A High Class Affair

"Let's drink to the spirit of gallantry and courage . . . and let's drink to the hope that one day this country of ours, which we love so much, will find dignity and greatness and peace again."

-Noel Coward

(This quote dedicated to Capitol Hill. Here's
hoping they reach an agreement.)

After all the hustle, bustle and excitement of Room Service, the whole company was delighted to take a daytrip into Portland on our day off that Monday. Under the guise of a Portland Sea Dogs baseball game, a small group of Monmouthians had been planning on heading to city since June. As we got closer to the date, it became clear that almost everyone in the company was interested in a taste of city air, and so Monday morning we caravanned the fifty-five minutes down the interstate to begin our various adventures.

For a solid quarter of us that adventure started at a delectable Portland restaurant: Duck Fat. This local eatery is renowned for frying things in, you guessed it, duck fat. Principally french fries, which they serve to you in a cone with a host of delicious dipping sauces. We also had excellent panini, while for me the highlight was the home-made mint and lime soda. The perfect cool, crisp compliment to the heavy fare. We left the restaurant with all of our senses thoroughly sated.



Next stop was Dustin Tucker's lovely apartment across town. He had an open house all afternoon, and let the various TAM company members wander by as we finished our respective meals or coffees or shopping or combinations of all three. We all had a beautiful time unwinding in the comfortable and classy surroundings of Dusty's lovely abode. Thanks again Dusty!


After that the group dispersed a bit into pockets of strollers, shoppers and baseball fans. Some of us went to the Old Port, some to the Sea Dogs, and others went restaurant hopping, trying to make the most of Portland's impressive culinary offerings.



My personal favorite was a local biergarten called Novare Res, which had delicious appetizers and some of the best beers I've ever had. My recommendation is the Smuttynose Old Dog Brown Ale. Best brown ale I've ever tasted.

Whether dining or shopping or baseball=ing, we all had a very restful and relaxing day. It was so wonderful to be surrounded by the sights and sounds of a city after six weeks in rural Maine. Certainly made me realize yet again, that although I enjoy a stay in the country, I am a City Mouse through and through.

The week went by steadily, with many company members taking it easy and those of us on my crew having some solid rehearsals for James & the Giant Peach. James is coming along very well and I could not be more excited about opening it on August 2nd! More on that soon.

But for seven stalwart company members the week was anything but relaxing. They were in the throws of mastering Noel Coward's delightful comedy: Blithe Spirit. And though the cast members later told us that they were every bit as uncertain as we had been about Room Service, when opening night came we certainly could not tell. The show went very well Friday night, and was filled with charm and plenty of high-class English pomp. The trick to this play of course is that the first act is pretty much just exposition. It sets up the relationships of the two principal characters, the married couple Charles & Ruth Condamine. Paul & Denise, our Condamines this summer, did a splendid job of playing off one another, with Denise taking just enough of her witticisms out to the audience to keep us in on the jokes. By the time Ambien came out as the ghostly ex-wife to terrorize the living characters, a much-needed wave of laughter erupted from the packed house. Once the audience knew that the absurdity had begun, the tone was set and everybody settled in to a delightful trip from British high society through the supernatural.





Watching Blithe Spirit last Friday, I had to think of Misalliance, the Shaw piece we performed last year here in Monmouth. Both Coward and Shaw had a genius for arming their characters with exactly the right thing to say to the right person at the right moment. Dialogue between characters is lightning-quick, extremely elevated and the wit is drier than a snail in the salt flats. The ease and elegance with which these characters move through polite society, and the absurd circumstances they always find themselves in while attempting to maintain their poise never ceases to leave me delighted. Since upper crust Brits from the early 20th century are in short supply these days there are a few rules for playing these types of characters: the actor must have a sophisticated facility with language, they must be able to wear clothes well, and it is impossible to do with the under-25 set (so says Jon Jory). Its a tough recipe to get right. But when it falls into place, there is a trace of real glamour there, a taste of a time and place more cultivated and charming than reality ever could be.What a pleasure it is to spend two hours in such company.

After three very different comedies, we are heading into tragic territory this week with one of the greatest pieces of western literature. King Lear opens soon, but that is a tale for another time. Till then, I'll leave you with one of Master Coward's epigrams:

"It is discouraging how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit."

-Noel Coward

Indeed.

-BBell

Race to the Finish!

"Nobody should try to play comedy unless they have a circus going on inside."

