Like many colleges, back when I was at UB there was a general education requirement to take a selection of classes not in my major in addition to Foreign Language and Physical Education courses too.
Compared to the “Gen Ed” program at the College that I currently teach, it was not too demanding and I enjoyed most of the classes that I took.
Among the classes that I took were several History and Political Science courses along with a class in Geography.
I also took a class in Electronics offered by the Medical Technology Department.
I never would have thought to take this class but it was the only electronic course at UB that would allow non-majors take it.
It turned out that the professor was a local actor and liked having Theatres Majors in the class and often made jokes that only we would laugh at.
The lecture part of the class had about 75 to 100 women and only three men, all theatre majors.
The Lab part of the course was held off campus at a local Hospital and my lab partner was a woman who lived near me in the dorm.
As much as I love Theatre, I found that I really enjoyed the non-theatre subjects and being away from the Theatre and meeting new groups of students.
Of course the fact that the class was all women was very cool too.
I had to take two "Phys Ed" courses and one was called “Flag Football and Fitness and Conditioning”.
It was co-ed and lots of fun as we played football until it got too cold and spent the rest of the semester jogging and working out in the weight room.
One day in the middle of one semester we came in for class and found a note that said “Teacher Dead - Class Cancelled”.
Our original teacher was feisty, fun, had great stories and was an early recipient of knee replacement surgery.
Well we soon got a new instructor, a nice enough guy who let us play on the trampoline, but we missed the old one.
I took four semesters of French, but I must admit I do not remember too much today.
One day, while still living on the new campus, I got up early and took the bus to the main campus to be on time for my 8:00 AM class.
Of course it was cold and snowy; 14 degrees and very windy as I recall.
I got off the bus and walked across the open campus to my class and just in time to see someone leaving a note on the blackboard that the class was canceled.
Fortunately this time the teacher was not dead, but it was 8:02 AM and I was cold, hungry.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
A is for Apple
In an earlier post I talked about how once I got past my first few classes and had worked on several productions in college my responsibilities grew.
I first became a Master Electrician and Master Carpenter then a Technical Direction and Lighting Designer.
What I had not planned on was that I would be asked to grade my fellow students.
First I was just asked how well the student had done working on the various crews but later I was asked to give them a grade.
I always found this a bit hard but I found that I enjoyed teaching the new students what to do and how to do it.
I did not know at that time that I would become a teacher but the thought had crossed my mind.
I remember one time there were a couple of girls working on a crew, I believe that they were nursing majors.
One day they gave me an apple one day with a note tied to it that said “A is for Apple”.
I ate the apple and gave it back to them with a new note “C is for Core”.
Unlike the previous summer I had not made any plans to work when I went home after my junior year at UB.
I ended up working at a small professional theatre just a few miles from where I lived on Long Island.
The Theatre, The Airport Playhouse was in a bunch of industrial building near the Long Island MacArthur Airport.
(Trivia: The old airport building at MacArthur was used in the opening of the 1970 movie The Out of Towers with Jack Lemon.)
The Theatre was not big, the stage was plywood resting on a bed of 55 gallons drums and I could reach the lights with just a short ladder.
I was hired to be the Lighting Designer for two shows; Rogers and Hart, A Musical Celebration and The Sound of Music.
I also had to be the lighting board operator and follow spot operator, a juggling act that I found out later has been done by many young designers.
The shows were OK, my Lighting was "Spectacular" of course, but more important is that this is where I would meet Richard Logothetis, the owner of Lycian Stage Lighting.
Logothetis’ shop was still on Long Island at that time and by luck was just next door to the Theatre.
OK, you would have to take a short path and go through a small break in the trees, but the parking lots basically backed up to each other.
He supplied the Lighting equipment that was used by the Theatre and I met him when he came by to fix something.
We talked and became friendly and I would work for the next summer after I graduated from UB.
I will talk more about that in future blog entries.
http://www.lycian.com/Home/index.htm
Because I was not making much money at the Theatre I took temp day jobs working through an agency.
