Friday, January 28, 2011

Summer Theatre in New Jersey

In between looking for work I took time to get together with 3 college friends to see the Grateful Dead at the Nassau Coliseum on May 6, 1981.
I thought it was a pretty good show and later it was made into a selection of the “Dick’s Picks” series of CDs.

http://www.amazon.com/Dicks-Picks-Vol-13-Uniondale/dp/B00005V8PM

You can buy it and check it out for yourself.
Another show that I went to back in 1977 was made into Volume 34 of the series and I would also recommend that you give it a listen.

http://www.amazon.com/Dicks-Picks-34-Community-Rochester/dp/B001W2FDOI

I was surprised to see a photo in the liner notes that could be me, it really is too small to tell, but I like to think it is me standing there grooving to the Dead at the show in Rochester.

Although I enjoyed working at Theatre Three I needed to look for a better paying full-time job.
I landed a job designing the sets and lights for three summer productions at Seton Hall University in South Orange, New Jersey.
The job was just for the summer but they were also looking for someone to take over full time in the fall so I jumped at the chance to go there.
The productions were the musical Candide, Shadow of a Gunman by Sean O’Casey and Da by Hugh Leonard.

I had worked on the first play of the summer, Candide, five years before at Gateway Playhouse so I was familiar with the play but I was not ready for the fact that it was a true Theatre-in-the-Round.
Quickly I had to learn how to design both sets and lights in the round.
It was typical Summer Theatre with limited money, crew and time but it went well and I was happy with the results.

The school had arranged a room in a local home own by an old Polish lady who had been renting rooms to young college men since the early 1950’s.
I was told that the room I had in the attic had once been rented to local New Radio DJ “Cousin Brucie” back when he was in school or working  but his bio says he went to NYU, so I really do not know.
In any case he was once one of the most powerful DJs in America and was the man who introduced the Beatles at their first Shea Stadium concert in 1965.

Unlike in New Hampshire, my assistant actually worked with me even though he too had a part in the first play.
There were also a couple of young interns and the production manager who helped from time to time.
It was a nice place to work mostly in part because it was not minus 20 outside.

The cast and crew were a friendly group and we ended many days at one of the local restaurants, most often “Bunny’s Pizza and Booze” which is still there, but they dropped the “Booze” part of the name.

 http://maps.google.com/maps/place?hl=en&rlz=1T4GGLL_enUS355US356&wrapid=tlif129574825140310&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=bunny's+pizza+south+orange&fb=1&gl=us&hq=bunny's+pizza&hnear=South+Orange,+NJ&cid=17215325486080447497

Being a Catholic University there were not too many naked people running about as had happened in previous theatres, but somehow we still managed to have a good time that summer.

As with most of my experiences working in Theatre, I have fond memories of working at Seton Hall that summer and some stories about what happened both on and off stage to follow soon.




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Monday, January 17, 2011

THEATRE THREE, Port Jefferson, NY

Going back and looking at my tax records, I made less than $500 in 1980; at least that is what I paid taxes on.
So in working on a couple of rock shows in Ann Arbor, several freelance jobs in NYC and my month in working in New Hampshire I took home less than $500.
It seems that I was not going to get rich working in Theatre.

There were not too many places hiring in January when I got back to New York.
I read the trade newspapers and sent out more resumes and waited to see what would come up.
In the middle of February 1981 I was hired to design the lights for a production of the Threepenny Opera.

I do not remember how I found out about the job as I had been looking for theatre working in NYC and this was on Long Island close to where I lived.
My former employer supplied the lighting equipment to the Theatre and may have told about the job, but I am not sure.
Theatre Three is in Port Jefferson on the north shore of Long Island about 20 miles from my family’s house in Sayville.