-Ernst Lubitsch

(Act 2 of Room Service)

In any season there is always a show that refuses to flow nicely through rehearsals into opening night. Truth be told, very few shows flow nicely at all, its much more like a knock down drag out fight to the finish in the best of circumstances. But now and again there is always the show that surprises even hearty theatre folk like us with its hidden complexity. Room Service, the show we opened last Friday night, is just such a piece. Looking at our season this summer (2 Shakespeares, a Noel Coward piece and a tech-heavy Roald Dahl) you would never guess that the crusty old comedy from the 30's would be the one to give us so much trouble.

But oh what trouble it gave us! It must have been a combination of us actors underestimating the time it would take to memorize it, as well as the lack of an audience to test the jokes on, plus a mountain of costume issues, costume changes, and just getting used to costumes; however you slice it, our tech rehearsals last week were a hot mess. The script is almost entirely dialogue, with much of it ending in elipses or cutoffs or repetition of previous character's stories, information, and whereabouts. This repetition, we knew, is where the comedy would lie. Eventually. But we had to get there first. And what a rocky road it was . . .

After our ten out of twelve rehearsal day last Tuesday, the entire company was pretty low. The four principle actors were having to call line all the time, and when the prompter gave them the text, the actor felt like an idiot because more often than not it was a line they had already said, or a simple phrase or question, like: "What?" or "you don't say?" or "Wait!" or something. A typical block of text in this play you see, looks like this:

"Wag: Oh, well . . . may as well notify the police.

Mil: I . . . uh . . .is that necessary?

Wag: It's the law.

Mil: But . . . if we could arrange . . . uh . . .

Wag: Arrange what?

Mil: Well, uh . . . if the body wasn't found in the hotel proper . . .

Wag: Mmmmmm . . . naturally it would help us, if we could avoid . . .

Bin: We could dump him in an alley.

Wag: Oh no . . . no . . . that's---"

That's twelve ellipses, three dashes, four 'uh's, two 'oh's and a 'well' in only nine lines.

Not exactly the kind of thing that sticks in your brain. For Jared Delaney, our leading man who is on stage in this show for almost the entirety of three acts (there are three scenes he's not in, none of them more than two minutes long), it became the actor's nightmare: he was stuck on stage, with unbelievably repetitive texts, a phone constantly ringing upstage and an endless host of characters marching on stage asking ridiculous things of him, constantly raising the stakes. At intermission of our runthrough on Wednesday, Jared came backstage pale-faced. When I asked him how the first act, his replied:

"Every scene is a fresh hell."

And went directly back to his script to study act two. Jared was not alone in his constant fear; Bill Van Horn shared the angst, as did Dusty, Paul, Dennis and David the other principles. The six of them could be found during every break, intermission and lunch hour furiously running lines, talking about scenes and trying to keep track of exits, props and gags. I asked Bill during our final rehearsal Thursday afternoon:

"How's the show going Bill?"

"Well, its a narrow road with no guard rails . . ."

Then we had a preview Thursday evening, and we started to find surer ground. The house was small, but they laughed! And we started to get a feel for the pace of things. Many of us started to feel a little more sure of the comedic bits we were running . . . but Bill admitted to having improvised most of act three, and he was not alone. The principles were still sweating bullets.

While they went home that night to study the script and get some sleep, the rest of the company took a much-needed break from Room Service and headed to Augusta for the midnight showing of Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows Part 2. It was the final installment of the Harry Potter franchise and we went dressed to impress.





Each of us had chosen a Hogwarts House and we came attired accordingly. Highlights included Sam's Hedwig the Owl costume, Coleman's Hufflepuff Fanboy outfit, and of course, Ian's Dead Dobby (complete with knife stuck in his chest) that was a fittingly ironic attire for the end of an era.

We got to the sold-out theater an hour early, entertained ourselves with insane amounts of popcorn and entertained the other patrons with a wand duel betwixt Steph Garrett and myself. The film was fabulous, the company equally so, and we all said goodbye to HP in fine fashion.




Friday had come and the opening of Room Service was upon us. Backstage before the curtain went up we were all eyeing each other nervously. The pre-show speech concluded, the lights went up, Jared went on stage and we in the dressing room we held our breath and listened to the monitors. A few minutes into the show and there was a hearty laugh from the audience. Then another. Then another! The house was hot, and all through the first act, the jokes were killing==and everyone was remembering their lines.

