we should be happy how good it was now.

Evidently they went through a few cooks, one who made the cast sick because she did not know that you take the giblets out of turkeys before you cook them.

Another cook served the cast and crew beans and franks on the opening night of one of the plays and they plastered the walls of the dining room with the food.

The cook the summer I worked at Gateway tried his best to give us good food and even some special treats when he could, but on a whole it was pretty bad.

We always had a big vat of “Bug” juice to drink, Mmmmmm.

In those first few weeks we quickly learned about each other as we worked on the first play “West Side Story”.

We explored the buildings and grounds of Gateway; the two theatres, storage and work spaces and found our favorite places to hang out after work.

I used to like to sit up on the roof of the rehearsal hall late at night and look up at the stars.

But we always seemed busy with little time off.

Sketch I did at Gateway back in 1976

Actor Kieth Rice by the pool and building in my drawing.

The only power tool that we had was a circular saw which was by far not my favorite tool.

By the end of the summer I had gotten over fears and became pretty handy with it.

I had also brought the tools that I had bought for school, including my hammer, and they all got a great deal of use.

It was that summer when my hammer gained some of the magic that is now in it.

It seemed to me that the Technical Director spent most of his time dealing (fighting) with the producers and I do not remember him working in the shop too often.

We had problems with the wiring of the lighting boards and I worked with the Technical Director and a few others to re-wire the lighting boards.

We worked all night right after we closed “West Side Story” so that the dimmers would be ready for the next show.

That night turned out to be July 4th, which was America’s Bi-Centennial and I heard but did not see any fireworks.

The three lighting boards were old Luxtrol Autotransformer dimmer six-packs.

I had worked with this type of dimmers before and had some knowledge about them, but learned a great deal more that night.

Some of the wiring had insulation that was so old and dried out that it was crumbling off and causing short circuits.

More fun was yet to come.

Updated 12/18/18

* * *

Gateway, Part 2

The summer of 1976 was a great deal of fun for me.

It was the summer of America’s Bi-Centennial; I was 20 years old, had two years of college behind me and had just spent a month working off-Broadway and now I was about to work the rest of the summer doing Summer Stock Theatre.

Gateway Playhouse is in Bellport, Long Island and has a long history, starting first as a hotel in 1941 and then producing their first musical in 1950.

More about Gateway’s history can be found on their Web site:

http://www.gatewayplayhouse.com/history.html

The summer that I worked there most of the company was made up of college aged actors and technicians from all over the country.

My family home was only ten miles away and a few others were also local but many came from off Long Island, some as far away as California.

There even was a woman from Columbia; a funny story about her will be in a later post.

We all lived at Gateway in one of several buildings ranging from the big main house and former hotel to a few small simple dorms.

I was lucky enough to live in the “Hilton” with the other male members of the technical staff.

The “Hilton” was part of the original old Barn Theatre and we thought our rooms had once been stalls or chicken coops.

We were on the far side of the new Mainstage Theatre building far away from everyone else and the dining room in the main house.

This was both good and bad at different times that summer.

For the most part we all got along and had fun that summer, but of course there were a few big bumps and interesting surprises in store for us.

Not everyone there was a college student.

The Directors, Designers and Technical Director/Lighting Designer were all older professionals.

To a 20 year old older could have meant anywhere from 28 to 40 or even 50, my memory is not clear on it.

I do remember that the Scene Designer was local High School Art Teacher and the technical staff got to go to his house for a party.

Perhaps I should have said the first scene designer and Technical Director/Lighting Designer, as the there would be big changes in the middle of the season.

The male technical staff was made up of mostly college students with two exceptions.

One was an older man (30 – 40?) who was a career counselor at a local community college and the second was a 16 year old high school student, who along with the 16 year old son of Gateway’s owners, would get themselves into some interesting adventures that summer.

In the years since working at Gateway I have come across several of the people who I worked with that summer.

With the aid of Google and Facebook I have found that some of those who worked with me that summer stayed on to work in Theatre, while others have seemed to have followed other life paths.

We all got along fairly well with only a few exceptions.

There was one guy from California who annoyed everyone by always telling us how better it was back at his College and he hogged the only payphone talking for hours with his girlfriend back home.

Tales of the two 16 year olds will follow soon.

But as a whole we got along if only to fight against producers and how the theatre and shops were run.

The scene shop was extremely underequipped with few power tools, open to the air on one end and we were given nails in one pound boxes.

We had to ask for more nails several times a day.

It was only when the ATD was sent out to buy 25 more one pound boxes and returned with a 50 pound box for less did the producers see that maybe there might be another way of doing things.

There were other issues and problems with the Theatre and some of them lead to the first Technical Director firing or quitting after the second play.

Regardless to any of the shortcomings or problems that may have occurred that summer, I learned a lot and gained a great deal of confidence in my own skills and have always been glad that I worked there.

More details to follow in make next installment.

Updated 12/18/18

* * *

Gateway Playhouse 1976, Part 1

There are many things that I want to write about during my summer at Gateway Playhouse.
We did four plays: West Side Story, Annie Get Your Gun, Candide and The Ritz plus several Children’s Shows.
There were so many memorable things that happened and I have started a list to help me remember the details.
I have not decided what I want to talk about first and I am not sure that I want to write about things even after 33 years.
You may have to wait for my book to find out the fun details, but who knows, I may tell you anyway.

Stay Tuned.

The Outline so far:

Mostly College Students
The Hilton
Hurricane Belle
Bicentennial 4th of July
Pound of Nails
Pizza and Miss New York runner-up
Ragtime
The Hobbit
Costume Designer Quits
Re-casting Annie Get Your Gun the last day
The Benefit Show
Jackie Gleason’s TV Sets
The High School Girls
Hugh and the Girls
The Shower
Missing Girls
ATD Bob
TD and Scene Designer Fired
Children’s Theatre
Parking Cars
Going back ten years later to visit one of my students
The Food
The Snake
The Bee Sting
Bugs
The Shop and Tools
Re-wiring the Light Board
Double Headed Nails
The Producer’s 16 years old son
The guy from Cal State Irvine
The Pool
The Character Actor

And yes, Naked People!

Still Here, More to Come Soon

I have been very busy with the current play that I am working on, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, and have not had any free time to write.

http://www.brockport.edu/theatre/

In addition for the first time in 27 years I am moving to a new office and have to pack up everything by the end of next week.

I have given away many of my extra books and have been bringing my plants home as my is new office is smaller and has no windows.

This move is only temporary as they are renovating the Tower Fine Arts Center.

It takes a long time to pack when I am always stopping to go through the papers, photos, draftings and toys that I have accumulated over the past 27 years.

