Tibbits Opera House

I Love You.....Caps the Season

2009-06-22T18:43:00.004-04:00

I LOVE YOU, YOU’RE PERFECT, NOW CHANGE

"If this show were a blind date, you'd feel relieved, grateful and pleasantly surprised." Newsday, 1996

I love this show. We produced it, one of the first productions in Michigan, in 2001. Obviously, our audience loved it too. It is the most requested musical to bring back that we‘ve ever had. To quote from the CD liner notes: "In a theatrical age of mammoth spectacles and brooding musical dramas, I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change is a rollicking throwback to a nearly extinct theatrical genre: the musical comedy revue. With book and lyrics by Joe DiPietro and music by Jimmy Roberts, I Love You... reinvigorates the revue by taking a hilarious and tuneful joyride through the dizzying spectrum of modern male-female relationships.

In 1995, I Love You... premiered at New Jersey's American Stage Company, where, in the middle of one early performance, a woman in the audience couldn't help but blurt out, "This is my life!" From that moment on, the creators knew they were on to something. The following season, I Love You...moved to New Haven's Long Wharf Theater, and then on August 1st, 1996, I Love You... opened off-Broadway at The Westside Theater, where it was hailed as "Entirely winning! A show for real people about real people." (Gannett Newspapers).”

I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change played for 12 years--5,001 performances-- since it opened in 1996 to become the second longest running show and longest running revue in Off-Broadway history. The musical has been showcased in more than 400 cities world-wide including London, Tel Aviv, Amsterdam, Sydney, Seoul, Rio de Janeiro, Los Angeles, Toronto, Boston, Chicago, Mexico City, Barcelona, Budapest, Prague, Milan, Johannesburg, Dublin, Buenos Aires, Berlin, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, and Taipei. In addition to its enormous success, the Off-Broadway production has been the site of over 50 marriage proposals.

"It's SEINFELD set to pop music!"Newark Star Ledger, 1996"Hilarious! The most entertaining show on or off Broadway!"Gannett Newspapers, 1996

Hair on Broadway....or at the Tibbits....

2009-06-17T22:42:00.004-04:00

I thought it would be interesting for you to read what one of the co-authors wrote about the creation of Hair....

The origins of Hair by the author, James Rado:

"A guy from Washington, D.C. (James Rado) and a kid from Pittsburgh. Pa. (Gerome Ragni) met in New York City when they were cast together in a new off-Broadway endeavor, HANG DOWN YOUR HEAD AND DIE, a musical revue whose theme was Capital Punishment. Following the shortest run in show biz (one night), the two young men continued their friendship and soon set out to write their own show, a musical they entitled HAIR. The two became three when they joined up with a cat from Montreal, Canada (Galt MacDermot) who had settled into the New York area to live and who set their songs to music…

The show opened at the Public Theater and began to stir some excitement, earning largely favorable reviews, with a great one from Clive Barnes (who had some reservations mixed in with his praise), lead critic of the New York Times. Downtown (even without the "nude scene") HAIR proved to be a very warm ticket.

But after a 6-week run, Joseph Papp was done with it…. No show had ever gone from off-Broadway to Broadway before. Still Jerry and I were determined and knew that somehow, some way, we would find someone who would be able to help us move it uptown … Jerry and I had rewritten the text, and, with Galt, had added 13 new songs, expanding the score from 20 to 33 numbers.…We wanted a new director whom we had chosen, Tom O'Horgan…We installed and experimented with the new script of HAIR. Tom used various "sensitivity exercises."… The Tribe was taught how and encouraged to work organically with us on the material. It was a very exciting, smooth-going, yet tumultuous, rehearsal process. We opened at the Biltmore Theatre on April 29, 1968 (6 months after off-Broadway), and Clive Barnes, who had some reservations about the off-Broadway version, raved about our transformative work, which was hugely gratifying. For the most part, the critics hurrahed. HAIR was a hit!

HAIR has played pretty much continuously ever since its opening at Broadway's Biltmore Theatre on West 47th Street. It was translated into many languages and produced around the world, from Japan and Australia to South & Central America, from Europe to Israel."