I worked a variety of jobs, some for just for a day but one lasted several weeks.
You would have to show up at 6:00 AM and wait to get sent out if there were any jobs.
On the first job I was sent to as I drove up to the area of the place I saw picket signs and was very concerned, I was not going to be a scab and cross the line.
It turned out to be the business next store.
Over the summer I worked in several warehouses moving items and filling orders to be shipped out.
I also worked as a cleaner for a couple of days, something I was used to from my high school job.
The most memorable job was being sent to paint the side of a large fuel storage tank. I had a safety harness on and climbed up the side of the tank, not the biggest, but still large enough.
It was hot, hard to do and very scary when one of the trucks in the loading dock caught fire.
I did not know that I could move so fast as when I tried to get down and away from the fire.
I was invited back the next day but chose not to go back, but found out later that I was the only one who ever came back from lunch to the job.
I was able to get my younger brother a job as the prop master for The Sound of Music.
He worked very hard and did and good job and was very happy when he got paid at the end, $100, the same as me.
I knew that both of us were being under paid, but at 14 he was very happy with the money he got.
What surprises me is that the theatre is still there, thirty plus years later.
They have gone through many staff changes and are still in the same building, and the last time I drove by it does not look like they have expanded at all.
http://www.airportplayhouse.com/index.html
I just found out that Airport Playhouse is closing as of December 2010
Senior year in college and making plans for the future was just ahead for me.
I first became a Master Electrician and Master Carpenter then a Technical Direction and Lighting Designer.
What I had not planned on was that I would be asked to grade my fellow students.
First I was just asked how well the student had done working on the various crews but later I was asked to give them a grade.
I always found this a bit hard but I found that I enjoyed teaching the new students what to do and how to do it.
I did not know at that time that I would become a teacher but the thought had crossed my mind.
I remember one time there were a couple of girls working on a crew, I believe that they were nursing majors.
One day they gave me an apple one day with a note tied to it that said “A is for Apple”.
I ate the apple and gave it back to them with a new note “C is for Core”.
Unlike the previous summer I had not made any plans to work when I went home after my junior year at UB.
I ended up working at a small professional theatre just a few miles from where I lived on Long Island.
The Theatre, The Airport Playhouse was in a bunch of industrial building near the Long Island MacArthur Airport.
(Trivia: The old airport building at MacArthur was used in the opening of the 1970 movie The Out of Towers with Jack Lemon.)
The Theatre was not big, the stage was plywood resting on a bed of 55 gallons drums and I could reach the lights with just a short ladder.
I was hired to be the Lighting Designer for two shows; Rogers and Hart, A Musical Celebration and The Sound of Music.
I also had to be the lighting board operator and follow spot operator, a juggling act that I found out later has been done by many young designers.
The shows were OK, my Lighting was "Spectacular" of course, but more important is that this is where I would meet Richard Logothetis, the owner of Lycian Stage Lighting.
Logothetis’ shop was still on Long Island at that time and by luck was just next door to the Theatre.
OK, you would have to take a short path and go through a small break in the trees, but the parking lots basically backed up to each other.
He supplied the Lighting equipment that was used by the Theatre and I met him when he came by to fix something.
We talked and became friendly and I would work for the next summer after I graduated from UB.
I will talk more about that in future blog entries.
http://www.lycian.com/Home/index.htm
Because I was not making much money at the Theatre I took temp day jobs working through an agency.
I worked a variety of jobs, some for just for a day but one lasted several weeks.
You would have to show up at 6:00 AM and wait to get sent out if there were any jobs.
On the first job I was sent to as I drove up to the area of the place I saw picket signs and was very concerned, I was not going to be a scab and cross the line.
It turned out to be the business next store.
Over the summer I worked in several warehouses moving items and filling orders to be shipped out.
I also worked as a cleaner for a couple of days, something I was used to from my high school job.
