1982-83

The Fall Play in November, 1982 was HERE AND NOW by David Rogers. HERE AND NOW was an notable production for several reasons. It was the first of a number of Fall Plays which were selected because the characters in them were primarily teenagers, the theory being that it is easier for new actors to play characters close to their own age. There were 15 students and one faculty member in the cast of HERE AND NOW. The play (actually a play within a play) involved the members and director of a high school theatre group and their struggles to rehearse and present a play entitled HERE AND NOW. To add realism, the theatre group, the cast names and the director were to be The Guilderland Players, the actual cast members’ names and the actual director, “Mr. Heitkamp.” I chose this production to make my return to the stage after a 33 year hiatus. At that rate, I have 11 years to go until my next stage appearance. HERE AND NOW was simply staged and was an interesting acting challenge for all. It is amazing how difficult it is to play yourself on stage and to appear natural.

The musical for March, 1983, was HELLO, DOLLY! , a very well known show having a run on Broadway for many years with no less than 8 famous leading ladies and also having been made into a movie starring Barbra Streisand. Dolly Levi is a larger than life character, and HELLO, DOLLY! is a larger than life show. We needed to pull out all the stops, and luckily we had the full staff back together to do it. Mike Cusick was back from Atlantic City and ready to work his lighting magic again. The sound you might have heard when that news was announced was probably me heaving a huge sigh of relief. Charlie Lassell was back for his second year and did he have his work cut out for him.

One of the features of HELLO, DOLLY! is a large, curved runway, edged in chaser lights, which extends from the stage out into the audience. In our case, the runway extended out over the first few rows of seats with enough room inside it for the 25 piece pit orchestra. It was a big day when the runway was installed, and we discovered that it worked just as planned. As I recall there was only one runway accident. A woman cast member (we can’t agree on who) missed a turn and plunged off the runway and into the seats during a rehearsal. Her injuries were minor. My heart took years to recover.

ScenoGraphics provided some wonderful ideas for the sets, but of course they had to be seriously altered to fit our stage. One of the serious limitations of our stage is the acoustic panel which hangs over much of the downstage area. It may be wonderful for performances by musical groups, but it puts serious limitations on the height of set pieces. For example, in the Harmonia Gardens scene in HELLO, DOLLY! , Dolly is supposed to enter upstage and walk down a grand staircase. If the staircase were 6 feet high and Dolly were 51/2 feet tall(with headpiece), her head would appear to scrape the accoustic panel on her entrance. Needless to say, our staircase was not as grand as one would have liked. Any one who is at the high school can determine how high our staircase was because the staircase on wheels which is used to go on stage from the pit is the escape staircase from HELLO, DOLLY! .

Another problem which arose in HELLO, DOLLY! was the appearance of food on stage. Stage food must be easy to chew and swallow, able to sit at room temperature for long periods and appear to be what it is not. We had already explored the wonderful world of stage food in other shows such as ANNIE GET YOUR GUN. We knew that large macaroni cooked in water with red food coloring make nice, pink shrimp for shrimp cocktails. We knew that apple pie filling can be used to simulate several other foods including meat. (The cutting and chewing creates the illusion of meat.) In HELLO, DOLLY! we needed to have a full dinner complete with poultry to carve for Horace and Dolly to eat at the Harmonia Gardens. A display turkey from a local appliance store sufficed so long as the “carving” took place on the upstage side. Wonderbread (crustless) makes good white meat.

If there’s food in a restaurant, there are waiters. Carrying trays of dishes, full or empty, is a job which requires skill. In HELLO, DOLLY! the waiters have to dance vigorously while carrying full trays. I also seem to remember poultry on skewers. I definitely remember the sounds of falling trays, plastic glasses and other items while Gigi Obloy, choreographer in charge of trays, cursed softly in the background. I believe we tried everything from Scotch tape to super glue. One of the nicest sets in this production was a wagon set which had the exterior of the Hat Shop on one side and the interior on the other. It rotated (stage crew in costume) during the scene.

During the late stages of rehearsals for HELLO, DOLLY! I received a note from another faculty member which raised a question that has been raised many times during the history of the GP. The note complained that a student in another activity was being penalized because the GP required him to attend all rehearsals. I admire students who are involved in many things. Often this is possible without conflict. The staff of the GP has always been careful to state that being in a musical is a commitment which requires devotion. Absence affects everyone. The student who tries to do two activities simultaneously which require commitment and involve conflicting schedules is not being fair to either activity. In this case a student had made commitments to two activities , the schedules of which were in direct conflict. I don’t remember how this conflict was resolved, but I clearly remember resenting the task of trying to resolve it one week before dress rehearsal.

During the long weeks of rehearsal for HELLO, DOLLY! , I posted a series of musical trivia questions to amaze and amuse the cast and crew. One of them is my all time favorite trivia question (created by me). Here it is: “A composer and lyricist of many well known musicals wrote the lyrics for a musical based on the lives of real people. More than 20 years later, one of the people characterized in the earlier show played the lead role in the road company of a later musical by the same composer/lyricist. Name (1)The composer, (2)The earlier show, (3) The character/actress, and (4) the later show.” (Answers will be provided through the Guilderland Players e mail group)

There were 53 in the cast of HELLO, DOLLY!. Tickets were still $3.50 and the program was 40 pages. There was an insert in the playbills for HELLO, DOLLY! which answered FAQ regarding the GP. Among the facts included were the following: -The lighting for HELLO, DOLLY! required nearly a mile and a half of cable and lamps using more than 50,000 watts . (Welcome back, Mike!) -The 150 people involved in creating our HELLO, DOLLY! worked a total of approximately 15,000 man/hours - the equivalent of 375 40-hour weeks. What ever the effort, it was certainly worth it. HELLO, DOLLY! was one of our grandest musicals.

The summer theatre production in 1983 was AESOP’S FALABLES.