1979-80

As mentioned in the introduction to this history, before The Guilderland Players began there was a Drama Club at GHS, and the two organizations co-existed for 10 years. In the Fall of 1978, Lyle Warner directed the last of the Guilderland High School Drama Club productions, and the GP took on the production of the annual drama production and the directing fell to me. Since I was also teaching the recently developed courses, Acting and Directing, and Advanced Acting, I was very aware that there were a substantial number of students who wanted to act in plays but who felt they did not have the musical and/or terpsichorean skills necessary for musicals. It seemed to me that it was important to present good plays with a large number of roles so that we could involve as many students as possible. Many of the well known plays have a very limited number of roles (often less than 10), so I searched for plays which I felt would provide interesting acting opportunities. Another consideration was the ease in which the play could be staged. If the play was to be produced in mid November (a schedule which allowed for the musical to remain in mid March), we were limited to fairly simple scenic elements; scenery which could be produced by students in 6 weeks. In accepting these conditions, we often sacrificed the box office draw of the better know plays. The first of what came to be known as “The Fall Play” was Kurt Vonnegut Jr.’s WELCOME TO THE MONKEY HOUSE as dramatized by Christopher Sergel. Twenty two students were in the cast, and the scenery requirements were easily handled. I remember that the play required several futuristic devices, and Dick Arnold turned from his piano to the Physics lab where he conjured up some mean machines. Unfortunately my files contain very little information on WELCOME TO THE MONKEY HOUSE , but I do recall that I had a little trouble adjusting to the two-shows-a-year schedule. Despite that, and crediting the more than 30 students who took part, the first Fall Play was a success, and the way was paved for the current Fall play/Spring musical schedule.

The problem with performing musicals with the title recognition of SOUTH PACIFIC and OKLAHOMA! is that they are hard to follow. This was the problem facing the GP staff in selecting the musical for March, 1980. Since both of the previous productions were “serious” musicals with comic elements, we felt it was time to do a comedy. Knowing the number and quality of returning Guilderland Players, we felt that ONCE UPON A MATTRESS would be a good selection. I look back on ONCE UPON A MATTRESS with somewhat mixed feelings. The cast was arguably the strongest cast in GP history if we use the number of performers who went on to careers in theatre as a criterion. At least 11 members of the cast went on to careers related to professional theatre, and I saw two of them in performance on Broadway (and I mean The Broadway!). However, I am haunted by the belief that I did not convince all the returning Players to consider MATTRESS to be as worthwhile an endeavor as the two previous shows. That is not to say that the performances of MATTRESS were not well executed or well received. The audiences loved the show. It’s just that as a director one envisions the show in one’s mind, and for me, the performance I envisioned was not quite equaled by the performance I saw. That being said, as I explore my memories of MATTRESS , I find myself smiling.

We had a staff change for MATTRESS with Hugh O’Connor replacing Ted Vickery as Stage Manager. We decided to make drop scenery for MATTRESS and, since most of the action takes place in a castle, the drops would be castle walls. And what are the walls of fairy tale castles made of? Rocks, that’s what. And so, over February break we took over the cafeteria and made it a scene shop (under the direction of Paul Krauss) where students painted rock after rock after rock - a kind of medieval torture. The heraldic banners which added color to the sets have been used in many shows, and I believe they are still in storage. Although some male cast members wore tights in KISS ME, KATE , this was the first show which required the entire male cast to don tights. I recall our first rehearsals in costume as being somewhat boisterous with lots of whistles although it was a future show which gave us the “Bonniest” legs tradition.

MATTRESS is a truly funny musical with lots of opportunities for the actors to develop “bits”. (Carol Burnett, one of our best physical comedians, got her start in the Broadway production.) I still chuckle when I think of Winnifred (Laurie Reilly), complete with huge, floppy nightcap, first struggling to climb her lofty bed and then tossing and turning atop her mattress pile. The real reason for the silence of the King (Brian Quint) became obvious when the Queen (Martha Hughes) displayed her overbearing nature, and the King’s pantomiming was only topped by his sudden ability to speak. The comical magic routine between the Wizard (Jeff Perlee) and the Minstrel (Peter Ermides) was funny to the audience. Those of us who were in the know laughed a lot more heartily when it was over and they got it right. For one trick, the Minstrel had to hide a long streamer of multicolored paper in his mouth for the Wizard to magically remove, yard after yard after yard . I’d love to know how many miles of paper we went through getting that one right. I can still see Jeff fishing around in Peter’s mouth to find the end of the paper.

Act II of ONCE UPON A MATTRESS opens with “Quiet”, a number which was chanted and then became a rhythmic piece with clapping and finger snapping. The rhythm of the piece was crucial, and Dick Arnold was given the task of making sure that “Quiet” was flawless. At the end of the first session the chorus suffered not from sore throats but sore hands. He was so adept at clapping lessons that there were times when I wished we could have turned him loose on our Senior Citizens audiences or on the eighth grade audiences.

Another staff change which occurred in ONCE UPON A MATTRESS was that Aggie Armstrong conducted the show. Ten years earlier she she had begun as a rehearsal pianist and had worked her way up to vocal director, part time costume and prop person and the queen of papier mache. It seemed only proper that she conduct in Don Webster’s absence. Gigi Obloy had her hands (or is it “feet”?) full in choreographing “The Spanish Panic”, a chaotic dance when done correctly and certainly a chaotic dance when in rehearsal. I remember wondering how I would know when it was right. Certainly, for all who attended, we got ONCE UPON A MATTRESS right. And as far as my earlier comments go - write them off as the ramblings of a perfectionist.

Tickets for MATTRESS were still $3. There were 54 in the cast, one of whom was Kathy Richards, Mrs. Ehlinger to today’s Players. The orchestra numbered 28, three of whom were adults.

There was no summer theatre production in 1980 because there was not enough interest to get the needed enrollment to make it a part of the summer school program.