During the first intermission the dressing room was tense and focused. We were buyoed by the positive response, but we all knew that acts two and three were the hard bits. But sure enough, by the time I got on stage in the middle of act two, the play was rolling along fine. Sure we did not hit every single line, and there were a few delayed entrances, but the play was moving forward and the audience was eating it up. During the second intermission we were all hesitantly optimistic. The principles ran a few more problem-scenes and drilled the dialogue before heading out to close the piece.

Forty minutes later, the play was over, we were bowing and the audience was elated. We could not believe how smooth it had gone! The jubilation in the dressing room was out of control! Backs were clapped, hands were shook, and the entire cast did a round of shots. I genuinely believe everyone was surprised at how well the show went. I overheard Paul and Jared:

"Paul, sorry about that Moose line.

"Its okay! I knew it was one that you usually don't remember, and I saw it in your eyes that it wasn't coming, so I was ready for it. "

It had been a very, very close call but we had managed to get it together. For a glimpse of the action:

Room Service Video

The rest of the weekend went well, though not quite as exuberant as opening. However, we were quite happy to settle in to a more manageable pace for the show. And happy that we had somehow gotten all the words out. Who knows what will happen when it comes back into the repertoire next week! But whatever happens, I know it will be a ton of fun. Speaking of, Blithe Spirit opens tomorrow! More adventures on the way.

Frenziedly Yours,

Brian

The World Must Be Peopled

"Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more,
Men were deceivers ever,
One foot in sea, and one on shore,
To one thing constant never.
Then sigh not so, but let them go,
And be you blithe and bonny,
Converting all your sounds of woe
Into hey nonny nonny."

-Much Ado About Nothing, Act 2 Scene iii



Summer is in full swing in Monmouth, and the season is open! Last Friday we brought Much Ado About Nothing to the stage in swinging style, but that was far from the only event of last week. It started off with a bang as I received a visit from my good friend Katja from Berlin. She arrived that Saturday in time to catch the Black Fly Follies. It was so great to see her, and to spend some time with her in my country (for a change), and to show her the sights and sounds of New England. She was also able to show me some of them, as she was staying at a local bed and breakfast called the Annabessacook Farm. I joined her there for dinner that Sunday night and boy am I glad I did!

The Annabessacook Farm is owned by Craig & Job, two lovely gentlemen who farm the place and also create an incredibly warm, relaxing atmosphere for their guests. They also set a wondrous table, and after Katja gave me a tour of the farm (goats, sheep, chickens, pigs, lots of veggies) we went inside for what turned out to be a deceptively simple, delicious meal. We started off with an appetizer of home-made (organic) goat cheese, made entirely from ingredients on the farm. Their milking goat, named Con Leche (natsch!) produces a gallon of milk each day, which they use to create cheese and other delicacies. It was easily the freshest cheese I'd ever had, and one of the best. We devoured a small wheel of it and as we were relishing that, Craig brought out another and said that dinner would be ready soon. So much goodness!

The entire farm is organic, and Craig (who among other talents is a chef, a writer and a board member of TAM) uses everything on the farm, letting nothing go to waste. No chemical fertilizers or foreign agents of any kind. Just home-grown goodness. That night he served up hearty collard greens he had grown himself, black rice seasoned to perfection, and easily the best salmon I had ever had. Ever. Between Katja and Job (orig. from Holland), Craig, Ian and I, we had a delightful dinner together and plenty of conversation. The evening was a comfort for mind, body, and soul. If anybody is interested in coming to Monmouth this summer, I can recommend the Annabessacook Farm B&B without hesitation. Thanks again Craig & Job!


Monday brought the fourth of July, our nation's birthday and the first decent weather of the last ten days. We lucked out, not only with the weather but also with the fact that Dave & Donna Shaw were hosting our 4th of July party at their beautiful home this year. It was a holiday party as most of us can only dream of: a gorgeous house on a hilltop, overlooking the lake with beachfront access. Canoes, kayaks, a motorboat and kneeboards, even a jetski. If there was a summery pastime, we were partaking. And of course the spread was majestic: burgers and sausage and hot dogs and an endless array of salads. Desserts and drinks and great conversations, exactly what we needed on our day off.



We even managed to get Clenton Hollinger on a jetski. This was after he proclaimed at the top of the summer he would not set foot in the lake; seemed to unsanitary. Imagine our surprise when we saw he and Allison speeding away on the jetski. We've come a long way baby.


Also imagine our dismay when we saw the jetski capsized in the middle of the Lake and Clenton, unable to reboard the machine, having to be rescued by the motor boat! Ah well, it was a glorious two minutes. Baby steps, as they say.