The most memorable job was being sent to paint the side of a large fuel storage tank. I had a safety harness on and climbed up the side of the tank, not the biggest, but still large enough.
It was hot, hard to do and very scary when one of the trucks in the loading dock caught fire.
I did not know that I could move so fast as when I tried to get down and away from the fire.
I was invited back the next day but chose not to go back, but found out later that I was the only one who ever came back from lunch to the job.
I was able to get my younger brother a job as the prop master for The Sound of Music.
He worked very hard and did and good job and was very happy when he got paid at the end, $100, the same as me.
I knew that both of us were being under paid, but at 14 he was very happy with the money he got.
What surprises me is that the theatre is still there, thirty plus years later.
They have gone through many staff changes and are still in the same building, and the last time I drove by it does not look like they have expanded at all.
http://www.airportplayhouse.com/index.html
I just found out that Airport Playhouse is closing as of December 2010
Senior year in college and making plans for the future was just ahead for me.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Return to Buffalo
Because of scheduling of our current production and the renovations of the Tower Fine Arts Center, we had the set for our next play, “The Story” built by the UB scenic shop.
I had a chance to go back to UB two days last week and it seems strange to me as I write my blog about events that happened there over thirty years ago.
I had a chance to go back to UB two days last week and it seems strange to me as I write my blog about events that happened there over thirty years ago.
I have visited a few times over the years, but the university has changed and grown so large that I hardly recognize it.
Porter Quad
I had a little extra time and drove over to the Ellicott Complex where I lived for two years when it first opened in 1974.
The Ellicott Complex is one million square feet; six dorms, a theatre, classrooms and more.
Back when I was a student all the doors were always unlocked, but now it was mostly locked up, but I was able to get in.
I looked around a bit and went up to the second floor open plaza that runs between the many buildings of the complex.
My Sophomore year room was on the third floor to the far right
People either like or hate their design, maybe a bit futuristic at the time it opened, but the complex is still unique.
Many memories and stories, a few of which I have already shared here, came flooding back.
The huge multi-Theatre Arts Center was only a dream when I was a student there.
I was there last year for some workshops and had to laugh when I saw a few bits of equipment there were still there from my days a student.
The Set under construction in the UB Scene Shop
Last Friday I drove to Buffalo to pick up the set and returned it to Brockport where we unloaded it.
Over the next few weeks we will paint it, set it up, have a few rehearsals on it, then take the set down and truck it to Geva Theatre Center for a few performances.
Then we take it down and truck it back again to Brockport for a two week run in our Lab Theatre.
The set onstage at Brockport
When we are done with this production the set will have travel more then I have in the past few months.
Monday, March 8, 2010
Back to Work
It did not snow all the time and we did have time to work on many plays that year.
I enjoyed that I did many different jobs on the plays, not always doing the same thing.
As noted earlier during my Junior year at UB I worked as the Lighting Designer for Harold Pinter’s “Old Times", Technical Director for Euripides’ “The Bacchae” and the Stage Manager for Eric Bentley’s “From the Memories of Piteous Pilate” in addition to helping out on several other plays and dance concerts.
One of the lighting effects that people enjoyed in “Old Times” was the result of the set design and not my work.
The box set had a raked floor that ran upstage to the back of the Theatre and used the real window in the wall as part of the set.
During the play plywood sides had been added to stop them from rocking.
As Technical Director for “The Bacchea” I enjoyed working with the Scenic Designer, a fellow student, and drafting out the working drawings, many of which I still have.
This is well before AutoCAD and all the work was done with hand drafting.
I starting drafting in high school and really enjoyed it, even winning an award at graduation as the best draftsman along with a special technical theatre award.
It was during “The Bacchea” that an incident happened that changed the atmosphere for the rest of the school year.
A group of us had just come back from lunch in the student union.
There was some time to kill before the afternoon work call so I went into the tech office to work on the drafting for the play.
Unfortunately some of my friends choose to go to the basement smoke some Wacky Tabacki before the work call.