I will get back to writting over the Christmas break and will continue the story of my favorite summer working in Theatre.

Working for a month in NYC was great but many more adventures would happen at Gateway Playhouse.

As I noted in an earlier post the Theatre at St Clements Church has been both an active Church and Theatre for many years and is still going strong:

http://www.stclementsnyc.org/

Gateway Playhouse too has a long history as a Summer Stock Theatre and more information about it can be found on its WEB site:

http://www.gatewayplayhouse.com/

If you dig through their WEB Site you can find copies of the programs for the shows that I worked on back in 1976.

I am looking forward to getting back to telling my stories, adventures and mostly true tales.

Small World

It is often said that Theatre is a small world and everyone working in Theatre knows everyone else working in Theatre.

Although it is not true there are time when it does seems that way.

Just the other day I was returning two mic stands that I had borrowed for a concert.

When I was talking with the worker in the Classroom Technology Office he asked me if I have ever done any work on movies.

When I said that I had he revealed to me that he had been my assistant on a PBS documentary about the poet Emily Dickinson that we worked on over twenty years ago.

Details about the film will be in a future post.

George had been a student at RIT and worked a few weeks on the film shoot.

This began me thinking about other times that I had run into people I had worked with in the past years later.

As mentioned in an earlier post , I recently ran into Lighting Designer Alan Adelman

after 34 years at the USITT conference in Cincinnati.

It is nice to run into someone I have not scene in a while, but most of the time it may be only five to ten years rather then 30 plus years.

On the last night of the conference I had dinner one night with one of my students from my first year teaching who has been working at Ohio State University for 19 years.

After dinner we ran into one of my classmates from Michigan, who I had not seen in about twenty years, who had just had dinner with one of his first students.

I have known my friend’s first student for about fifteen years, he also teaches and just had one of my more recent students in his Theatre program at the University of Georgia.

The two “first” students did not know each other but as they talked they found out that they knew many people in common and shared some good laughs.

These kind of meetings happen all the time at the USITT conferences.

I have also had these kind of meetings at the American College Theatre Festivals.

Just this past January I ran into some old friends and classmates at the Festival in Philadelphia.

While I was in Grad School I worked several dance tours to the Interlochen Center for the Arts in Northern Michigan.

Ten years later, now working at my present job, I served on a search committee for the Dance Department and it turns out that one of the final applicants we interviewed had been the Technical Director Interlochen when I worked there.

After Grad School I worked for a year in NYC and it seemed that every two weeks or so I would run into someone I knew.

One day I went to see the Christmas Tree at Rockefeller Center.

After checking out the tree I was cutting through a building when I ran into someone from UB.

We talked briefly about what we were doing and then went on our separate ways.

As I came out of the other side of the building minutes later I ran into someone from Grad school.

Again I had another brief chat about what we were both doing.

The photo studio that I worked in was just a few blocks North of Union Square and while walking to work one day I ran into another classmate from Michigan who was working in a costume studio several blocks away.

Sometime later in about the same spot on the street that I literally ran into Andy Warhol.

Warhol was not a classmate.

One day while walking to Penn Station I cut through Madison Square Park near the Flatiron Building and ran into a guy I knew, but could not remember his name.

I knew that we had recently worked together in some theatre, but I could not remember where or when.

What I did remember was the fact that I really did not like him, but I still smiled and made small talk before going on my way.

It was only later while riding the LIRR train home that I remembered his name and where we had worked together.

Last year while trying to research some information on Theatre stage equipment I called a major supply company.

Forwarded to someone who could help me with my questions and it turns out to be another of my former students from twenty-five year ago.

I had seen him a few times over the years but had not spoken recently.

We ran into each other at the USITT conference in Cincinnati.

Several times I have had former students call me to ask about another student, that they do not know, who are applying for a job with their company.

These are just a few examples of Theatre being a small world, there are many more.

If I remember any other fun or interesting examples I will post them.

Buffalo to off-Broadway

As with each year while I was in college, my sophomore year at SUNY Buffalo, UB, was very busy.

I designed the lighting for my first play and worked on many other productions in a variety of capacities.

After my first year in college several faculty members left UB to go work at Brooklyn College.

During my sophomore year they returned with an updated version of a play that they had done at UB the year before.

The play was Old Timer’s Sexual Symphony (and other notes).

The play was an intense look at aging, ageism and sexuality, and like the other plays we were doing at UB at the time it had naked people in it.

The original poster for the play was a take off of the John Lennon album Two Virgins.

The septuagenarian looking couple acting in the play posed naked for the poster.

When the play came back to Buffalo I volunteered to be the House Manager.

During the time of the production I heard that they were planning to do Old Timer’s and three other plays that coming summer as part of a month long four play repertory off-Broadway in NYC.

I volunteered again to be on the crew and ended up running the lighting board for Old Timer’s and also worked on the other three plays.

During Spring Break before the summer season was to begin I traveled down to Brooklyn to see one of the productions at Brooklyn College because I wanted to feel like I part of the company.

Of course there was a late season snow storm and I was traveling by subway going to a place I had never been before.

Well I got there, saw the show and got back alive.

So in May of 1976 the plays were presented at the Theatre at St Clements’s Church on 46th Street, not far from the heart of the Broadway Theatre district.

St Clements’s Church is a well known off-Broadway venue that has hosted many productions of note and was and still is an active church and is an important resource for its neighborhood.

During one rehearsal I looked done from the top of the seating risers where the lighting control board was to see that they were having a wedding in a small chapel in the back of the Theatre/Church.

Another time we had to cancel a rehearsal because a popular prostitute from the area had died and they needed the Church for her funeral.

Each day going to and from the theatre I would pass several groups of Working Girls who always asked me if I wanted a Date.

When I was working in NYC I stayed with my brother’s in his dorm at Pratt Institute out in Brooklyn.

It fun riding the subway from Times Square out to Brooklyn late at night after the play was over.

The whole experience of doing theatre in NYC for the first time was great.

Old Timer’s Sexual Symphony (and other notes) got one of the worst reviews ever from the NY Daily News: “New Company Stillborn”, but went on the win two special Obie Awards.

That month long four play repertory was only the beginning of one of my best summers working in Theatre.

A week after I was finished working in NYC I went out to Gateway Playhouse and spent the rest of the summer doing Summer Stock.

Stories from Gateway to follow.

Naked People Everywhere. Part 1 of 57

Several of the first shows that I worked on in college had an element that was a bit different from the plays I worked on in High School or Community Theatre.

Naked People.

Some were on stage, some were off stage and even a few just wandering about here and there.

