Show ready to Go On

The Cary News - January 9, 2003

Cary Players hits the stage with "Our Town"
by Lisa Coston

In the last scene of Thornton Wilder's classic, "Our Town," dead people in a cemetery try to wean Emily Webb Gibbs from life, telling her to forget its ambitions, love, suffering and pleasures.

Members of the fledgling Cary Players community theater troupe likely understand all those concepts after months of preparation for their own opening scene -- but Monday evening, a few of their "dead" hit a more immediate bump on the orad to the eternal.

They had to try not to cry as Melissa Maxwell (playing Emily) got one final look at her earthly home and husband (played by her real husband, Jeff Maxwell).

"Girl, that was right on," director Herman LeVern Jones told Maxwell, as the cast clapped and wiped wet eyes after the scene. "Even better than Saturday."

And everybody else in the scene, try not to notice.

The Players debut with their production of "Our Town" Wednesday through Saturday, Jan. 15-18, at Green Hope High's 520-seat auditorium, with nightly shows and a Saturday matinee.

"It's really almost here," said Jones, co-founder of the group.

A lot had changed since rehearsals began in late october with actors sitting at a table puzzling over the script.

There were stage platforms, ladders representing the upstairs of homes, some costumes, and props such as umbrellas and school books. There was a piano accompanist (Karen Hall) and a sound guy (Anthony Melchoir).

Most of all the actors seemed more at ease, their pantomime work sharper, their blocking more certain. Around Thanksgiving, Jones realized things were jelling and his cast had come a long way.

The whole effort has come a long way since an autumn 2001 coffee shop conversation between Jones and co-founder Dan Martschenko. Martschenko, a longtime Cary resident, wanted to get re-involved in theater; calling around, he realized Cary offered no adult opportunities.

When he called Jones, a veteran of nearly three decades in theater and leader of Herman LeVern Jones Theatre Consultant Agency and the Southeast Raleigh School of the Arts, he discovered another longtime Cary resident who thought it awful that a place with more than 100,000 people had no theater.

"Cary should have a showcase," Jones said.

The met for coffee and kept talking. Both had tried to plant seeds for such a group with government and other leaders.

Once they started planting them together, the Cary Players began to grow, aided by momentum from a growing arts scene and talk of a performing arts center for the town.

The question is, how will the community respond? Jones feels good about the show artistically, but concerned that at week's beginning, fewer than a fourth of the tickets were sold. Getting past the holidays likely will help.

Learning curve

It's a hectic time of final preparations such as box office setup, costume fittings, playbill printing, usher and concession organization, and set painting.

At first, Jones and Martschenko had no idea if anyone would show up; they ended up multi-casting several roles to give more actors a chance.

"It has been amazing -- people are just so into it," Jones said. "So many people in the community are providing things, things we never could've afforded starting out."

Once Cary Players filed the paperwork to incorporate as a non-profit with 501(c)3 status, Martschenko began learning how to produce, mainly meaning funding. He would oversee the business side of things so Jones could concentrate on the artistic.

Starting an arts group from scratch isn't easy, and everyone involved puts in long hours; only Jones and technical director Neil Williamson get small stipends. Martschenko, for instance, is a father of five who works as a business development manager for an information-technology consulting firm.

"Just before Christmas, things weren't looking too good," Martschenko said. "I told Herman one day that after all of our bills were paid, he'd have about $50 to pull off the production. He wasn't amused. Then some great things started happening."

They set up sponsorship and membership packages for companies and individuals, a process they will refine. A few key corporate sponsors came forward to run playbill ads that help cover an estimatged $25,000 show budget.

The Town of Cary has provided $6,000 in two grants and Martschenko is hopeful for more.

"In the past few days, we've been able to determine that we have enough funds to cover the costs of the production -- and that's a wonderful thing," he said Tuesday. "Any money raised from this point we'll be able to save for our next production."

With no indoor performing arts venue in Cary, the group leased rehearsal space at Jones' studio off Lake Wheeler Road in southwest Raleigh, with two small rooms converted into a ticket office and a costume closet. Charts of the Green Hope auditorium with sold seats marked line the walls of one, and high-top leather shoes and old-fashioned hats of every description litter the other.

Officials decided having every thing in one place was best, but not having a ticket office in Cary probably has hurt. Working within Wake County Public Schools' district schedules and guidelines to rent the Green Hope auditorium has been challenging and expensive ($5,000), although school officials have been accomodating.

"This is a temporary solution," Martschenko said. "We want and need a permanent space in Cary."

The Players already plan a second show, Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night," June 4-7 at Bond Park's Sertoma Amphitheatre, with audtions in late February.

There are hopes for a summer musical, classes and workshops.