I both excited and a bit worried about designing the lights as it had been almost a year and a half since I had last deigned the lighting for a play.
I had designed several sets and had done mostly set construction work during that time.
The building was long and narrow and had been a Movie Theatre at one time and there was also a Cabaret Theatre in the lower level.
It seemed that the bar in the Cabaret was a popular place for off-duty cops and nurses to hang out and drink.
One day when walking through the bar one of the cops thought I was carrying a gun, but it was just my new Buck knife on my belt.



The Threepenny Opera, 1981

It turned out that I worked with director before on several productions by the Sayville Musical Workshop
and one of the actors in the play, Brent Erlanson, had played Bobby in the SMW production of Company and I was saddened to learn that he passed away recently.

They must have liked me as I was hired to design both the set and lights for the next production of Table Manners, one of the three plays in Alan Ayckbourn’s The Norman Conquests trilogy.
Unfortunately I do not have any photos of the play, but it is the only play that I have worked on that was reviewed by the New York Times.
The review was so-so:

http://www.nytimes.com/1981/05/03/nyregion/theater-in-review-table-manners-offrs-meal-in-itself.html

Of course my name is not in the review, it never mentions the set or that they were even are on a stage.
There is nothing in the review for me to say:  “Hay, I Did That!”
Oh well, maybe next time.

The construction staff were not trained “Theatre” people but local carpenters who used 2 x 4’s and sheetrock to build the walls on the set.
I guess it made sense for them to build it that way as they were able to use the skills of the people who they had available and saved money doing it.
The finished set looked fine and cost less than if they had used 1 x 3’s and muslin, the common building materials used in theatre at that time.
It would not have worked if there had been multiple sets or were trying to fly scenery in and out.

While at Theatre Three I also did the lighting for some kind of fashion show/benefit to help some good cause or another.
One of my recently graduated students currently works at Theatre Three.
I am happy to know that they are still there and doing well.

I was disappointed to learn that The Airport Playhouse, another Long Island Theatre that I once worked in, closed this past December.




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Friday, January 14, 2011

Leaving New Hampshire

I enjoyed the people I worked with in New Hampshire, but it was the working conditions were tough.
As I have in the past I have gone through programs and have looked up some of the people I have worked with to see where they are now and what they are doing.
As noted in a past post, George, the actor who played Scrooge is still living and working in Manchester.
He was a good guy and made those from out of town feel welcome.

I found out that the extra stage manager who they let design the lights is currently works at Lincoln Center in NYC.
Although he was not able to help too much in the shop I liked my assistant and we shared the experience of living in the “welfare hotel” and I was glad he was there when ever the “creepy guy from across the hall” was around.
Besides talking about him seeing the Beatles we talked about many different things including the poet Richard Brautigan whose new book The Tokyo-Montana Express I was reading at the time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Brautigan


He is best known for his book Trout Fishing in America.
I enjoyed the book but I think I enjoy the folk group that took its name even better.
I have seen them perform live twice and would recommend both their music and Brautigan’s books.





I found out that my assistant, Steve Witting, did do a little more technical theatre but turned to the Dark Side and became an actor full time.
Some of you may remember him as a Burt on TV in The Hogan Family in the late 1980’s.
He has done a number of movies and was recently in Shutter Island and on Boardwalk Empire on HBO.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0937059/

A year later I would run into staff Technical Director who ran the Palace Theatre while I was walking through Madison Square Park in NYC.
At the time I could not remember his name or where we had worked together but just had a general “Hi how are you doing” conversation.
It took a while but I finally remembered him hours later.
I found that he does lighting work in the Boston and surrounding New England area.

Someplace I still have a pair of scissors that I accidently took from the Theatre when I left.
Unfortunately I never got any production photos of the play so the scissors are my only memento of my time working in New Hampshire.

Just as I had done a few months before, I moved back to Long Island and begin again to look for work.
It was January 1981 and things were a bit slow at first  but soon they would pick up and the next chapter in my adventures would begin.




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Tuesday, January 4, 2011

It's 20 Below Zero, What Could Go Wrong?