>

Charles adds: With it’s freewheeling story line and barbed comments on sex, drugs, military service, money, religion and other contemporary concerns, it’s vibrant and often memorable rock score, and a sprinkling of nudity, it shattered Broadway conventions and ran 1750 performances, while the London company performed it 1997 times. It’s back on Broadway. And here at the Tibbits for the first time, July23 thorough August 1.

'Leading Ladies' Strut Their Stuff this July

2009-06-12T09:28:00.010-04:00

Leading Ladies is about Leo and Jack, two British actors whose careers are so far on the skids that they're performing "Scenes from Shakespeare" on the Moose Lodge circuit in Pennsylvania's Amish country. They think their luck might change, however, when they hear about Florence, an old lady in a nearby town who is about to die and leave a considerable legacy to her nephews from England. Leo convinces Jack that they should impersonate the heirs--Max and Stevie. Their foolproof plan hits a snag, though, when they arrive on the scene and realize the woman's long-lost relatives are nieces and not nephews….should they give up? Never! They don skirts and become Maxine and Stephanie. The plot only complicates as they fall in love with two beautiful girls…

So what is it about men in skirts? Charley’s Aunt. Some Like It Hot. A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. The Coldwater Rotary Show….There are certain things that are always funny…men walking in heels for the first time, bad wigs on “women” who are outlandishly tall, the locals enamored of these new glamazons…

I could write about how the tradition goes back to the plays of Ancient Rome---but it’s summertime. This strikes me as the perfect farce for this summer. A play with no hidden messages, just lot and lots of laughs. And boy, do we need that now!

"Ken Ludwig gives the audience something powerful and potent: laughter and a guiltless evening of Theatre-going."--Village News

"Leading Ladies is a highly combustible and continuously hilarious new comedy by Ken Ludwig, Broadway's reigning comic writer."--The Cleveland Plain Dealer
Jack Benny in the film of Charley's Aunt, 1941--Twentieth Century Fox

Top image is Arthur Askey in the British film Charley's Big Hearted Aunt, 1940

Tibbits Professional Summer Theatre 2009

2009-06-03T10:18:00.000-04:00

GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES

I was amazed to learn that the Tibbits has never produced this show. It, of course, is based on the Anita Loos novella of the same name. Written in 1925, it has never gone out of print. It has been the basis of a Broadway play, a silent movie, a Broadway musical and finally a big screen Hollywood version of the musical (Well, sort of. More on that later.)

It is all about a comic gold-digger's trip to Paris where she exercises her potent claim "that diamonds are a girl's best friend." There are countless P.G. Wodehouse-type characters who provide her with the aforesaid diamonds. Loos was supposedly inspired to write the book after watching a sexy blonde turn American journalist and essayist H.L Mencken into a lovestruck schoolboy. Mencken, a close friend, actually enjoyed the work and saw to it that it was published. >Originally published as a magazine series, it was published as a book in 1925 and became a runaway best seller earning the praise of no less than author Edith Wharton who dubbed it "The great American novel."

The novella was adapted into a three act play called (surprise) Gentlemen Prefer Blondes by Loos and her husband, John Emerson. It opened in September of 1926 and ran for 199 performances--a very respectable run for a show in the 1920's. It featured Frank Morgan (immortalized years later as the Wizard of Oz) as Henry Spofford.

Loos spearheaded the musical adaptation in the 1940's with Broadway playwright, Joseph Fields. It was the second musical for the great composer, Jule Styne. Lyrics were handled by Leo Robin, who wrote with great comic flair. Carol Channing starred. It roared into the Ziegfeld Theatre on December 8, 1949 and stayed there for almost two years, racking up 740 performances.

Hollywood, of course, took notice. Twentieth Century-Fox bought it for Marilyn Monroe. (Don't you always think of Carol Channing and Marlyn Monroe in the same breath? (I believe I did. Once. When I had a fever of 104......) They took the surefire property--and threw out all but two songs. Updated to the 1950's, retaining only the basic story, it is still a fun film if only to see Jack Cole's musical numbers.