Of course they got caught by the faculty Technical Director and the two who worked for the department were fired.
I felt bad for them but I had to get on with the work on the show.
The set was a mix of ramps and platforms ay various angles and heights.
I had a hard time calculating all the leg heights because of the overlapping platforms in the design.
There were a few mistakes but easily fixed as we put the set in.
Just a year or two before we had lots of naked people onstage, (and backstage too) but by the time we did this show the cast was less willing to be naked in public.
The costume designer had designed costumes for the women in the chorus that were to be made of just a few layers of gauze and netlike material with the actresses naked underneath.
They were not happy and wanted to wear bodysuits under the costumes.
The designer said she did not want them to wear anything under the costume but said she would add a few more layers for modesty sake.
Well the actresses were still not happy and even more layers were added and the final costumes were very ugly highlighted by masks that had been crocheted.
Greek theatre does not always play too well today, but when the chorus came on the looked like a bunch of ragamuffins, and far from the sexy Bacchantes in the Designer’s vision, many people had to laugh.
I enjoyed that I did many different jobs on the plays, not always doing the same thing.
As noted earlier during my Junior year at UB I worked as the Lighting Designer for Harold Pinter’s “Old Times", Technical Director for Euripides’ “The Bacchae” and the Stage Manager for Eric Bentley’s “From the Memories of Piteous Pilate” in addition to helping out on several other plays and dance concerts.
One of the lighting effects that people enjoyed in “Old Times” was the result of the set design and not my work.
The box set had a raked floor that ran upstage to the back of the Theatre and used the real window in the wall as part of the set.
Pinter's “Old Times”
It was high enough off the ground so people would not look in but you could see the lighted windows of other nearby building, street lights and even a stop light if you sat in the right seat.
Somehow the fuzzy seats used on the set ended up in our house after the play.
They were not really that comfortable put still fun to play with as you could flip them so you could sit from either end.During the play plywood sides had been added to stop them from rocking.
As Technical Director for “The Bacchea” I enjoyed working with the Scenic Designer, a fellow student, and drafting out the working drawings, many of which I still have.
This is well before AutoCAD and all the work was done with hand drafting.
I starting drafting in high school and really enjoyed it, even winning an award at graduation as the best draftsman along with a special technical theatre award.
 |
| The Bacchea |
It was during “The Bacchea” that an incident happened that changed the atmosphere for the rest of the school year.
A group of us had just come back from lunch in the student union.
There was some time to kill before the afternoon work call so I went into the tech office to work on the drafting for the play.
Unfortunately some of my friends choose to go to the basement smoke some Wacky Tabacki before the work call.
Of course they got caught by the faculty Technical Director and the two who worked for the department were fired.
I felt bad for them but I had to get on with the work on the show.
The set was a mix of ramps and platforms ay various angles and heights.
I had a hard time calculating all the leg heights because of the overlapping platforms in the design.
There were a few mistakes but easily fixed as we put the set in.
Just a year or two before we had lots of naked people onstage, (and backstage too) but by the time we did this show the cast was less willing to be naked in public.
The costume designer had designed costumes for the women in the chorus that were to be made of just a few layers of gauze and netlike material with the actresses naked underneath.
They were not happy and wanted to wear bodysuits under the costumes.
The designer said she did not want them to wear anything under the costume but said she would add a few more layers for modesty sake.
Well the actresses were still not happy and even more layers were added and the final costumes were very ugly highlighted by masks that had been crocheted.
Greek theatre does not always play too well today, but when the chorus came on the looked like a bunch of ragamuffins, and far from the sexy Bacchantes in the Designer’s vision, many people had to laugh.
Friday, March 5, 2010
Snow, Fun and even more Snow
In the fall of 1976 I was living in Clement Hall on the South campus of UB.
My roommate from the year before (a Theatre major) and two friends (one from his hometown and another Theatre major) rented half a house a few blocks from campus on Minnesota Avenue.
