Gateway, Part 7

I have a few final stories from my summer at Gateway.

The two 16 year old boys, the owner’s son and the local “Wonder Kid”, were soon joined by a dozen or so 15 to 17 year old high school girls who came to take theatre classes and work on the children’s plays.

To the surprise of one of the actresses, she was assigned to be the chaperone to the young girls, living with them in their dorm.

It came as no surprise that the two boys were soon hanging around the girls.

One night the chaperone came to the “Hilton” looking for the two 16 year old boys who were not there.

It seemed that two of her girls were missing, so several of the male techies made a “Posse” and went out looking for the missing girls.

Within a short time the two missing girls and boys were found sitting and talking in a tree in front of the main Theatre.

Coming back from lunch one day noticed that one of the extra stair units seemed to have been moved just outside the window of the girls shower room.

It seems that it was moved a little closer each day until it was under the window but no one noticed.

We had a good laugh and moved it back to the storage area.

One day we had a little free time and the ATD and I decided to go downtown for some pizza.

We talked one of the actresses, a former Miss New York Runner-up, to come with us.

Well she made a big impact on the owner of the pizzeria as free beer and pizza was soon at our table along with the owner drooling over the actress.

After a quick bite and a sip or two the actress was off to some club for a little more up-scale evening, but the ATD and I got our free pizza and beer and a few laughs.

We had a woman from the country of Columbia working with us, and like me, she chose to read a little in her free time but had occasional problems with English from time to time.

One day while reading “Ragtime” by E. L. Doctorow she asked someone for some help with the meaning of a word, but the person asked turned red and told her to she had to ask someone else.

All afternoon she was passed from person to person as no one wanted to explain the word to her.

The word: Fellatio.

Several times that summer we would do performances for special groups who would buy all the tickets for one of the shows.

The producers made several of the actresses to serve as special ushers and I think they even helped give out door prizes at intermission.

At one of these performances there were many in the audience who had too much to drink before the show and who drank even more during the intermission.

At the end of “West Side Story” Tony runs onstage followed by Maria and then Chino with the gun.

It is the biggest and saddest moment of the play, but that night just as Chino shoots the gun at Tony some drunk lady starts to laugh and cackle out loud.

Of course it ruined to end of the play and the actors were very mad after the show.

The final play we worked on was "The Ritz", a comedy in which a mobster hides from killers in a NYC Gay Bathhouse.

I was looking forward to working on the play as my brother and I saw it on Broadway the year before.

The set was large, two stories tall with many doors, all of which I put in.

In addition to learning how to really use a circular saw, the hanging of all doors and putting in the door knobs was an important skill that I learned that summer that I have used many times since.

Because I had to return to school before the end on the plays run I did not work on the run crew and this is the only one of the plays that I watched from the audience.

The Ritz, with some of the doors I made.

A inside joke, not known to the general audience, is that many of the Gay Characters were played by Straight Actors and the Straight Characters were played by Gay Actors.

After a long summer I think the actors needed to have some fun and this was enjoyed by everyone in the show.

The actors also had fun when they entered the Steam Room on the set as they would whip off their towels and “Moon” the audience.

There are many other bits of fun that summer (a few more naked people here and there I am sure) but I think I have given you a good sample of all the things that happened that summer.

Yes there were many problems, but I learned a great deal and gained lots of confidence in myself and wanted to continue working in theatre even more.

I know that many of the people I worked with went on to work in the Theatre, some went on to Broadway and Hollywood and still others went into Education like me.

What happened to those two 16 year old Boys?

Well the owner’s son now runs Gateway and has expanded the size and quality of the shows they do.

The other “Wonder Kid” went on to work Theatre in NYC and runs his own production company.

Over the years I have run across a few of the others from that summer, but there are others I can find no trace of when I search online.

Between working off-Broadway and at Gateway, I had a great summer and was eager to get back to school and see what adventures were to lay ahead.

Updated 12/18/18

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Gateway, Part 6

Building sets by day and running shows at night we got into a regular routine.

I even found time to read a few books.

Between fly cues I found an out of the way corner with a little work light and read The Hobbit and a Sci-Fi novel by Isaac Asimov.

I was nice to just escape a little from the busy day.

I was very surprised when during the second production when an actress came running right in front of me for a quick change.

She stripped down to just her panties, re-dressed and then ran back on stage.

Of course I was one very shocked 20 year old but managed to act professional, did not drool too much and helped her out when needed over the next three weeks.

Flash forward twenty years, I am now working on an outside production we had brought into the college Theatre.

One of my students was working backstage during the run and told me that the lead actress was naked backstage during her costume changes.

With my years of wisdom, and thinking back to working at Gateway, I told him to act professional and not to make an ass of himself.

After getting the play up and running I was in my nearby office during the run of the play.

One night my student ran in and told me that they were having problems with the actress’s wireless body mic.

So I ran backstage with a new battery and knelt down next to the nearly naked actress who was wearing only pantyhose and the mic belt and I fumbled and sweated a bit as I tried to fix it as fast as I could.

My student got a good laugh about it watching me trying to be cool and working under fire.

Back to Gateway . . .

It seemed obvious to everyone at the time that the firing of the original Technical Director was planned all along.

The new guy came in with designs and plans ready for the third play, Candide.

It seems that he had worked on the then recent revival in NYC.

He was a good guy, his designs and work were fine, I think everyone liked him and we just moved on.

Candide

Candide

I am sure that there must have been some talk but there really was not any time to worry about it.

It was three weeks later when the Costume Designer quit, and I do not think these events were connected.

The new TD seemed to get along with the producers better but we still did not have enough tools and supplies.

I do remember that when we built the last play, The Ritz, we chose to build the set with double-headed nails that we set all the way in.