Lorelei Lee still had one more incarnation on Broadway. In the 1970's, instead of doing a revival, they rewrote the book, so Carol Channing could still be in it---telling the story in flash back and now called Lorelei. A couple of interesting songs were written by Styne with Betty Comden and Adolph Green, but it proved a very troubled undertaking. It has a small footnote in Broadway history for being one of the few shows to have two cast albums....one recorded before the break in tour...and then another after it, since it had changed so much...

I think it's a great old fashioned musical, a true musical COMEDY--and what a great way to start off the summer season. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes opens June 25 and plays through July 3.

Hair and Tibbits Summer Theatre

2009-05-26T15:47:00.004-04:00

I think for the first time in the history of Summer Theatre, we will be doing a show in Coldwater at the same time that a revival of the same show is the hottest ticket in New York City. Hair is back on Broadway.

Usually the agents who license the shows to us are very protective of the rights. They want to have no other productions. If the show is on tour, they will not allow other professional theatres the rights to do the show until the tour closes. They want no competition. This is why we are still not allowed to do Chicago.

Well, for what ever reason, Tams-Witmark is letting us do Hair concurrently. You can "Let the Sunshine In" right here in Coldwater. Oh, and I'm told by the box office, that it has quite a nice pre-sale...

Tibbits Summer Theatre Gearing Up

2009-05-06T16:09:00.008-04:00

I’m a bad person. (Well, that’s a little strong…)

I’m a bad writer. (Well, I like to think not…)

I’m a bad blogger. (Well, perhaps that’s the right term. And the right tone…)

I have not gotten into the habit of being able to record events that might be of interest to those reading this blog who are looking for potentially fun facts about how Tibbits Summer Theatre is put together.

I will go back and catch you up on some of the things I've been doing to get ready for summer, but let me say that casting is complete, the design teams are in place and I just have a few orchestra members to hire! We start in 30 days! YIKES!!!

Charles Burr--AD

2009-02-17T15:36:00.000-05:00

The American flag flew today on top of the Tibbits…on top of its newly installed cupola. What a glorious sight! And a sight which hasn’t been seen in more than 70 years.

I first saw the flag from several blocks away as I left city hall. I confess, I spent part of the morning driving around town to see from what distance I was still able to see the dome and the flag. (I could see it from south-bound I-69.)

The cupola, the dome which sat on the original opera house, was removed from the building in the mid 1930s along with much of the other architectural detail as the already 50-year-old theatre was renovated into a movie house. Many volunteers have been raising funds and working on the restoration of Tibbits to bring it back to its original grandeur. A great deal has been done but nothing is as visible as the accomplishment of this past week.

On Friday the cupola was raised to the top of the building. What a glorious day and an awesome sight. People gathered in the parking lot, on the rooftops, along Chicago Street and at many of the businesses in the city to witness the occasion. It’s hard to explain the exhilaration I felt witnessing the 23,000 pound structure being lifted and set into place. And then the flagpole with its gold eagle on top, raised to the crown of the structure.

This is truly a restoration milestone.

There are photos and a video of the construction and installation on the home page… www.Tibbits.org. Please let me know if you watched on Friday, what you think of Tibbits’ new look, or from what locations you have been able to see the dome or the flag.

By the way, the ‘S’ stands for Smith…Barton Smith Tibbits, the man who built the building. The ‘B’ and the ‘T’ will be restored when we raise the rest of the funds—only $450,000 to go. More information on that is also on the web site on the restoration page http://www.tibbits.org/restoration.htm.

Christine Delaney

Executive Director

2008-12-16T16:39:00.000-05:00

Tibbits is looking for artists to create and donate the images for its summer shows. The art contributed by regional artist the last two years has given Tibbits a fun look for its summer theatre brochures and other materials. It has also given many artists a unique outlet for their work and printed materials to build their portfolios.

If you’re interested there's detailed information on the website http://www.tibbits.org/. The art is not due until January, but we’d like to at least know if you intend to submit. Call 517-278-6029 or drop us an email at Tibbitsoperahouse@Tibbits.org.