One day in the fall I went to visit them and it is best to always assume that it was a cold and snowy day during that year, but more about the Blizzard of ’77 later.
When I was about to leave another friend of one of the house mates was leaving also so we walked together.
She was a black woman who happened to be a lesbian, why both facts are important to know coming up below.
I will call her Vivian for this story.
We walked the mile or so back to the campus and chose to cut through the Student Union to warm up.
As we came to the Ballroom we saw that there was a party going on inside and two black men were “working” the door.
Back then there always was a party somewhere on campus and always lots to drink.
One of the men was my RA and the other was the president of the Black Student Government who happened to be a Theatre major.
They were happy to see me and happy that I was with a black woman , but I was not going to try to explain our relationship to them.
The party was for minority Freshman and the first drink was free.
I was neither but they gave us both a handful of drink tickets and invited us in.
Well we both went in and enjoyed a few drinks.
I do not know how long Vivian and I stayed and I do not remember how much we drank, but I am sure we had a good time.
I did not see much more of Vivian’s as her friend moved out of the Minnesota house a few weeks later and I moved in the middle of January just in time for the Blizzard of ’77.
We had a great time in that house the rest of the year.
Blizzard of ’77
By the End of 1976 Buffalo had set a new season record for snow fall.
All of the snow that came after the first of the New Year was “Bonus” snow.
Classes began in the middle of January and before the end of the first week there was a snow storm that closed the college for a few days.
We went back to school the next week but a few days later the Blizzard of ’77 hit, just in time for my 21st birthday.
We had plenty of food and beer at our house and did not suffer.
We listened to music, drank and had a good time staying in as there was no place open to go if we wanted to anyway.
We listened to music, drank and had a good time staying in as there was no place open to go if we wanted to anyway.
A few days after the storm my Grandfather passed away but there was no way I was going to get down to Long Island from Buffalo at that time.
It was fitting that he died during the Blizzard of ’77 as he was born during the Blizzard of ’88 (that is 1888 of course).
Slowly the town dug out and things got back to normal.
One of the first places we ventured out to was the corner bar just a block or two away.
I was in the bar with one of my housemates when my old roommate from the dorm from which I had just moved out of came in.
He was already very drunk, something that he did too often.
No more then five minutes later the bouncer violently threw him out the front door.
I jumped up to see if I could save him from a beating.
My new house mate found his coat and we walked him back to the dorm.
I never found out why he was thrown out, I assumed he must have vomited or stumbled into the ladies room or a bit of both.
So through three feet of snow we walked him back over a mile to his dorm and then walked all the way back to our house.
I am not sure I could do it all today, but when you are 21 years old it is all just a great adventure and lots of fun.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Stulls Lumber
I have been very busy at school with our current production of Shaw’s Arms and the Man which just opened this past weekend.
I plan to continue with tales of my junior year at college but first a new story.
Last Thursday most everything was ready for the play to open.
We use special matches in the play and the match striker we had attached to a set piece had been painted over and no longer worked.
The long fireplace matches that we are using are hard to find but I thought I would try Stull’s Lumber, our local lumber yard, because they have many unique items and have saved me and our productions many times in the past.
We have a new Lowe’s in town that has taken most of their business away, but I enjoy going to Stull’s when I can.
So I ran out for some food and to try to find a new box of matches.
When I got to the lumber yard I asked the owner Bill if he had any of the matches and sure enough in a dark and little used back corner there was one last box with a price tag dated 1996.
Because they were old he gave me a nice discount, and as we had often done in the past, we made small talk as I checked out.
As we talked he just happened to mention that he had gone to a prep school.
I asked him where and he said Massachusetts.
I asked myself what I knew about prep schools in New England and the only thing I came up with was that the author John Irving went to one and was on the wrestling team and that it had been a part of some of his books.
So just continuing our small talk, we had already talked about the snow; I asked him if his school had a wrestling team.
Of course he wanted to know why asked and I told him why.
