To the non-baseball fan, which means in one game a batter,
hits a single, double, triple, home run.
If there is an equivalent theatrical metaphor it might mean: actor,
stage manager, producer, director. With
my opening debut as a director of Bunnicula, the upcoming Children's Theater
production, I will have 'hit for the cycle' at PCS.
The 'flip side' of my PCS trading card would show the
following 'stats':
actor: six
productions from 'Fiddler on the Roof' to, most recently, 'Arsenic & Old
Lace'
stage manager: 'A
Christmas Story'
producer:
'Intimate Apparel' and 'The New Plays Festival'
director:
'Bunnicula'
Although this has no doubt been done before it should put me
in a fairly small group of dedicated Player's Club devotees who have seen this
terrific facility from all venues. How
do the jobs compare?
The hardest, hands down, is stage manager whereby you get
all of the responsibility and none of the glory. To the contrary, invisibility is your goal
throughout the creative process. The job
almost runs counter to every other job in the theater: avoid being seen, dress
in black, talk in whispers and stay the hell off stage unless it's absolutely
necessary. Add lots of kids to the mix
and 'backstage nanny' is added to the job list.
It's a Yin job in a Yang world.
The stage manager must get their satisfaction from knowing that the
magic ain't happenin' without your ninja-like efforts executed with precise
timing with your cohorts in the tech booth and prop departments. The rush is that you're the one who says when
the curtain goes up and you're the one who calls down the smoke, thunder and
lightning and the one who magically makes it change from one setting into
another to the gasps of the audience.
So while the actors following a show are getting their hugs and flowers
from gushing admirers, you, equally exhausted, are wielding a push broom across
a desolate stage sweeping up the confetti or glitter or whatever was the
flotsam and jetsam of that particular show.
And with an Emmet Kelly-like sadness, you're the one who turns out the
lights when it's over. PCS, btw, excels
over any other theater I've known in the professionalism of its tech staff and
backstage crews.
Actor: by far the easiest and most glamorous job at
PCS. There are pressures,
certainly. Going up on lines, missing
cues, props malfunctioning, cell phones going off, coughing patrons, talking
patrons all are hidden land mines when you step on stage in front of
people. Endless memorization of the
script is the real grunt work of acting; running lines in your head at work in
the elevator, when you're out riding your bike, when you're standing in the
checkout line at Kohls. But the rest is
pure and simple 'play'. The person who
first called these 'plays' must have been an actor describing the child-like
fun of pretending to be someone else.
The sense of camaraderie is the great by-product where 5, 10 even 20
years down the road you still have a unique bond with your fellow castmates
that often outshines those you have with non-stage acquaintances.
Producer: maybe one of my favorite jobs at PCS since: a)
nobody knows what a producer does anyway, b) you can stick your nose in almost
everyone's business without justification (see "a"), c) you don't
have to be anywhere at any place at any time....unless you want to. Like the stage manager, you have to get your
satisfaction from knowing that the show does not happen without your
efforts. Sets don't get built, auditions
don't get set up, props and costumes don't get assembled, the publicity doesn't
get handled, the show literally and figuratively does not go on without you
pulling the strings like some grand puppeteer.
The producer is, in the end, a troubleshooter more than a creator of
art. But that doesn't mean you don't
have an emotional investment in the final product. Watching 'Intimate Apparel' as it was
performed, still one of the best shows I've ever seen at PCS or on any stage
frankly, I had a proud-poppa-like feeling in having a hand in such a wonderful
production.
Director: although it's my first time at PCS (thank you for
the opportunity btw), it's not my first time directing, but speaking from
experience this particular job combines the actor's glamour, the producer's
power and the stage manager's responsibility all rolled into one. The look and feel of final product is on your
shoulders yet, in the end, the actor is the final arbiter of what is said and done;
the stage manager is the boss once the production takes the stage and the
producer is the one who sets the parameters of what can and can't be done. Your truest partner is the playwright. Your contract is with them more than anyone
else. You are part alchemist and part
Dr. Frankenstein transforming words written on the page into a living,
breathing entity. So if you hear someone
on the Second Stage early in October shouting "It's alive!"...that'll
be me.
The thread that runs throughout these various jobs is that
you get to work with insanely creative people with one goal in mind: to create
art. Each experience, each show, each
performance is different and fascinating in its own right and I thank Players
Club for letting me share in the process.
