1981-82

In November, 1981, The GP presented Brian Friel’s play, LOVERS, which had a cast of eight. LOVERS is actually two plays in one. Each act tells a different story entitled “Winners” and “Losers” respectively. The subtitles are ironic since the young lovers in “Winners” die before they reach adulthood but while their love is strong, and the married couple in “Losers” lives well beyond their youth and their love. The settings for LOVERS were simple, the focus being on the acting. The set for “Winners” was a grass covered platform (hill top) against a blue sky cyclorama which gave a sense of isolation to the lovers. I remember the set vividly. The walls of the rooms in “Losers” were skeletal , being composed of lath-covered frames, and gave a feeling of deterioration. LOVERS is a challenging project for young actors, and the dialogue between Mag and Joe in “Winners” is one of my favorite scenes for teen acting students.

The musical for March 1982 was BELLS ARE RINGING, a true musical comedy. For some reason, the staff did not select the musical until after the school year started. (I gleaned this information as well as other information used in this entry, from an interview The Schenectady Gazette did with me in March, 1982, and which I had totally forgotten until I found it in my box of GP memorabilia.) This must have caused me a very restless summer because I would much rather spend my time planning for a specific show than stewing over a list of possible shows. My only explanation for the delay in selecting the show was the change in Stage Managers which occurred for BELLS ARE RINGING. After two years of excellent work as stage manager, Hugh O’Connor decided to hang up his hammer, and Charlie Lassell joined us. I’m not sure when (or why) Charlie signed on, but picking a show without a stage manager in place is risky. Having discovered ScenoGraphics (as mentioned in the BRIGADOON writeup), we chose a show which was not covered by ScenoGraphics, thus providing Charlie with a very difficult initiation. Not only was the set to be designed from scratch, but the prop list was filled with fun items including a dentist’s chair, a telephone switchboard and numerous telephones. Luckily we solved these problems through a cast member (Mike Roberts?), whose father was a dentist, and a GP alumnus (Joe Burke), whose father worked for New York Telephone Company. (Yes, faithful readers, there really were hand operated switchboards and a company called New York Telephone in the ancient times of which I write.)

Perhaps there is no prop more responsible for bad moments on stage than the telephone. Some of the potential problems are: -the phone that doesn’t ring on cue (even worse when it’s answered!) -the phone that rings after it has been answered. -the phone that stops ringing before it’s answered. -the phone with rings of differing durations. Not wishing to have any of these problems, we put our jack-of-all-trades, Dick Arnold, in charge of ringing phones, a job he did from the pit using a phone bell he rigged up and which is still used by the GP. There is little which is perfect in theatre, but the phone ringing in BELLS ARE RINGING was just that - perfect.

A person who was with the Guilderland Players from the beginning and who produced many miracles behind the scenes, produced another miracle on January 8, 1982. On that date Bev Harrington gave birth to Stephanie Harrington, an honorary Guilderland Player then and a real GP during her high school years.

The program for BELLS ARE RINGING lists me as the lighting designer. I know we ordered 36 lighting instruments, more than 1800 feet of cable, a 24 dimmer control board, 18 dimmers and lots of odds and ends. All this was picked up in the bus Friday, March 5, and was installed over the weekend. We had a week to fine tune it before the dress rehearsals. The show closed March 21, and the equipment was returned the next day. I must have been crazy! Another problem with preparing BELLS ARE RINGING was caused by the fact that the roof over the stage was leaking again, and it threatened to wash us out. It’s very difficult to install scenery and lights in an area where water could ruin them. Rehearsing on a wet surface is just asking for broken limbs. Add a lot of illness and bad weather to the mix, and it looked as if our 13th show might really be unlucky. It wasn’t. In the aforementioned interview, I said, “(I) love it and (I) hate it at the same time. I can’t wait until this show’s over with. But the last day I’ll be sad. It’s like parents, you know. You can’t wait for the kids to get out of the house, but you miss them when they’re gone.” I wasn’t lying. At least two of the cast members of BELLS ARE RINGING, Martha Hughes and Lisa Cartmell went on to perform professionally. I have on my wall a photo of Lisa and Noriko Matsuda, an exchange student from Japan who was in BRIGADOON. The picture was taken in Japan while Lisa was on tour with FIDDLER ON THE ROOF. If you would like to see Martha (now Jurian) Hughes in action, rent THE PELICAN BRIEF.

There were 51 cast members and 23 orchestra members in BRIGADOON. The program was 40 pages. The ticket price as $3.50, and I estimated that the show cost $11-12,000 to produce.

The summer theatre production in 1982 was NO, NO, A MILLION TIMES NO!.