Then to my surprise he said that John Irving had been his college roommate.
It seems that they both went to the same prep school and decided to be roommates when they went to Syracuse University.
I also told me that he thought he recognized himself in one of the characters in one of Irving’s books.
Now I have to go back and re-read some of them.
Lowe’s has lots of items, and may be cheaper, but I will never get the help and interesting stories that I get from our local lumber yard.
I highly recommend shopping at locally owned stores and reading the books of John Irving:
http://www.john-irving.com/
Last Thursday most everything was ready for the play to open.
We use special matches in the play and the match striker we had attached to a set piece had been painted over and no longer worked.
The long fireplace matches that we are using are hard to find but I thought I would try Stull’s Lumber, our local lumber yard, because they have many unique items and have saved me and our productions many times in the past.
We have a new Lowe’s in town that has taken most of their business away, but I enjoy going to Stull’s when I can.
So I ran out for some food and to try to find a new box of matches.
When I got to the lumber yard I asked the owner Bill if he had any of the matches and sure enough in a dark and little used back corner there was one last box with a price tag dated 1996.
Because they were old he gave me a nice discount, and as we had often done in the past, we made small talk as I checked out.
As we talked he just happened to mention that he had gone to a prep school.
I asked him where and he said Massachusetts.
I asked myself what I knew about prep schools in New England and the only thing I came up with was that the author John Irving went to one and was on the wrestling team and that it had been a part of some of his books.
So just continuing our small talk, we had already talked about the snow; I asked him if his school had a wrestling team.
Of course he wanted to know why asked and I told him why.
Then to my surprise he said that John Irving had been his college roommate.
It seems that they both went to the same prep school and decided to be roommates when they went to Syracuse University.
I also told me that he thought he recognized himself in one of the characters in one of Irving’s books.
Now I have to go back and re-read some of them.
Lowe’s has lots of items, and may be cheaper, but I will never get the help and interesting stories that I get from our local lumber yard.
I highly recommend shopping at locally owned stores and reading the books of John Irving:
http://www.john-irving.com/
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Junior Year at UB 1976-7
I was eager to get back to college after all the work I had done in the summer of 1976.
This would be a bit different that school year as I decided to move to the main campus closer to the theatre Department and most of my classes.
The new campus at UB was fun, but I was spending too much time on a bus getting back and forth just to go back to the dorm to sleep after long days at the Theatre.
The Theatre Department’s Lighting Design teacher had taken a leave to finish his MFA and we had his assistant in charge that year.
I guess I was a bit pumped, a junior now ready to take on new challenges and responsibilities.
That year I again worked on many plays in many different capacities including serving as the Lighting Designer for Harold Pinter’s “Old Times", Technical Director for Euripides’ “The Bacchae” and the Stage Manager for Eric Bentley’s “From the Memories of Piteous Pilate”.
We had a nice core of tech students who had now worked together on many shows over two years.
We were now upper classmen and took leadership roles on all of the productions, but still worked on each others shows even if not assigned.
Even with all our work we always found time to party.
By my junior year many of the theatre majors had moved off campus as I would do in the spring semester.
One friend and his housemates had a great Halloween party that year and another the next year.
They got complaints from the neighborhood homeowners association, so you know it must have been a great party.
What was there to complain about?
They moved their living room furniture, rugs, TV and lights all on the lawn for a nice display.
Inside there was plenty to drink and someone had set the beer up so it came out of the kitchen water faucet when you turned it on.
The next year to top the lawn display from the previous year they took a car that one of them had been working on and tipped it on its side, “crashing” into the house, with a dead body hanging out the window and colored lights inside the car.
Working as the Stage Manager for Eric Bentley’s “From the Memories of Piteous Pilate” was interesting and different from the things I normally worked on.
Eric Bentley, 93 as I write this, is a well known and respected critic and scholar of the work of Bertolt Brecht.