After a few solid shows, Jones would like to see guest directors and perhaps one Equity contract available for each show, to bring in a featured performer.

Martschenko said the best thing about the experience has been the joy on the faces of cast members, some of whom have not been in theater for years and are thrilled about the opportunity. He hopes to see similar looks among audience members.

"Herman and I said, 'Let's make a community theater," and suddenly this host of angels swarmed around us and made it so," Martschenko said. "We are both amazed at the level of talent and dedication that exists in our community."

Oh, and the cast was one adult male short. Martschenko plays friendly milkman Howie Newsome, to Jones delight.

Devil in the details

Largely by word of mouth, key helpers came forward.

Deborah Yalacki, who teaches drama at Ligon Middle School and has taught town programs, has loaned costumes and props.

A former marketing professional now at home with her children, Catherine Campbell coordinated most marketing and ad sales from home, designing posters and hanging many herself.

Margo Schuler juggles her work at Progress Energy with the job of assistant director, ever present with her thick three-ring script notebook with color-coded tabs: green for sound notes, yellow for light cues, pink for choir and blue for props.

Williamson, in the process of moving from Philadelphia, found out about the group and brought a background of master carpentry, a B.F.A. in design and production, and theater experience at East Carolina University and elsewhere.

In addition to a theme they found appropriate for a new community theater, the founders chose "Our Town" for its minimal material requirements; two trellises are the only designed and built scenery.

"It relies a lot more on the text and acting, but also the lighting," Williamson said. "This show gives you a lot in the script itself. The author makes a point that you don't need to bombard the audience with scenery."

That doesn't mean no work.

"It is a challenge with a community theater in terms of budget and volunteers," Williamson said. "I've worked more with professional theaters. The money is not there in community theater and it takes a lot more volunteers. This one, though, seems to be coming along well; we've had actors helping, volunteers in and out."

The rehearsal studio is smaller by several feet than Green Hope, where the stage proscenium is 40 by 16 feet. A "street" important to many scenes is 3 feet wide at the studio, but will be 8 feet wide during the production.

After one Monday run-through, Jones described lighting and told the actors they would refine how mourners enter and leave the funeral at Green Hope, where there will be only two rehearsals.

"I can't do that right now because here is not there," he said.

Williamson built a half-inch-to-one-foot scale model of the stage from foam core and Bristol board, drafting its design on a computer.

"You have to do that so the director can work on the spatial relationships -- furniture to people to scenery -- and the blocking, and look at the lighting," he said, "especially if you can't get into the space until the end."

Jones was happy to learn Tuesday they can set up lights Friday and load the show Monday morning, so the rest of the time can be devoted to the actor's final work.

Taking direction

Jones has been involved in some way in about 250 shows, and figures he has directed some 100, from "Othello" to August Wilson's "Fences" and Bill Harris' "Robert Johnson: Trick the Devil." In addition to "Our Town," his primary project of the moment, he is working on a big project with the Yale School of Drama and with several groups based in Ohio, and continues ongoing local work such as drama classes.

Never having directed Wilder -- he played Professor Willard in Playmakers Repertory Company's 2002 "Our Town" -- Jones read books on Wilder and reviews of productions, looked at period photos and watched a tape. He wants to bring a 21st century reality to an early 20th century story, giving the characters fullness and weight.

"This play is very powerful in its message about the values of life, death and the simple everyday life," Jones said.

His challenge has been shaping a group of actors from Cary and elsewhere in the Triangle who vary widely in background, accting experience and "real" jobs.

"What I love is the intergenerational thing we've got going -- 8-, 9-year olds and folks in their 70s," Jones said.

Several times during each rehearsal the director gathers the cast for notes scribbled on a blue and white pad. His emphasis now lies in details -- working with props and refining rhythm, vocal tones and raw emotion.

On Monday, for instance he told Tracy Fulghum (Stage Manager) to be a bit more upbeat with his final lines, the audience having been "tearjerked enough," and reminded the choir to act and not just sing.

Over and over, he reminded the cast that he doesn't want over-interpretation. Two years down the road for the Cary Players, he might be more concerned with regional accents and the like.

"Right now, I just want you to deliver you," Jones said, demonstrating the over-acting he abhors. "I just want the clarity. ... What we don't want is someone leaning to the next person and going, "What did she say?"

Jones is liberal in his praise, chuckles and "mmphs" through rehearsals a lot, and loves to point out "moments" that really worked.

Everyone agrees that there is a level of pressure to make this first show good. But the work, and the play itself, should ease it.

"If you don't try to ad lib and do something that Thornton Wilder didn't mean, if you just commit to just these words, bam. Show," Jones said.

Show time.