We did not know it at the time, but they left the set onstage all winter and opened the next season with the same play.

After sitting onstage for 10 months the wood swelled around the nails and I heard from someone who worked there the next year that it was a bitch to get the set apart.

Hey if we had the right nails in the first place it would never have happened.

If you believe that I have this bridge for sale…...

I still have a few more stories of the people that summer.

Until next time . . .

Updated 12/18/18

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Gateway, Part 5

We had quickly gotten into a daily work routine that changed once the first play opened because we would now have to work all day building sets for the next play while working at night running the current production.

That made for very long days for most of the summer as the plays ran for three weeks with some double performances on days with matinees.

During the 1950’s Gateway became a training ground for many future actors of the stage and screen.

They had a stock of old scenery some of which was supposed to be old Jackie Gleason Show sets from his TV program.

I remember that we took apart some of the old velour flats so that they could make costumes for “Annie Get Your Gun”.

As I had said in an earlier post, there were several personnel changes the summer I worked at Gateway.

The night before the last performance of “Annie Get Your Gun” the Costume Designer, who had a small role in the show, went back to the costume shop to check on how things were going for the next play.

For some reason he got very upset and started yelling at the girls working there and went into a triad for a few minutes.

He abruptly stopped yelling, apologized to the staff, told them he was quitting, went to his room packed and left. 

Annie Get You Gun

Annie Get You Gun, Note I painted the stone steps USC.

Annie Get You Gun

Annie Get You Gun

Well everyone heard all this go down and the next day there was a rush to fill his part in the play and figure out who was going to finish the costumes.

Actually everything went pretty well as the Director took over one part and the Gateway’s stock Character Actor took over the role of Sitting Bull.

I do not think that the audience knew what was going on, it was a bit tense backstage, but it was a fun show to watch, we were all waiting for it to fall apart, but it did not.

This event must have happened a few weeks after the Technical Director and Scene Designer were replaced, because the new TD designed the sets and lights for the third show “Candide” which opened only a few days later.

I do not know if the two events were related but it did seem to make things tenser for a while.

I think it was one of the actresses took over the Costume Design job and we were able to open on time.

Even with the staff changes we all continued to work hard and things got done on time.

There was still time for funny moments like when we told someone not to step on any of the many Crickets that were in one of the buildings.

These were the famous “Gateway Screamers” that would make a horrible noise if you stepped on them.

We also made up ghost stories about the old Barn Theatre and a fake story about murders and other strange goings on at Gateway.

There was also a small snake that used to sun itself next to one of the buildings.

I found a stick with a “V” shape at the end and made a point of trying to catch the snake.

After a few days I finally caught it, looked at it, let it go and then never bothered it again.

Not all of the troubles that summer were manmade because on August 10th we had visit from Hurricane Belle.

A category one storm with lots of rain, it put a good scare into many of the staff.

Growing up on Long Island it seems that a hurricane comes by every few years.

Looking back at the records I had lived through at least 10 storms before Belle came and I was not too afraid and had fun teasing the others.

The Producers moved everyone out of the small dorms and put us all in the big Theatre.

The storm would come through on one of our off days, of course, and did cause lots of damage on Long Island.

I do not remember if the lights were knocked out but I am sure they at least flickered and the wind made great sounds throwing things against the sides of the Theatre.

Oh yeah, I got stung by a bee that summer too. . . . .

Updated 12/18/18

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Gateway, Part 4

Gateway Playhouse is in Bellport, NY a small village on the Great South Bay of Long Island.

It is similar, but smaller, to Sayville the town where I grew up about ten miles away.

In addition to the Playhouse, Bellport is also the original home of Grucci Fireworks:

http://www.grucci.com/indexbravo.html?page=5

One of the early inventors of the Ball Bearing also lived in Bellport and I would pass a small monument whenever I walked into town.

I did not always find the town to be very friendly and I remember one store had signs aimed at the Gateway staff that simply said to buy something or leave.

As with all summer theatres we were always busy and had little free time to go into town anyway.

The technical staff had a big surprise on the opening night of the first show.

No, we were not served beans and franks, but told that we had to help park cars.

Normally the crew would be checking everything and getting ready for the show to begin, but no we had to go out and direct the cars into the back parking lot and then run in just before the show was to start.

Of course we were not happy doing this but had a big laugh when someone managed to drive onto a telephone pole used as a divider between the rows of cars.

The first play of the season was “West Side Story” and I was running the fly system.

The Gateway Theatre was the old style “Hemp House” (NO not that kind of hemp) that used sand bags and not the counterweights in common use today.

One night the 16 year old high school student who was suppose to be helping me came running in late, tripped and knocked me into the fly rail hurting my ribs.

The same thing happened on the crew the year before and someone’s ribs were broken.

With a sand bag system if you let go of the rope the scenery on the other end will fall onto the stage.

I was lucky not to be hurt too bad and I was able to hold on and the show went on.

All in all we had a good working report with each other backstage and enjoyed what free time we had.

We turned the back entry to the Theatre into our crew porch on which we relaxed before and after the shows drinking cold sodas and telling "War Stories" of our adventures in other Theatres.

From time to time I shared my late night roof perch with some of the crew and a few beers while sitting up there unwinding after a show.

I even got to use the company pool once in a while, but do not get too jealous, you have not seen the pool, or should I say cement bathtub.

The best use of the pool was the day that the Assistant Technical Director, ATD, and I tossed the owner’s 16 year old son into the pool.

Of course his dad would walk around the corner just after little “Paulie” was sent into the water but he laughed, shook his head and just walked away.

When I tell a few more of the stories of the adventures of the two 16 year old boys you will know why we tossed him in and wonder why we did not do it sooner.

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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

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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

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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!