His best known play is “Are You Now or Have You Ever Been: The Investigations of Show-Business by the Un-American Activities Committee 1947-1958”.
In his prime he toured the world doing his one man show signing the songs of Bertolt Brecht.
For several years Bentley was a guest professor at UB and came to some of our rehearsals.
He gave me script updates from time-to-time, but the director told me to just thank him and put them in the back of my prompt script.
Several years later when the script was published I was not too surprised to find that the written play did not match the version that we produced.
One day while waiting for one of the rehearsal to begin I got to hear Mr. Bentley play the piano.
He played selections from the two music books that had been left there, The Grateful Dead and Bob Dylan Songbooks.
The Department brought in a guest director from NYC for the play.
He asked me to sit with him during the auditions and after one actor left he asked what I thought of him.
I did not think he was very good, but who am I to say, so I just told him that the actor gave him everything he had, he was not hiding anything and that there was not any more depth to him.
He got a part.
Several weeks later when the rehearsals were to begin we found out that the director had quit and was to be replaced.
The new director stayed with the original cast and we went on.
I enjoyed the show and the rehearsal process, but never stage managed again.
This would be a bit different that school year as I decided to move to the main campus closer to the theatre Department and most of my classes.
The new campus at UB was fun, but I was spending too much time on a bus getting back and forth just to go back to the dorm to sleep after long days at the Theatre.
The Theatre Department’s Lighting Design teacher had taken a leave to finish his MFA and we had his assistant in charge that year.
I guess I was a bit pumped, a junior now ready to take on new challenges and responsibilities.
That year I again worked on many plays in many different capacities including serving as the Lighting Designer for Harold Pinter’s “Old Times", Technical Director for Euripides’ “The Bacchae” and the Stage Manager for Eric Bentley’s “From the Memories of Piteous Pilate”.
We had a nice core of tech students who had now worked together on many shows over two years.
We were now upper classmen and took leadership roles on all of the productions, but still worked on each others shows even if not assigned.
Even with all our work we always found time to party.
By my junior year many of the theatre majors had moved off campus as I would do in the spring semester.
One friend and his housemates had a great Halloween party that year and another the next year.
They got complaints from the neighborhood homeowners association, so you know it must have been a great party.
What was there to complain about?
They moved their living room furniture, rugs, TV and lights all on the lawn for a nice display.
Inside there was plenty to drink and someone had set the beer up so it came out of the kitchen water faucet when you turned it on.
The next year to top the lawn display from the previous year they took a car that one of them had been working on and tipped it on its side, “crashing” into the house, with a dead body hanging out the window and colored lights inside the car.
Working as the Stage Manager for Eric Bentley’s “From the Memories of Piteous Pilate” was interesting and different from the things I normally worked on.
Eric Bentley, 93 as I write this, is a well known and respected critic and scholar of the work of Bertolt Brecht.
His best known play is “Are You Now or Have You Ever Been: The Investigations of Show-Business by the Un-American Activities Committee 1947-1958”.
In his prime he toured the world doing his one man show signing the songs of Bertolt Brecht.
For several years Bentley was a guest professor at UB and came to some of our rehearsals.
He gave me script updates from time-to-time, but the director told me to just thank him and put them in the back of my prompt script.
Several years later when the script was published I was not too surprised to find that the written play did not match the version that we produced.
One day while waiting for one of the rehearsal to begin I got to hear Mr. Bentley play the piano.
He played selections from the two music books that had been left there, The Grateful Dead and Bob Dylan Songbooks.
The Department brought in a guest director from NYC for the play.
He asked me to sit with him during the auditions and after one actor left he asked what I thought of him.
I did not think he was very good, but who am I to say, so I just told him that the actor gave him everything he had, he was not hiding anything and that there was not any more depth to him.
He got a part.
Several weeks later when the rehearsals were to begin we found out that the director had quit and was to be replaced.
The new director stayed with the original cast and we went on.
I enjoyed the show and the rehearsal process, but never stage managed again.
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