Times were a bit different, it was the middle 1970’s and the people producing the plays were not all that far removed from the 60’s Theatre scene.

For an eighteen year old this was very different, interesting and of course fun.

But just a few years later I remember that the attitudes had changed and nobody wanted to be naked onstage anymore.

One memorable play at UB was “Bride of Shakespeare Heaven”, a compilation several different Shakespeare plays cut and pasted together to make new scenes.

They had done “Shakespeare Heaven” and “Son of Shakespeare Heaven” in the years just before I got to college.

One section of the play was a take off of a game show, another was a spoof of the movie The Godfather, plus there were several other skits and monologues all mixed together.

In one scene an actor walks in dressed as a monk speaking lines from “Timon of Athens” as I remember.

As the scene progressed the actor completely undresses, sits down at a small table, puts on make-up, then puts on a bra and other women’s undergarments and puts on finally a wedding dress.

The play being “Bride of Shakespeare Heaven” everyone had a wedding dress on at the end.

One actress was a Hawaiian Bride wearing just a grass hula skirt and a lea of flowers, with just a bit of tape to keep the lea in place.

The funniest naked person in the show was the actor who played the various statues.

All he wore was white make-up head-to-toe.

If the statue he was doing had a fig leaf then he had one, a helmet and small wings on his ankles when he was Mercury, but other then that he wore just the make-up and a smile.

The play was so popular that it was held over for an extended run.

For the extra run of the play an actress joined the naked guy and did famous paired statues.

I remember when they were taking the cast photo there at the end of the front row were they two naked people.

I wonder if Kodak printed the photos or are they in some lost back room with lots of other fun pictures?

A few other plays my first year had an occasional naked person or two, but it was “Bride of Shakespeare Heaven” that had the most and was enjoyable even without all the naked people, although I did not mind.

Not all the naked people were on stage, but back then it seemed at times that everyone backstage was running around naked, actors, crew and few other oddballs.

More fun with naked people to come in Part 2.

My First College Lighting Design

When I returned to college for my sophomore year I was eager to get back to work on more plays and dance concerts.

In November of 1975 I would design the lighting for my first play in college, actually two one acts.

The plays were Douglas Turner Ward’s Day of Absence and Happy Ending.

Day of Absence was unusual in that all of the actors were Black and played their parts in White Face.

Back in 1975 African-Americans still called themselves Black, and my use of the term is to fit my tales into the proper period vernacular and for clarity sake.

The Black actors were all playing the Whites in a town where all of the Blacks disappeared one day and nothing gets done and everyone panics.

I am not sure how it would play today but it worked back then.

At the time it did not seem to me, a White kid from Long Island, that working on plays with African-American themes and mixed raced was unusual, special, or that we were trying to educate the audience, but I guess we did.

Just last week while looking for something else I found a copy of the light I drew for the two plays 35 years ago.

The light plot has 42 stage lights for both plays.

It was on this show that I used my first moving light, although it was not planed.

After one performance a friend told me that they enjoyed my lighting of the play and especially liked the sunset.

I thanked him but I had no idea what he was talking about.

It seems that the light that I had focused on the window was loose and slowly moved down during the play giving a very nice sunset effect more then ten years before the first motion lights were available on the market.

While I was at UB we also did two plays by South African playwright Athol Fugard; The Blood Knot and Bosemen and Lena.

Because of the subject matter of his plays I had always assumed that he was a Black man.

Several years later at the University of Michigan I got to meet Mr. Fugard and was very surprised when I walked into the room and saw a gray-haired White man sitting there.

I felt like a fool and was glad that I had never said anything to anybody about my thinking he was Black.

I still had a lot to learn about Theatre and still do to this day.

"Make it Pretty"

In the spring of my freshmen year of college I took my first Stage Lighting course.
The class was good and covered all of the basics, Nuts to Bolts or maybe that should be Amps to Volts.
I remember one class demonstration turned into both a funny episode and good learning moment for me.
Working with several lights and colored gels in the classroom, our teacher was showing us what colors worked well together and how they would look.
We looked at several combinations of colors when the teacher said that ambers do not work well on black actors.
Having an African-American in the class he was asked if he would stand in the light.
When the amber gel was put on him he looked great, the color worked well on him and everyone laughed.

What I learned from that class was not to assume anything, but test it for yourself.
Rules and conventions are a good starting place but I have always found that I will do what it takes to make it look right.
Many times over the years I have used the wrong type of light, hung in the wrong place, removed a lens or made my own mixed color gels by cutting and taping them together to get the desired result.

Jumping ahead a number of years, when I was in grad school at the University of Michigan there was a talented undergraduate lighting student from Canada who took classes with the grad students.
During one summer took the small three light mixing box home for the summer.
The unit had three “Inkies”, 3 inch fresnels, and dimmers mounted on a box that contain samples of all the gel colors.
He spent the summer looking at all the hundreds of various combinations of colors and wrote down in a notebook his thoughts on what he saw.

I must admit that some of us laughed at him when he came back in the fall.
Timothy Hunter got into the Yale School of Drama, worked in Europe for a while and designed the lighting for Smokey Joe’s Café on Broadway.
His hard work, plus talent, did pay off as he is the Interim Department Head, Professor of Lighting & Stage Design at the University of Connecticut and also has his own production company.
http://www.timhunterdesign.com/

The summer after my first year of college I went home, armed with one year of college and one class in stage lighting I took on the responsibility of designing lights for the Sayville Musical Workshop’s production of No, No, Nanette.
I was ready when I met with the director to discus the lighting for the musical.

The four controllable qualities of light: Intensity, Distribution, Color and Form
The Four Functions of Stage Lighting: Visibility, Composition, Form and Mood.

I knew my lighting basics, had read the play, I am ready here I come!!!
I met the director and all he said to me was “Make it pretty”.
Make it Pretty, MAKE  IT  PRETTY! ! !
Where was that in the lighting text book?
I am an artist, how dare he . . . .
So I made it "Pretty” and had fun doing it.

Successful Classmates from SUNY Buffalo

At the time I was in school I had no idea of the success that many of my classmates would have.

During my first year at UB I would work with Alan Adelman, Mitchell Bogard and Ken Tabachnick.

Later I would work with Anne Militello.

Some of Alan Adelman’s work can be on various PBS shows such as Great Performances, Dance in America, American Playhouse and Live from Lincoln Center.

Mitchell Bogard has done a good deal of television lighting for such show as Live From Lincoln Center, Rachael Ray, The Chris Rock, Madonna: Exposed and early on he even worked on Sesame Street.