But the party continued, and after six hours or so, not a one of us were able to eat any more food or swim any more, so we decided to head over to Winthrop for the fireworks. They were lovely and I think we gave Katja the full American experience that day, before she had to head back to Berlin last Tuesday. Thanks again Dave & Donna for a wonderful day, you're the best!

Tuesday it was back to work! We had our 10 out of 12 technical rehearsal for Much Ado About Nothing, which went quite smoothly. In fact all of rehearsals that week went remarkably smoothly. We were basically just running the show by Wednesday, which is about twenty-four hours earlier than we ever get a show together with this short of a rehearsal period. But the pieces fell into place and we were all pretty confident going into our preview last Thursday night. It was of course different having an audience in the room (in this case a large contingent of high school students, who were great!) and we started adjusting to the laughs and inserting pauses accordingly.



Friday brought opening night of the 42nd season at the Theater at Monmouth. In accordance with tradition, one of our youngest company members, Ian Kramer, recited Hamlet's welcome to the players and did so masterfully. Directly afterward, Dave tapped the staff three times on stage to officially open his last season as producing director, and the show began. Despite the seemingly smooth tech process and a solid preview, the premiere was anything but gentle. There were a lot more laughs thanks to our savvy opening-night audience (who, it may be said, have a facility and appreciation for Shakespeare that may not have been shared by the high schoolers the night before) which meant we were adjusting our performance accordingly. All that extra energy also led to some flubs; like when one of the watch's billy clubs flew end over end into the audience and Bill Van Horn chided the nearest audience member without missing a beat. Or when a Benedick entrance was missed, due to a scramble of line-memorizing for our next play, as well as faulty speakers in the dressing room which made the action on stage hard to hear.

In these moments and others our opening night audience got a taste of live theatre at its best: raw, exciting, and a little improvised. But at the same time, its this direct communication with the audience, the small slip-ups and interactive moments, that the audiences are coming to see in the first place. All's well that ends well of course, and at the reception after the show our audience and our colleagues toasted a job well done, and the newly opened season.

Something else I noticed while rehearsing this play, is that some of the texts were borrowed for the lyrics of one of my favorite songs of the year. "Sigh No More" by Mumford & Sons, is the lead track off of their wildly successful debut album of the same name. Almost all of the text of that particular song come from the play Much Ado About Nothing, a fact I never realized until we were rehearsing it. My love for this band has grown even more, which I did not think was possible. And as happenstance would fashion it, Miss Janet McWilliams happened to make another compilation video of the last ten days, and set it to this very song. Check it out here, and enjoy.

We are currently in the thick of rehearsals for Room Service, our second play which opens this Friday! More on that and many other fine deviations when we catch up next week.

"For man is a giddy thing, and this is my conclusion,"


BBell

That Summer Feeling

"When Burbage played, the stage was bare

Of fount and temple, tower or stair;

Two backswords eked a rabble out;

Two supers made a rabble rout;

The throne of Denmark was a chair!

And yet, no less the audience there

Thrilled through all the changes of despair,

Hope, Anger, Fear, Delight, and Doubt

When Burbage played!

This is the Actor`s gift; to share

All moods, all passions, not to care

One whit for scene, so he without

Can lead men`s minds the roundabout,

Stirred as of old those hearers were

When Burbage played!"

-Austin Dobson


We're off! Saturday before last we saw the first preview of the season, for the Compleat Works of William Shakespeare abridged. The actors, Drew, Andrew, and David, were something less than ecstatic about this preview performance, since they had had a paltry seven rehearsals (total). Worries of being off book, remembering entries and exits, costume changes (of which there were MANY!) and the manifold complications that arise when there are actually live bodies in the audience, had all three of them on edge for most of the day. The rest of us however, were delighted to be able to sit in the audience and just enjoy a show rather than being on stage ourselves.

And as luck would have it, the show went off without a hitch. All three of the performers were fantastic as they raced through the entire Shakespearian canon, or an approximation of it, with panache. Highlights included an awkward moment where Drew was 'left' on stage by himself, an endlessly cross-dressing Andrew, and of course David's recap of Hamlet at the end, spoken in thirty seconds. Backwards.

Two hours later we were all in stitches and very impressed with the incredible amount of work the guys had put in on the show in such a tiny amount of time. If you like to laugh, you are going to love this one.