$500,000 grant for Tibbits Opera House Facade

2008-12-09T13:20:00.000-05:00

It has been really hard to curtail our excitement around here lately…Tibbits recently learned the City of Coldwater received the Scenic Byways Grants from the Federal Highway Association for half a million dollars for the restoration of the Tibbits Opera House!

This announcement is a tremendous boost to our restoration effort. The 126-year-old opera house is a notable landmark and asset along the US-12 Heritage Trail. We are grateful for the support of the City of Coldwater, the Heritage Trail committee, the Michigan Department of Transportation, our legislators, and Bob Welke in making this happen. For more information on the grant, go to http://www.tibbits.org/NSBPMDOTgrantPR12-01-08.htm

Tibbits is already gearing up for Summer Theatre and Charles Burr will be back soon with information on the shows and updates as he prepares for the new season. We really have so much more happening at the theatre besides Summer Theatre. We’ll start keeping you up to date on the other events as they happen. …Christine Delaney, Executive Director

End of season...

2008-08-20T09:13:00.000-04:00

I got a letter from Ruth Scheidler that I thought I'd share as we wrap things up for the 2008 Tibbits Summer Theatre season. She wrote:

"Bop She Bops" was FANTASTIC in every way. You deserved the enthusiastic standing ovation you got Saturday night. My only regret is that I couldn't come earlier in the run, and see it TWICE.

Charles, Tiffany, Brynn, Katie, Eric, Uncle Dave (can't remember your name - sorry - I DO remember your red pants and great drum solo), Cheryl, techies and all the others who contributed so much to this production, THANK YOU. You never missed a beat, from period costumes to a mind blowing list of songs, presented by joyfully talented people. We LOVED this show. ~ Ruth Scheidler

Final Giveaway of the Summer!

2008-08-14T10:07:00.000-04:00

This is Charles. I would like to extend a final thank you for all our readers. Once again we are going to offer a two for one ticket price for the closing night performance of The Bop She Bops on August 16 at 8:00pm. To get this special deal, call the box office at 517-278-6029 and ask them to apply the code BSBBlog#2. Once again, since I have decided to do this at the last moment, you must talk to a box office representative. The discount will not be available online.

Take this opportunity to see the show that has the entire audience humming, laughing and clapping along. Or come see the show again!

Bop She Bops Update!!!!

2008-08-03T20:57:00.001-04:00

Hello Everyone!!!! Tiffany Wiesend here. We are all getting really excited for performances of The Bop She Bops. Today we rehearsed with our drummer John, or as we call him "Uncle Dave" which was fantastic. He truly is an incredibly skilled musician. The drums have really added a lot to our performance and we can't wait to open on Thursday. Do check out the video below... I think you will enjoy it. Well, I better bop on out of here, I have a lot of bop-she-practicing to do :) I love bop-she-puns...

The Goodbye Girl's Toughest Costumes!

2008-07-31T13:41:00.000-04:00

Greetings Tibbit's Fans!
This is Melissa Swanson, costume designer for Room Service and The Bop She Bops. Today I wanted to share with you the toughest challenge we costumers had while constructing for our current show, The Goodbye Girl. This challege was, of course, the Giant Food Costumes! For those of you who have seen our production, I am referring to the dancing rib-eye steak, french fries, and ice cream cone.

Em Rossi, the designer for The Goodbye Girl, developed a strategy to construct these mascots out of ordinary foam mattress pads, headliner foam, a bit of wire, and lots and lots of hot melt glue.
Pictured here is the inside of the ice cream. I built a wire skeleton for the ice cream scoop in order to keep its shape while Katie Lemos was dancing in it.

This process kept us stuck inside these costumes for many hours while gluing each piece together.

After gluing everything together we spent a day in a mist of spray paint behind the opera house.

Lastly, we added the finishing details with some acrylic paints, and lots of glitter.

All three of us built one. Em Rossi made the fries, while Kat Reid (popcorn designer) built the rib-eye, and I tackled the delicious ice cream cone.

So far in the season these costumes were the toughest to build, and yet the most fun. But perhaps not for our diets, considering they caused many ice cream and french fry cravings (not so-much for raw meat).