Ken Tabachnick has worked with The Kirov Opera and Ballet, the Bolshoi Opera and Ballet, the Paris Opera Ballet, the New York City Ballet, the Lyon Opera Ballet, the Martha Graham Dance Company, and The Trisha Brown Company.

Anne Militello has designed on Broadway and many other places both on and off stage.

http://www.annemilitello.com/

I will often catch one of their names when I watch any stage production that has been filmed for TV.

Another classmate was Tylor Wymer who worked years for Disney before starting his own special effects company. (I wonder if he still has the T-Square he borrowed from me?)

http://www.wow-works.com/index.htm

Jerry Kegler is the facilities director for the Center for the Arts at UB.
http://www.ubcfa.org/home.aspx

Actors?

I have not yet talked about them.

Yes even some of the actors went on to work on the business.

Tommy Koenig has worked all over the country as a stand up comedian and has appeared in several movies including: Robin Hood: Men in Tights, Dracula Dead and Loving it, and Stitches.

Unfortunately too many of my classmates fell victim to the Aids epidemic of the early 1980’s.

We lost too many talented people.

I know that several others of my classmates also went on to work in theatre, some teaching, some working behind the scenes but all having fun.

There are many others from my days at UB still working in Theatre that I have just lost touch with, but every once and a while I will hear from them.

I just heard from I friend that I was out of touch with for a few years because of this Blog.

It is hard for me to believe that my Blog is important enough to have the content listed by Google.

But it was nice to hear from Barry Besmanoff who still works for LiteLab Corporation, whose product line has changed a bit since they made the Disco Light Floor for the movie Saturday Night Fever.

http://www.litelab.com/document_1.html

I always tell my students that someday when they are out there working in Theatre that some of their current classmates will be out there too.

Their friends and former classmates can become people that they can count on to work with.

I have had calls former students who are now running Theatres and they ask me about another Brockport grad whose resume they have received.

Theatre is a small world.

Work Hard - Play Hard

Even as I started to work on the set for my first play in college I was not yet sure if Theatre was going to be my career.

I knew I loved working on plays, building and painting sets, working on the lighting and sound, but I did not know if I had what it would take to become a professional.

I did not take long for me to realize that I was doing what I loved and I was working with other students who were just like me and that this is what I wanted to do.

I still had a lot to learn but it was challenging and fun at the same time.

After working on the first play I would work on three dance concerts in a row.

I would help hang and focus the lights as well as run the two-scene preset control board.

When I left for school at the end of the summer I had no idea what I was getting into, but just after a few months and several productions I was hooked.

I worked on many more productions then I was required to for class.

I often would return to the dorm late after rehearsals and performances and missed a few parties but there was still plenty of time to engage in what to many college students is the most important thing about college: Drinking.

I always had a core of non-theatre friends to hang and party with, but I soon spent more time working and partying with my fellow theatre students.

Back in 1974 the drinking age was still 18 and bars closed at 4am in Buffalo.

There was always time after a show to get a drink or two.

I enjoyed going to the student club because it had the one thing that college guys liked more than drinking: Girls.

I liked dancing in the club, but within a few years the music shifted from Doobie Brothers to Disco and I enjoyed it a bit less.

I do remember this one girl who lived near me in the dorm who I always liked to dance with.

I remember her for a number of things, she was nice, good looking and had two different color eyes; one green, one blue.

She would soon transfer to another school and I lost my favorite dance partner.

A year or so later while I was visiting my brother at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn this very same girls walked out of the dorm room next to his.

Small world.

I found early on that Theatre was a lot of hard work when done right, but also I found that everyone would party just as hard when the work was over.

Nothing tastes as good as that first beer after you have been working in the Theatre for twelve hours or more building, painting or running a show.

Putting My New Hammer to Use

While at SUNY Buffalo, UB, I worked on many plays: some classics, some modern works, some original works and some just too odd to categorize.
Over my fours years at UB I also worked on at least five or six dance concerts.
During my first semester I put my new hammer to work right away on the set for The Misanthrope.
That first semester I also got to work on three dance concerts and another play or two.
We were always very busy at UB working in both of the theatres at the same time.

By my second semester I moved up from being just a general technical assistant to become the master carpenter and master electrician for a number of the productions.
I have put together a list of some of the plays that I worked on while at UB.
I know that I worked on a few others, but these are ones that I still have the program for.
On many of the unlisted plays I served as a general technical assistant, working a day or two just to get the show finished or striking the set.

Here is a list of most of plays that I worked on while at UB from 1974 until 1978:
The Misanthrope
Baal
Apple Pie
Bride of Shakespeare Heaven
A View From the Bridge
The Good Woman of Setzuan
Ronnie Bwana, Jungle Guide
Day of Absence and Happy Ending
The Alley Between Our Two Houses
From the Memoirs of Pontius Pilate
Old Times
The Bacchae
Les Blancs
Trouble in Mind
6 Characters in Search of an Author
Serenading Louie

A Few Titles from the “Unlisted” List of Plays:
Naked Lunch
Bozeman and Lena
Loves Labor Lost
The Blood Knot
Old Timers Sexual Symphony and Other Notes

My Hammer: Photo

Been busy working on my next play that opens a week from tommorow.
It is my 253rd or 315th or so production depending on how you count.
Took a minute in the crazy work day to take a photo of "The Hammer".
It has no name, but you can see it is well used.
Maybe I will take the time to clean it up a bit, will post photos when I do.

The next play is Don't Dress for Dinner
Here is a link to the current season:
http://www.brockport.edu/theatre/current.html

I'll write more once the play opens.

My Hammer

My first Theatre course at UB was Stagecraft, a class I have now taught over fifty times.

After my first class I remember going to a F. T. Grant’s department store and buying tools required for class: a hammer, pliers, tape measure, a couple of screw drivers and a “C” wrench.

Most of the tools are gone but I still have the hammer I bought for a few dollars back in the fall of 1974.

It was a generic store brand 16 oz, metal shaft, rip hammer.

I had it all the way through college, grad school, working Off-Broadway, doing summer stock and it was with me when I started teaching and I have it still.

There is nothing magic about it, works like any other hammer, but to me it is special.

If I am working with a bunch of other tools and pick up another hammer, I can always tell if it is not mine right away.

I have used many other hammers, some very expensive, all very nice, but I always prefer my old reliable friend.

When I began teaching and students would have trouble driving nails I would have them use my hammer and often time they would have success and drive nails home.

With air nailers and dry wall screws, the hammer does not get as much use as it once did, but it is nice to know it is still there ready for action.

I lost the other tools from freshmen year one by one over time.

