1977 - 1978 - As I write this history, I find that when I start on a new show, my memories of the show create an emotional reaction. Of course, the creation of every show elicits a wide variety of emotions depending on the events of the day. Happiness, sadness, anger, love, fear, boredom, excitement, frustration.....the list could go on for pages. But for me, each show, when I think about it, seems to produce a predominant emotional reaction . The memories of our 1978 musical, SOUTH PACIFIC, create a very complex emotional response in me when I think of it today.

Casting has always been a difficult part of the production process. I know that during my participation in that process, we operated on the principal that we would cast the roles as they would be cast in a professional group. We would give the parts to the students who, based on their auditions and our previous knowledge of them, would give the best performance and therefore ensure the best possible production. Casting was done by equally weighted ballots cast by the director, conductor, vocal director, choreographer and others directly connected with the day-to-day rehearsal process. Often our discussions lasted for many hours and once until 3 am. This way of casting ruled out the seniority system and other, less professional ways of casting a show.

We selected shows based on our knowledge of students who would be returning. (Could we cast the leads in next year’s show from those who would be returning from this year’s show?) This process all but eliminated the chance that we would select a show which we could not comfortably cast, thereby placing students in roles that were beyond their abilities. Many, many times, however, the student we thought might suit a role when we were selecting the show did not get the role because others auditioned more strongly. We also accepted the fact that no matter how we cast a given show, many people would be elated and many people would be disappointed. By putting the show first, we felt we were more comfortable with what was always a painful process,and by ensuring the best show, we would always have interested students and eager audiences. Audience response, especially from those not related to the cast members, was the reward for the long hours of work. That reward , we hoped, would lead to pride in those involved. I mention our casting process at this point because of the situation we faced when it came to casting SOUTH PACIFIC.

The Guilderland Players have always been blessed with a great many students of exceptional talent, but when I think of SOUTH PACIFIC, I think of the beginning of an extraordinary period of talent which was exceptional, even for us. I was reminded of this when I read the SOUTH PACIFIC journal written by Holly Weidenbacher. Holly, a Senior, had been in two previous shows, had auditioned for SOUTH PACIFIC, and had high hopes for a major role. The trouble with the casting process in any musical is that once you are eliminated from major singing roles, you become part of the pool for the chorus. The chorus must be balanced in terms of vocal ranges, and if there is a great surplus of singers in a particular vocal range (soprano, alto, etc.), some good singers get left out. The assistant student director from the previous year auditioned and was given a role which she accepted. This left us without a student director. Holly agreed to be our student director, but it is obvious from reading her journal that her heart was still on the other side of the footlights. On reading Holly’s journal I felt sad about the process of casting musicals for the first time since I have been writing this history. It is not that I believe that we miscast SOUTH PACIFIC. It is just that I remember how talented Holly was, and I regret that the positive activity of producing a musical can bring true disappointment to many. I do believe that disappointment is unavoidable at times and that we learn much from suffering disappointment. Still..........

When one looks at the program for SOUTH PACIFIC, one notices that there is no chorus listed. Part of the early rehearsal process was for each chorus member to give him or herself a name and create a biography for that character in hopes that this would give each cast member a greater sense of individual identity. I’m not sure that it worked as well as I had hoped, but I still have the biographies and they are quite amusing. Technically, The GP did several new things for SOUTH PACIFIC. For the first time, we rented a backdrop for the show. The image of the island Bali Ha’I is central to the story and the mood of SOUTH PACIFIC, and that was the drop we rented. On its arrival we discovered that it was too large for our stage both in height and width, but after some strategic folding, we got it to fit. It created a wonderful atmosphere for our own sets.

Since the story of SOUTH PACIFIC is about sailors, soldiers and nurses in WWII, a visit to an army surplus store provided us with many useful props such as camouflage nets, storage cases, field desks and other paraphernalia to add a sense of realism. Many of the items are still in the theatre and are used for storage. Others may be found in the room behind the catwalks which houses the air circulation equipment or in the costume loft.