If you have not seen these costumes in action there are still three more performances; tonight, Friday and Saturday at 8:00 pm.

The next show will be The Bop She Bops, designed by me. Here is a sneak peak of the costumes for Tibbits last summer performance.

A Behind-The-Scenes look at Goodbye Girl - Making The Lights on Broadway

2008-07-31T12:51:00.000-04:00

Hello! My name is Kat Lanphear, and this season I'm serving as the Mainstage Lighting Designer for Tibbits Opera House. I just wanted to give our readers a quick look at the magic behind some of the effects in our shows, particularly The Goodbye Girl.

For those of you who have seen the show, you probably noticed Broadway posters that flew in and out during certain scenes. One of my jobs as lighting designer was not only to make sure that the audience could see the set, but also add a little bit of "lighting magic" to the signs. Working in collaboration with Lex van Blommestien (the scenic designer), we were able to make the Majestic Theatre sign light up, as well as create chasing lights around the 42nd Street sign.

The original concept for how to light the Majestic sign was to drill a series of holes in the middle of the sign to spell out the letters, and then use a lighting instrument directly behind the sign to shine light through the holes. However, this idea had to be scrapped because the look of the sign was being comprimised - it just didn't look as crisp and clean as Lex wanted it to. After a talk about other options, the two of us decided our best bet would be to use rope light to spell out the letters. Not only did using rope light achieve a better look than drilling holes in the sign, but it was also a cheap alternative - we had an abundance of rope light from a production of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas a few years ago (if you happened to see that production three years ago, you may remember the rope light-surrounded runway - yes, we recycle!).

After deciding on a solution, the Master Electrician (Ben Paciorkowski) set to work installing the rope light. The picture on the left is the final product. It took about two hours of drilling small holes to feed rope light through, and installing clips to help create and shape the letters. Pretty simple, but a good look for the show.

While Ben worked on that sign, I was working across the scene shop on the 42nd Street sign. Early on in the process, I'd expressed to Director Brian Sage that I'd like to be able to do a chasing light effect on one on the signs. Most people have seen a chasing effect before - think about theatre marquee signs where the lights seem to "chase" each other around in a circle. A chase effect is easy to create, as it's really just a simple trick of the eye; what you really see in a chase effect is one light turning on, then the one next to it, then the one after it, over and over again in a loop of three. While it looks like the lights "chase" around a sign, it's really just every third light being turned on in a sequence.

To do this, I needed to wire 3 sets of 8 lamp bases to the sign - a total of 24 lights. This way, I could turn on one set of lights at a time. I also needed to be able to "hide" the wires so that the sign looked clean. To complete this project took me over three hours. Not only did I need to attach and wire bases to the sign, but I also needed to make sure I didn't get "lost" in my wiring. One wrong end of a wire attached to the wrong base could have cost me a lot of extra time to go back and fix everything. In the picture, you can see band-aids on my fingers; wiring the sign caused a lot of blisters that day! However, in the end all of the lights worked, and I was able to program multiple chase sequences for musical numbers in The Goodbye Girl. Check out the finished product below!

If you haven't had the opportunity yet, make sure to check out our production of The Goodbye Girl before it closes on Saturday, August 2nd! I promise you that it will be a great time, and you will be able to tell all of your friends how they made the lights on Broadway. =)

Bop She Bops!!!

2008-07-30T14:09:00.000-04:00

Everyone should prepare to tap their toes and remember classic songs from the 1950's, 60's, and 70's. The Bop She Bops will bring fun, laughs, and maybe even a few tears through fantastic songs from this exciting era.

Right now we are just in the beginning stages of rehearsal for the show. My name is Tiffany Wiesend and I am one of the Bop She Bops ladies, along with Brynn Curry, and Katie Lemos. We are so excited to have the honor of performing these terrific tunes. Eric Silvertree is also involved, playing my father in the show, and our biggest fan and greatest supporter. We're having a ball in rehearsals getting to know these songs!