The small 12 foot Stanely tape measure was with me a long time, I replaced the blade once or twice but it finally gave out.

Sometimes tape measures do not even make it through one work day and I had that one for over 15 years, but it is the hammer that is 35 years old, and like me, still has some nails to drive.

Theatres I Got To Play, I mean Work, In

Before I get into detailed stories about what I did in college I thought I give an overview of the some of the spaces I worked in.
The first Theatre that I saw when I went to SUNY Buffalo, UB, was the brand Katharine Cornell Theatre in the, then new, Ellicott Complex on the North Campus.
The Theatre is a square shape “multi-use” space that can hold up to 340 people.
The Theatre was not used by the Theatre Department at that time, and this was years before the current Center for the Arts was built.
It was supposed to be flexible, new and “Unique”.

It was odd, hard to use and flooded the first or seconded year I was there.
The design had a few flaws; a big one was that when you sat in the middle section you could see into the woman’s dressing room, right to the shower in back when the door was open.
It had a 10 scene preset lighting board in a control booth that was glass from ceiling to floor and the whole audience could see you at work.
The lighting control consol was very big and “State-of-the-Art” at that time, and made you feel think you were running a transporter on Star Trek.

When I first walked in everything was new, lighting instruments were all lined up neatly up in the catwalks.
When I came back a day later I noticed that some of the small Fresnels, “Inkies” were missing and probably lighting up some dorm room.
Instead of the standard pipes used to hang then lights the Theatre had a “C” shaped channel that appeared to be hung sideways and made it hard to work there.

I worked on a few shows in the Theatre, mostly music concerts, and it was here that I met the late Robert Moog, the inventor of the Moog Synthesizer.

When I final got to the main campus I got to see the Theatre used by the Department.
It was disappointing.
The Theatre was a converted space, a small proscenium stage at one end and the rest was just a big open space with lighting catwalks above.
Not a very impressive space to see and I did not know yet that over the next four years I would get to work on some widely varied and interesting productions in the space.

It would be a few weeks before I got to see the most interesting space which was the Courtyard Theatre that was off campus and near Buffalo State College.
The theatre was in a converted church, and the space was used in several different configurations during my time there.
It was in this space that the more interesting, controversial and just plain fun plays took place.
We had to share car rides, take the bus or even hitch hike to get there.
There was a dance studio in the lower level along with the dressing rooms and the scene shop was in the lower basement.

The main level had a stage at one end, an open area where pews used to be and a small balcony or old choir loft, but we never really used it in a “Normal” way.
Seats and sets could be in any location in the building.
In one production, Ronnie Bwana, Jungle Guide, there were two sets in different areas on the Theatre.

Ronnie Bwana, Jungle Guide  Act I

The second floor had a small apartment for a live in Theatre manager and what had been at one time a small stage for when it was a church.
We did use the small theatre for one special production for which I served as the House Manager.
The space was normally the kitchen/living room area of the apartment and had no more then 40 seats, if that.
Because I had volunteered to work on that show I ended up working with the company that summer in NYC.
Details on this and other stories to follow.

Back to School

As I have been working these first few weeks of a new school year, I have thought back to when I first went to college.

Although I have not had time to blog lately I have been thinking about my time at SUNY Buffalo, UB,

and trying to sort out just what I want to write about.

Many of my fellow classmates from my time college have gone on to have successful careers in Theatre, Designing on Broadway, working in Regional Theatre, Operas, Rock ‘n Roll, TV and Movies, winning Tony and Emmy awards and more.

As a college teacher today, 35 years later, I wonder if my current students worry and/or dream about the same things that I did back in college.

Do they really know what they are in for if they really pursue a career in Theatre.

Do they have the drive and commitment it takes to have a career in Theatre, or are they just hanging out trying to have some fun while in college?

When I have one of those special hard working and driven students who come through school every once and a while, I think back to when I was one of those young eager student just starting out and wonder if they will make it and what lies ahead for them.

I used to ask myself if any of my students will go on to have careers in Theatre, but I have been teaching long enough now to see that some of my former students are working and teaching in theatres all over the country, plus few overseas too.

I have never minded working hard or staying late to get a production done, and I  like working with those students who really want to learn and enjoy showing them what to do.

When I hear back from them a few years later, and they tell me what they are working on, it makes me feel good and makes all the extra time worth it.

But back in the fall of 1974 I was one of those fresh kids wanting to make his mark, wanting a chance to show off what I knew (or thought I knew).

Just a few months before in High School I was the President of the Theatre Club, Head of the Stage Crew, but now I was just one of the several new kids.

I worked on everything I could, both for class credit and just for the experience.

By the end of my freshmen year I moved up for just a general technical assistant to a crew chief and even master electrician for one of the plays.

The student Lighting Designer for the play that I was the master electrician for as the has gone on to have a very successful career in NYC working in both Theatre and TV, winning three Emmys.

I just ran into him for the first time since 1975 at the USITT conference in Cincinnati back in March.

I do not think he really remembered me, but we had a nice talk about the people we worked with back in Buffalo and what they are doing now.

UB had several Theatres and each was unique, I will talk about them in my next post.

9/11

Thought I would take today to remember the brother of a friend from college who I only met once.

Please stop to remember him and all our heroes we lost eight years ago . . . .

Geoffrey E. Guja

Age: 47

Hometown: Lindenhurst, N.Y., USA

Occupation: Firefighter, New York Fire Department

Location: Ground, World Trade Center

Gregg Hilmar’s "Light Plot Deconstructed"

I have been a lighting designer for over 30 years and drafting longer then that.

I started using AutoCAD about 15 years ago and have been using Vectorworks for about a year after playing with it on and off since it was still called MiniCad.

I have been teaching Technical Theatre and Stage Lighting at the College at Brockport since 1982.

I have been asked to review Gregg Hilmar’s Light Plot Deconstructed published by Nemetschek, North America the makers of Vectorworks.

After reading the introduction to this book I wanted to like it right away as Hilmar seems to have taken parts of my first lecture to my Stage Lighting class.

The book is written in a warm and friendly tone and it is also straight forward and to the point.

The book is not a how-to or step-by-step text, but more of a collection of helpful hints, and I like the format.

The book is generally easy to read and follow, but I did find myself lost at a few points, I had to check on some abbreviations and in a few cases I had to learn a bit more about Vectorworks before I could go on.

The reader of this book needs to know how to use Vectorworks a little more then just the “Basics” as suggested by the author.

A moderately advanced student or educator can easily use Hilmar’s book and should find it helpful, but I do not think I could recommend it for a new student just learning Vectorworks or Stage Lighting Design.