SOUTH PACIFIC requires a “field” shower so that Nellie can “wash that man right out of (her) hair.” We built one of the finest showers known to theatre, and it was a great day when Deanna Grubs (Nellie Forbush) took her first onstage shower. I might add that no modesty was lost, much to the disappointment, I suspect, of several male stage crew members. Holly commented in her journal that Deanna’s shower broke the boredom that had set into rehearsals.

In fact, “boredom” is a word frequently used in every production to describe the rehearsal process, especially during late January and February. There are reasons for this boredom and also ways of eliminating it. The GP rehearsal schedule is longer than that of most schools. It was always our belief that a long rehearsal process makes for a better show. Everyone is better prepared. Cast members who have to dance get a chance to develop skills they may not have had before. Lines become second nature. The show becomes familiar. All this takes repetition, and repetition can lead to boredom. In the professional theatre, boredom is avoided because each participant is always and actively trying to improve on the previous rehearsal. They try new things and are always building on what they have done before. If they don’t, they find other employment. This attitude enlivens the rehearsal process, but it is a difficult attitude to have when one is new to the stage. If you want to eliminate boredom, put more energy into the rehearsal. Strive to make each run through better than the one before. Doing this avoids repetition. The rehearsal process for SOUTH PACIFIC, despite more snow days than usual, went fairly smoothly, and everyone was well prepared.

Despite the preparation, the opening night performance of SOUTH PACIFIC provided me with one of the worst moments in my years with the GP. In ACT II of SOUTH PACIFIC, one of the main characters, Lt. Cable, is killed by enemy aircraft while he is on observation duty. The audience knows of his death, which happens offstage, because it hears a radio conversation between Cable and his base which is onstage. During the conversation the audience hears airplane engines growing louder, the sound of machine gun fire and a sudden end to Cable’s report. We decided to tape Cable’s side of the conversation so we could add the sound effects such as static and those mentioned to make the scene much more realistic. The tape worked fine in the last rehearsals and the eighth grade show. On opening night the tape failed. The soldiers gathered around the radio and the radio operator became silent. No one said a word. The silence was deafening and eternal. Perhaps because there were several people on stage, each one assumed the others would save the day. I sat in the back trying to will someone to say, “The radio is dead. They must have killed Lt. Cable.” Silence. Whatever the reason, the scene ended in silence. Worse, the audience did not know that Cable had died, and that bit of information was essential to the rest of the musical. As I recall, someone came on in a later scene and announced Cable’s death, but the damage was done. To my knowledge, this is the only time that a scene has “gone up” in our history. It was nobody’s fault and everybody’s fault. No matter, it was a scary moment and one that everyone regretted.

I sometimes wonder why people are surprised when I compare acting to walking a tightrope. For all the other performances of SOUTH PACIFIC, everyone not only stayed on the tightrope, they performed with grace and power. Bill Coulter’s Luther Billis and Demetra Pontisakos’ Bloody Mary were wonderful. There was true magic in the relationship between Emile and Nellie (Buddy Meagley and Dede Grubs). Audience members cried audibly at the death of Lt. Cable. The chorus numbers were strong and filled with wonderful “business.”

The cast for SOUTH PACIFIC numbered 48. The orchestra numbered 28, one of whom was an adult. Tickets were $3. Almost everyone in the audience had seen SOUTH PACIFIC either on stage or in the movie theatre. Competing with strong memories is always a challenge. SOUTH PACIFIC was up to that challenge.

In the summer of 1978, The GP performed PEANUT BUTTER AND JELLY, a musical play for children written in part by the Players with exerpts from Marlo Thomas’ FREE TO BE YOU AND ME. The production was directed by Aggie Armstrong. I worked on set production by choice. I was feeling in need of more vacation time, and being surrounded by so many talented people, it was only proper that I should allow them to share the pleasure of directing the GP. PEANUT BUTTER AND JELLY was a success, and I hope that Aggie and/or others will write on it in detail since I do not feel comfortable or adequate to write about those shows which I did not direct.