Although I had many issues and problems putting together the set for A Christmas Carol, the production looked good and the audience enjoyed it.
I enjoyed it and liked the original songs written for the show.
It was put together like a summer stock show, quick, cheap and with most of the people hired in NYC with one popular local actor staring as Scrooge.
I found out that the actor who played Scrooge, George F. Piehl, still works in the area and has his own Theatre Company and recently celebrated 34 years of performing on stage at the Palace Theatre with a review show back in September.
http://www.stageoneproductions.net/
As I had noted earlier, things were not quit what I expected when I got to New Hampshire.
The cast and crew were mostly college students or recent grads like me and the show was put together in just a few weeks.
So when I got to town I found out a few things were not as they had told me in NYC, I had no crew; the shop was small, unheated and had few tools.
The budget, if there was one, was very tight and for most of the set I would pull and adapt set pieces from their stock.
I was told that I could charge paint and other items at the store right next to the Theatre, but when I tried to charge the first time I got yelled at by the owner.
“How dare you try to charge more when you guys already own us a lot for the last show!!!”
I apologized and explained that I was new, but then I went and yelled at the producer and told him to never put me in that position again.
I cannot find the right words to tell you how bad the rooming house really was.
The owner of the house ran a local photo shop and when I stopped by one day to complain about the lack of heat, he suggested that I leave to oven on with the door open.
It truly was a “Welfare Hotel” mostly filled with old men except for myself, my assistant and the “Creepy guy from across the hall”.
I was told that the “Creepy guy from across the hall” had just gotten out of jail, something about a murder but no proof.
One night when I came home from work I found blood outside his door and that the door was full of marks and dents.
Seems that the “Creepy guy from across the hall” had beaten the shit out of his girlfriend who was trying to kick in his door, but when the police came she begged to stay with him.
Ah, true love.
I was a bit apprehensive one day when the “Creepy guy from across the hall” knocked on my door and asked for my help.
It seems that one of the old men who lived down the hall had fallen out of bed and the “Creepy guy from across the hall” needed my help to pick him up and put him back in bed.
The long walk to and from the Theatre was extra hard when it hit 20 below zero, before the wind-chill factor was added, and I had to stop over for a while in the apartment of a co-worker and warm up a bit before I tried to make it back to my place.
I had to pull ice chunks out of my bread.
Fun.
One night while walking home alone in the cold and snow some crazy guy was following me, he was dancing in the road, bouncing about and acting, well crazy.
He did not worry me too much except when he ran ahead of me and down the side street that I had to take to get home and I decided that it might be wise to take out my new Buck knife and have it ready just in case, but I luckily did not need it.
I have never felt that I needed to have a weapon ready before or since that night; even I was staying at my brother’s place back in the summer of 1976 and was taking the “A” Train from Times Square back to Brooklyn late at night.
The show went well but there were a few surprises yet to come.
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