This book is not a how-to design textbook for Stage Lighting nor is it intended to be.

I do not mind the small size or spiral binding, but wish the printing quality was better as I find it hard to read some of the illustrations which are often too small and a bit fuzzy.

The book could also use an index.

The hints that are given are helpful and should be very useful to the reader while drawing their lighting plots with Vectorworks.

Even with the few reservations noted above, I will keep this book near my computer.

If interested you can buy the book at:

http://www.nemetschek.net/training/guides.php

SUNY Buffalo, Fall 1974

In the Fall of 1974 I was off to SUNY Buffalo, UB.
UB is a huge school, even back then, with 30,000 students, several campuses and lots of snow.
I had to deal with all the normal things that any freshman does, living in a dorm with unknown roommates, learning where everything is, and a variety “Mystery Meat” meals from the food service.

The first days before my first Theatre class I spent exploring the campus, looking up friends from summer orientation and thinking about what adventures may lay ahead.
In my first Theatre class I was surprised to meet others just like me.
Four or five of us, all had done lots of Theatre in High School, thought we knew a lot and now we had to start at the bottom.
The Technical Director/Lighting Designer was new that year too.
Along with the older students he had inherited some “Extra” people who sometimes worked on the plays.
I went to school with many talented people and many of my classmates from UB, and later Grad School at Michigan, would go on to have successful careers in Theatre.
I will talk about them in later posts.

Another surprise when I got to UB was the Department was a Department of Theatre and Dance.
A Dance Department meant dancers and skin tight leotards.
I always enjoyed working on the Dance concerts.
I was eighteen, need I say anymore.

My first semester I served as a general crew person working on several plays and Dance concerts, building sets and hanging lights.
In November I was scheduled to work on a Dance concert, but not planning very well, I had booked a ride home the Friday before Thanksgiving.
Students still try to take longer vacation breaks today, no surprise there.
The big problem was I did not bother to find out that there was a second weekend of performances.

The Lighting Designer for the Dance concert was one of these “Extra” people.
I never really knew who he was, why he was there and what was his relationship to the Department.
He was neither a student nor a faculty member, but some how he got to work there.
I will call him “Dave” for this story.

Anyway I got my friend “Matt” to cover for me and I thought things would be fine.
It was simple, we had already set the cues and ran the show the week before.
I really do not know what happen, but somehow all Hell broke out and somehow it was Matt’s fault.
Now I know for a fact it was not “Matt’s” fault, but somehow he got the blame.
All the blame should have gone to “Dave” who let his little kids run around the Theatre during the show, one of them fell, split a lip, blood everywhere, a trip to the hospital and more.

I am the guy who split, took off early for Thanksgiving, and somehow I came out of this smelling like roses.

Lucky me.

A Few Quick Stories

Before I move on to talk about College, I have a few more miscellaneous stories from my High School days.

Back in the Olde Days of the early 1970’s we used powered pigments in our scene paint.
The dry pigment needed to be mixed into a water and glue mix.
The glue was dry crystals of horse hooves mixed with water and heated slowly in a double boiler.
We had no stove near the stage so we used the metal shop right across the hall.
We used the gas burners meant to be used to melt lead or heat large soldering irons.
Not really knowing what we were doing one day when we tried to light the gas jet there was a flash back of flame that burnt all the hairs off the arm of the girl who was trying to light it.
It did not hurt her but scared the hell of her and the others in the shop.
Once our hearts started to beat again we all had a big laugh, although I do not think that Carol thought it was funny.

Years later we would learn about all the bad elements and heavy metals in the dry pigments that we used to mix with our hands.

One of our fun tricks to pull on new crew members was to have them wash one of the colored lighting gels.
Back in those days the gels were really made from gelatin.
We would send out to wash the very important and ”Last” sheet of gel.
They were always instructed to use slightly warm water and rub gently, and of course they would come back with a big wad of melted goo.
Sometimes they would come back in tears thinking they had ruined it, but most times they would just throw it at you and you had to move quick.

There were some perks being on the Stage Crew.
I remember being called out of class by the Principle and asked to meet him on the stage.
What trouble was I in?
What had we done and finally get caught, I had no idea.
It seems that there was going to be some event on the stage and nobody knew how to turn on the light board.
All I had to do was push in the big handle that connected the three blade switch that gave off a nice big spark.

One day I got a cut slip for missing a class and had to go to the Dean's office ,when I walked in the secretary just looked up at me and said: “Oh, you’re on the stage crew” and told me to leave.
I wish I could remember what class I had cut and I what had done, I only hope it was fun.

There are other stories that are only fragments of memory now, maybe they will come back or someone will remind me, but for now I think I will start the telling of my adventures in College.

One Last BIG High School Show

We did Guys and Dolls as our Spring Musical my senior year and I was surprised that many members of the Football team and other “Jocks” tried out and made the cast.
The roles of Sky Masterson and Nathan Detroit were Theatre Students, but many of the other characters (including Big Julie, Harry the Horse and Nicely, Nicely Johnson) were cast from the “Jocks”.
I think it reflected of the makeup of our class that the “Jocks” were secure enough to give Theatre a try, but the that fact that many of their girlfriends were involved with the Fall play may have had an influence on them.
They all did a great job and everyone had a good time.

I had worked on Guys and Dolls a few years earlier with the Sayville Musical Workshop.
After working backstage on all the previous productions I thought I would give acting a try and at my audition I was asked if I would work backstage if I did not get a part.
I did not take that as a good sign and, Surprise!, I did not get a part.
But I did not want to do lights again so I asked to be the Stage Manager.

I helped make to show run smoothly backstage and I think many of the “Jocks” saw me something like a coach, helping them and making sure that they were in the right place at the right time.
One of my most important jobs, although not official, was taking orders for beer before the cast party.
I was 18 and so was the drinking age, this cast party was a little more fun then my first one a just a few years earlier with soda and cupcakes.

After the cast party I do remember taking one very drunk and sick actor home, his head was hanging out the window of my car and his girlfriend crying all the way.
The actor will remain nameless here but, I will e-mail him this Blog.
I got him home, up his front steps, rang the door bell and quickly drove away.

It was a great way to end High School with several groups of students not normally evolved in productions working on it and having a good time.
At our class reunion 30 years later, two people paid $40 dollars apiece for extra copies of the show’s Program that I had brought, the money going to the Class of 1974 Scholarship.
It may seem odd that I kept them all this time, but then again I have a leaf we made for the Yokum Berry Tree for Li’l Abner back in 1971.

I know I have left out a few stories and if I can piece them together I may share them at a later date.
I clearly remember that we all had fun working on the plays, musicals, holiday shows and music concerts as well as going into the “City” to see Broadway shows.