After our first Sunday of rehearsals, we all headed to Margaritas, the Mexican Mega-Restaurant in Augusta to toast one of our pluckiest company members, Ian, on his 23rd birthday. Ian was thoroughly feted and the party continued in the scene shop afterwards for our weekly Safety Meeting (an FSU traditional weekly festivity/ thinly-veiled excuse to gather and drink), where beer pong and dancing carried the night away. Monday brought our second company Softball game and simultaneously the second weekly tennis tournament, starring: R.Simpson, X. Chen, B.Bell, & D. Johnson. Wimbeldon eat your heart out.

One of the joys of Monmouth, is that there is nothing even resembling a routine. Even when you think you're falling into one, there's always some lovely event to jar you right back out of it. Take last Thursday for example, as I was heading from our residence Toad Hall to the theater for our weekly hamburger cookout. In the parking lot, alongside the cars and disparate groups of theatre=folk, were two horses! These were the provenance of one Helen Smith, costume designer and cowgirl extraordinaire, who had ridden them down from her farm a few miles away. The company delighted in meeting, petting and cooing over the horses, and some of the more adventurous company members got a ride as well!


The culmination of this week was our first performance as a company, the 12th annual Black Fly Follies. The Follies are a variety show that allows the audience to get to know the company members, and for us in the ensemble to show off our other skills. Since this year's company is so musical, there were quite a few songs sung, guitars strummed and even a little Mozart on piano from the talented Miss Rebecca Caron. Dennis Price had a hilarious impression/interruption as Governor Lepage, and a beautiful rendition of Ray LaMontagne's Jolene from our master carpenter Matt Land.

As usual, I was blown away by the talent displayed by our company. But this year the bar was clearly raised by Miss Steph Garrett, who lead off the evening with a Beauty & the Beast parody, including puppets (of fellow actor Dennis Price, head honcho David Greenham, and even Governor Lepage), voice overs and some incredible singing on her part as well. This piece was so creative and cunningly executed, I was really floored. And since this is about the sixteenth time that Steph Garrett has defied all of my expectations and left me breathless (either with laughter or respect or incredulity) I think she deserves her own paragraph:

Ode to Steph Garrett

My first meeting with Steph Garrett occurred upon my arrival at Toad Hall this year. She was introduced to me as the Mayor of Toad Hall, and had already devised cleaning schedules, house rules and a host of myriad other plans to keep the house and its seventeen occupants running smoothly. I was not sure what to think of this petite young blonde woman, who seemed like a typical Type A personality: no-nonsense, focused, organized and always slightly stressed about something. Imagine my surprise when three days later we were having our first party at Toad Hall, and Steph was out of control! She was running and screaming and dancing and somewhere in the middle of all that madness she had managed to make a giant plate of nachos, still taking care of everyone while partying like a wild beast. As the last few weeks have progressed, Steph has become known as an absolute firecracker, last to bed, first to wake, and after midnight completely unpredictable. At breakfast last week we all traipsed into the living room to see the newest bit of decoration: two blue footprints painted/imprinted on the ceiling. Steph laughed mischievously and said she had "no idea" who did it (as she retreated with blue feet). What we can't figure out: how on earth did tiny Steph Garrett get her feet upside down on the ceiling, which is eight feet in the air? And all this overnight, without any of the other sixteen residents of Toad catching wise?

Once again, after I had gotten used to the idea of Steph as the ultimate Jekyll/Hyde story (laser-sharp focus during the day/ferocious party queen by night), during the Follies last Saturday she redefined herself yet again. Her Bon Jour parody from Beauty & the Beast, replete with hilarious lyrics, voice overs from other company members (all of which were synced perfectly) and puppets, was an epic tour-de-force of variety action. It was brilliantly executed, hilarious, cute and showed a completely different side of Steph Garrett: that of the consummate musical theatre actress.

(Steph and Marie with the Governor Lepage puppet)

So hat's off to you Miss Steph Garrett! I couldn't be happier that you are here, and anxiously await your next spat of brilliance that will undoubtedly leave us bewildered, surprised, and impressed yet again.


I'm penning these lines from the dressing room as we prepare to open the 42nd season at TAM with Much Ado About Nothing this Friday. And as fond as I am of penning these lines, its also great to see documentation of the summer as well. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video must be worth a million, right? Below is Janet McWilliams' incomparable video compilation of our first three weeks. Its set to the song Wagon Wheel by the Old Crow Medicine Show, which is not only our unofficial company anthem this summer but also one of the best songs written in the first decade of this new millennium. Kudos to you Janet for so eloquently capturing these moments!

Wagon Wheel Video

Enjoy,

BBell