I do not remember that there was much of a set for A Christmas Carol, just a few pieces to suggest some locations and lots of fog.
Although they can be a problematic; we used a large Dry Ice Fog machine that spread out a nice two foot thick layer of fog all over the stage floor.
There was one day when something was different; the temperature, humidity or a door open some place, when the fog came out of the hose it just stayed together, ran across the stage floor and over the edge into the orchestra pit.
The next day it was back to normal and we never did find out what made it do that.

Someone had the idea to have the Ghost of Christmas Present make his first entrance flying in from above in a large Santa-like chair.
It did not seem all that safe but many ropes and two batten pipe that were tied together were used to make it work.
It was hard to keep it all in balance as a large actor got in and out of the chair and we had to stop it from zooming up and smashing the lights or other scenery above the stage.
A hundred pound plus sandbag was used to balance the weight when the actor was not in the chair.
During the intermission the chair was lowered, sandbag was removed as the actor sat in the chair and then flown up and out of sight.
It took four of us at the fly rail to keep the chair from flying up out of control as the actor, and his weight, stepped off of the chair.
Although it was an accident waiting to happen, the audience loved as the chair was lowered in.
Fortunately there was never a problem with the chair.

One night there was a robbery from the dressing rooms when someone snuck in during a performance and stole some of the actors’ wallets and a gold watch from George, the actor playing Scrooge.
George was from the area and went out after the show, down the alley behind the theatre and found where the thief tossed the empty wallets.
One of the actresses was fortunate in that she had put most of her recently cashed paycheck behind one of the dividers in her wallet and it was still there when it was recovered.
No one else was to be as lucky.

We had ten or more of shows before Christmas and several more after a day or two off.
I rode down to New York City with someone from the company and took a train out to Long Island to spend the holiday with my family, but had to fly back up to New Hampshire on Christmas night.
Working holidays is the price one pays for all the “Glory” of working in Show Biz.

I had gotten a new Buck knife from my brother for Christmas and put it in my bag to check, but when I got to the airport I found out that it was a little twelve seat twin engine plane and there were no place for checked bags and I had to carry it on with me.
I told the guard at the check point about the knife and she did not care and said to have a nice trip.
Ah the good old days of 1980 when things were a little easier.

The flight was fine but it seemed to be even colder than before.
I was concerned that the next play was to open in less than three weeks and we had not yet had a production meeting.
The set that I designed was just small bits pieces of scenery and although it worked for A Christmas Carol I did not know how I was going to design and build the set for Oklahoma! by myself in such a short time.
I was not going to be able to paint a backdrop or two in the small shop or build all of the required elements needed for the musical and it might be too late to rent a set.

On the day of the last show of A Christmas Carol I had decided to quit and go back to New York.
I was cold, I had been lied to about many things and just wanted to go back and start again.
As I walked up the stairs to the Theatre office I could see people running about and sensed that something was wrong.
The sprinkler system had frozen and burst the pipes and flooded the theatre with thousands of gallons of water.
Water poured down from the ceiling into the house left box seats and then spilling over into the orchestra pit and flooding the dressing rooms.
The dummer was near tears as his hand-made wooden drum kit was floating in the water.

The last performance was cancelled and we struck the set.
The company had planned to do the next show in a concert format at a local high school and told me that I would not be needed.
They gave me two weeks severance pay.
It took me a day or two to pack up and arrange to go back home.
As I walked past the rehearsal studio a few blocks from the Theatre I saw that there had been a burst pipe there as well, as a river of ice was coming down the stairs and out the front door.

My last night there I packed up my things and sat in my cold room watching the ball drop on New Year’s  Rockin' Eve and when it hit the bottom all I could think was:

Fuck You Dick Clark!”

So there I was at 8:00 AM on January 1st, waiting in the cold to take a bus back to New York, thinking about what was in store for me in 1981 and beyond.





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Sunday, January 2, 2011

A Christmas Carol, December 1980

For those of us who work in Theatre we all know that many of the things that go wrong behind the scenes are never seen by the audience.
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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