High School would soon be over and College was straight ahead.
The first thing I learned in college, even with all I had already done, was that I still had a lot to learn.
I would have this feeling again and again, even today.
There is always something new to learn and to experience, and no two shows are ever the same.
This is one of the big reasons I love working in Theatre.

Growing Up, Thinking about College

My Junior year was very busy for me as I worked on six different play plus a few music concerts.
The experience I had gained from working on all the different productions at school plus the ones with the Sayville Musical Workshop had given me the confidence to think that I might try a career in Theatre.
When I applied to college I decided to give a career in Theatre a chance.
I was not sure about it, but I thought I would try it out and see if I liked it, and 35 years later I am still trying to figure out what I want to do when I grow up.
Some days I love it and other days I hate it and that it has more to do with the teaching then the working in Theatre itself.
My comments and stories about teaching are yet to come as I still had to finish High School, go to College and Grad school plus some time working in New York City and some regional Theatre.

I look back at photos of me in High school and I was a late bloomer.
As a Freshman looked liked a kid, maybe 5‘-1“.
Senior year would bring a few less shows but lots of changes.
I finally reached my towering current height of 5’- 8 “ and did not look so much like a little kid any more.
All the work on the plays and maturing a bit gave me a little more confidence in life.
Our school cast parties, New Year’s Eve and other parties were a little more fun now that I was “grown up“, well almost.
My friends and I did not always work in the theatre and I remember a group of us going to Heckscher State Park to play a some softball or toss a Frisbee.

We really did not have enough for any teams nor did anyone bring a bat or ball, we just paired up in couples and went in different directions and "explored" paths in the woods for a while.
It was not all work for me all the time, we did take time for fun.

Like all High Schools there were many different groups or cliques of students.

I never really thought about it too much back then but I guess I was in several.

Of course I was in the Theatre clique but I was also in the Honor Society plus other sub groups like the students who studied computers, played chess, former alter boys and those who collected stamps and other odd bits.

I liked having many different freinds and interests.

My Big Senior Year Musical was next.

Non-Theatre Jobs in the "Real World"

I have been very lucky in that I have not had to work outside of Theatre too often.

While in High school I inherited my older brother's cleaning job at a local bank.
Each day after school I would work cleaning the main branch of the Oysterman's Bank, the attached lawyers' office and an insurance office across the street.
When we were done a couple of us would drive to one of the small bank branches and clean that too.
Our boss paid us for two and half hours to get it done, but it never took us more than an hour.
It didn't take too long and I still had time to eat and go back at night to work on the plays.
For a while I even worked for the bank itself.
I'm not sure of my title I did a bunch of odd jobs.
I filled orders in boxes to send to the branches; pens, paper, paper clips, printed forms, drive-thru envelopes and other fun items.
I think they had at least six ways to tell you that your loan was over due from a very polite note to one letter threatening to send Vinnie over to break your legs, or something along those lines.

The times in the 1970's were a bit more relaxed then today.
I would take blank checks and money orders on my bike a few miles to one of the small branch were I would stay and shred bank documents in the basement.
I was not bonded, didn't have a gun, but at 17 I did have a key to the bank.

While in college I did a few odd non-theatre jobs.
I worked for a Temp agency by day and did Theatre at night.
I painting fuel tanks, cleaned stores, but mostly it was stacking and moving items in warehouses.
One summer I worked a month or so with my brother in a metal shop that made "Radio Wave Proof" rooms that were used to protect early computers.
If you ever want to get really dirty you have to work in a metal shop.

After Grad School I again got to work with my older brother for a year in a Photographic Studio in NYC.
I built sets that were used in photos for items sold in JC Penny and other catalogues, so it was almost like Theatre work.
It was fun for a month or so but I was glad when I got to go back to Theatre full time and have never had to work another non-theatre job after that.

I do have one good story from my time at the Photo Studio.
One winter day I walked six or seven blocks to go buy paint needed for a job.
It was cold and icy and on the way back I slipped on the ice and a gallon of brown paint flew in the air and came dome on the sidewalk.
How do you clean paint off the sidewalk in the middle of Manhattan?
I tried to mop it up some with an old newspaper and covered it a bit but I could not do much.
So I had to go back and buy more paint.
On my return trip past the spill I saw a man in a suit getting up covered in paint.
I turned around and walked the long way back to work.
I have always assumed the man had to go to a store a buy new clothes before he could go to work or back home.

Yes I followed my older brother into theatre and a few jobs, but I did pay it back by getting my younger brother into theatre and got him a paying job one summer.
I had a few other little jobs here and there: I got paid to mow a lawn once, I sold greeting cards door-to-door (I think I had 1 order besides my mom), filled in helping paint a home on Fire Island and maybe a few other small jobs which have faded with time.

Again I have been lucky that I have been able to work in Theatre as much as I have.

Brush-up Rehearsals

As I gained more experience working on the High School shows I also got more responsibility with the Sayville Musical Workshop.
During my Junior year I moved from running a follow spot to helping run the lighting board.
I also helped to hang and focus the lights.
The Workshop had an old resistance dimmer lighting board, sometimes called a piano board, that they would wire in to run extra lights.
It was old even by 1972 standards and a bit dangerous.
You could easily stick your hand into the unit and get electrocuted if were not careful, but it still worked and gave us a few more lights to work with.

That year I worked three productions with the Workshop: Promises, Promises, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and Camelot.

When I tell people I work in Theatre they often ask if I have ever worked with anybody famous.
I always say: “Besides Me?”
I tell them yes and give them a few names.
Many times the people I worked with were not famous at the time I knew them but went on to gain fame later on.

Ten or fifteen years after working on Camelot I was looking through the program and there was a photo of the actor who played King Arthur.
At the time he was a 35 year old businessman who liked doing Theatre.
He turned out to be two time Tony Award winning actor Brian Dennehy.
I really do not remember much about him, I was just 16, and he was just another actor in the show.

Brian Dennehy in Camelot 1972

It was while working on Camelot that I saw what fun people could have during Brush Up rehearsals.

Now as an educator for 27 years I will always tell my students that every rehearsal is important and that a brush-up rehearsal is important to the show, and not a time for the cast and crew to have fun.
A brush-up rehearsal is done after a show has been off for a few days and helps the actors with their lines and timing before the next weekend run of a play.

As it turns out Brian Dennehy could not make the brush-up but the director wanted to have it anyway, plus I think it was just his chance to play the King.
After weeks of hard work everyone just want s to have a little fun.
Lines are said a little different, accents used, different props used etc.
During Camelot’s brush-up the royal Thrones were replace by two toilets.
At some point in the second act the director got pissed and yelled at everyone to take it seriously.
Not everyone had heard the outburst and someone had replaced Excalibur with a toilet plunger for the last big speech.
From behind a large box upstage I remember seeing a hand come up as the director was emoting away and replaced the sword taking the plunger away just in time.
I do not remember any other production with as much fooling around, but with the absence of the lead actor and the director overacting it was hard not to have some fun.

Now on brush-ups for other shows I worked on maybe the lighting was just a bit too green or lights flickered during a romantic moment or maybe a sound cue or two may have been added, but I would not know anything about it.
I was too busy laughing.

Adventures in OZ

I am not sure why we did a third production my junior year but in May we did The Wizard of Oz.
The play was staged in the Theatre in the then new Junior High.
Before we opened we took scenes to all the elementary schools to advertise and drum up a demand and sell lots of tickets.
It was interesting to see all the stages and lighting equipment in the various schools.
Green Avenue Elementary was the oldest school and had some of the scarcest lighting equipment I have ever seen that was still in use, but it also had some fun features like pop-up footlights.

By contrast the lighting in the Junior High used a newer more state-of-the-art electronic dimmer control board.
It was fun to work in a new stage, but it was far from perfect.
I have worked in many theatres over the years each has it own unique oddities, but some are just poorly designed.
The Junior High stage was designed as a multi-purpose theatre, always a bad idea.
One big problem I remember was that you had to wiggle through the locking rail for the fly system to get off stage right.
You can not get any scenery past the locking rail to the off stage storage space.

They had many rules for us and of course we broke most of them.
The told us not to paint, nail or screw into the stage floor, we did all three.
We painted the Yellow Brick Road right on the stage floor.
I think it was washable paint, but if it was not it must have worn off by now.

We built the sets in the High School stage and they were moved over to the Junior High.
I had an accident that has scared me to this day.
I was working on the house that fell on the Wicked Witch of the West.
I was using a Yankee or ratcheting screw driver, with sharp groves along the shaft, to put in some screws used to hold the wall to the platform.

The Yankee Screw Driver was always hard to use and I am happy that we use drywall screws and screw guns today.

As I was sitting on the platform trying to both hold up the wall and put in the screws the Yankee slipped off and the metal groves cut into my arm.
At the same time the wall falls over on me with only my feet sticking out.
My memory has embellished that I was wearing red sneakers that day, or were they ruby red?
After what seemed like several minutes of laughter, I do not remember if they sang “Ding Dong the Witch is Dead”, the others on the stage crew lifted off the wall.

Using advanced stage crew first aid techniques, I used some paper towels to stop the bleeding.
I have a scar near my left elbow to this today.
I am not sure if the scar to my ego has ever healed.

The rest of the play went without incident.
　
　

B A N G !

By my junior year I had gained confidence working on the stage.
I was designing the lighting and helping building the sets.
I was given more responsibility and was enjoying it.
Our first play that year was Night Watch and I have no special recollections from this show so it must have all been wonderful and everyone had a great time.
. . . .or it was hell and I have blocked it all out.

The spring musical was The King and I and it was both fun and challenging.
We used risers as platforms for both the palace and dock scenes.
We decided to tape brown paper painted as wood grain for the dock in the first scene and then quickly tear it off for to reveal the palace for the rest of the play.
I helped paint the paper each day as it was ruined when we would tear it off.
The second or third time I decided to hide my name into the painted loops of the wood grain.
With only minutes to curtain I pointed it out to somebody who got a good laugh and we did it again the next day adding a few more names.
Never did hear any complaints from the director.

A special effect of a gunshot was needed when Tuptim or her lover is killed offstage.

* * * Now before I go on I must tell you that Sayville High School is a suburban school about 40 miles from NYC and not a rural school in the Midwest.
People are often surprised when I tell them that back in 1973 there was a rifle range in the basement of the school and it was not unusual to see somebody carrying a rifle case walking down the hall after hours.
I do not know if it is still there, but I can not imagine that they would still be using it.

So back to the play, and our technical advisor asked one of the students to bring in a rifle or two to use for the gun effect.
A blank was put into a .22 and was not loud enough.
A blank was put into a shotgun and again the teacher did not think it was loud enough.
Several live .22 bullets were fired backstage into the floor and into the stage left closet.
I saw a bullet hole in the ceiling of the closet years later when I made a return visit there.Next was a live shotgun blast into the floor up stage left under the risers.
I was running the lighting board stage right when the shot was fired and pellets from the shell ricocheted under the risers and came out on my side scaring everyone there.
The next day I had a box of newspaper there for them to shoot into and contain the blast.
I was told later that we were lucky that the paper never caught fire.
What were they thinking.

Now I have been involved in a lot of wild and unsafe stuff in theatre, and I am guilty of some of it, but this was the most unsafe, insane thing I have ever seen.
Wait, there was a crazy stunt in Barnum years later, but that story is still to come.

I do not remember why, but we did a third production my junior year.
In May we did The Wizard of Oz.
Stories about this show and touring scenes to the elementary schools coming up next.

A List of Shows, Part 1

I feel lucky that I was able to work on and see many shows before I went off to college.
When I talk to new students who want to work in Theatre I will ask them how many shows they have worked on and how many professional plays they have seen.
I often am shocked on how few shows the students have been exposed to.
There are of course exceptions and sometimes I see myself in them and wonder what adventures lay ahead for them.

Just for reference a list of plays I worked on or saw while in High School follows:

Plays worked on while in High School
Love is Contagious
Li’l Abner
Done to Death
Brigadoon
Night Watch
Holiday Show ‘72
King and I
Wizard of Oz
Holiday Show ’73
Death and Life of Sneaky Fitch
Guys and Dolls

Plays worked on with the Sayville Musical Workshop

Hello Dolly
Guys and Dolls
Fiddler on the Roof
Anything Goes
Camelot
Promises, Promises
Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Company
No, No Nanette

Broadway and Off-Broadway shows I saw while in High School
Jesus Christ Superstar
Godspell
Grease
Pippin
The Fantasticks

In Paris
Cyrano de Bergerac

There are some other odd bits of things I saw or worked on.
I know I saw a production of Amahl and the Night Visitors at some time or place but the details escape me.
I went to see the Rockettes’ Christmas Show with my Family at Radio City Music Hall.
As a student the school took us to see the film Nicholas and Alexandra also at Radio City.
We had touring events come through the High School and I often got to work setting them up.
A production from Julliard and several music events, but again the details have been lost to me.

More surprises awaited me junior year and details are coming up next.