Take a minute and get a sneak peek in the rehearsal process with our secret rehearsal cam below! :)

Room Service Giveaway

2008-07-17T11:53:00.000-04:00

Hello again, faithful readers. This is Charles. I hope by now we have tantalized you into seeing Room Service, the classic Broadway farce now playing at the Tibbits. If you need a little more encouragement, how about a a free ticket?

That's right we are offering a buy-one-get-one-free incentive ONLY to the readers of this blog. It is good only for Saturday night, July 19th. That's closing night of the show where the laughter is bringing down the house.

You must mention the code: RSBlog#1. Since we are doing this at the last minute, you will need to call the Box Office at 517-278-6029 as it is not set up in the online ticketing program.

I would love to see how many readers we have--and rather we have piqued your interest with Eric's behind the scenes look at putting up the show. See you there!

Set Design and Little Women

2008-07-14T14:42:00.000-04:00

The Set for Little Women

This is Charles. While Little Women closed a week ago, I thought our audience might like to hear about (and look at) this highly innovative set.

Here is Set Designer Lex van Blommestein talking about his first impressions for the concept of the set:

"When I first read the script for Little Women I realized that it is not as simplistic as some musicals. There is a rich story, that involves other fantastic stories wrapped within. I had to develop a visual idea that allowed for an interesting way to portray the rich and embellished tales that are spinning in Jo March's head. In the end, the decision became clear... bring it back to the story(ies). I had to keep the fantasy alive and interesting without making it seem like it was being acted. Using a semi-transparent material on the walls allowed for the hazy dream like stories of Jo's head to be played, while in front of the walls the reality of the musical can come to life."

These first three images are the preliminary sketches of how the set might work.

Once the set was okayed by Ray Gabica (the director), Lex and the Technical Director, Chuck Griffin, sat down to figure out what kind of materials could be used that would give the set the look Lex wanted but be within the budget for summer theatre. Scrim, the material that allows light through it when lit from the back and opaque when lit from the front, is very expensive.

Lex and Chuck decided to use a much more cost effective cheese cloth that had many of the same properties. It is never as opaque, but since we never had to see a "realistic" wall, it would work well--always giving a slightly ghostly feel to the room. Once the frame was built, the cloth was stretched over it and sized with a mixture of water and glue. Chuck demonstrates the look of the raw flat.

Next, it was Lex's turn to paint. Since the whole play is composed of Jo thinking back over her life, he opted to see fragments of the wall, not a hyper realistic look. Notice how the wall paper stencil fades in and out over the flat. The stencil is cut by hand and used to get the regulated pattern of the wallpaper. In the attic it is a suggestion of the lath showing through the plaster. For the floor he painted large pages of manuscript.

Ray wanted the show to always remind us of Louisa Alcott's (and, hence Jo's) literary roots. Great panels looking like books on a shelf were used to hide the house and provide other locations. Here Charlie Cochran and Chuck hold up the frame before it is covered with regular muslin.

Here is one completed and ready to go to the paint area. The workshop is located in the same building as the paint shop. Our property storage is there, too. The building is located about half a mile from the theatre. It's very convenient---until you need to transport the set to the theatre in the rain.

The platformed area helped define where we were at any given moment in the musical. The highest area was the attic. A sitting room area was to the left that could double in both the house and the boarding house. And an entrance/passageway was to the right of the attic. Here the platforms are just built and put in place for the first time at the scene shop.

Th Designer and Scenic Artist, Lex van Blommestein with the Little Women wallpaper stencil. Lex guesses he spent 55 hours painting the walls, platforms and floor.

Room Service Performance, Shows One and Two

2008-07-11T17:43:00.000-04:00

Prior Reports:
Day 1 - Sunday, 29 June: Read-Through and Act One Blocking
Day 2 - Monday, 30 June: Act Two and Act Three Blocking
Day 3 - Tuesday, 1 July: Act Three Blocking, Publicity, and Working Act One
Day 4 - Wednesday, 2 July: Working Act Two and Meet the Cast
Day 5 - Thursday, 3 July: Run-Through and Meet the Cast
Day 6 - Friday, 4 July: Run-Through and Meet the Cast
Day 7 - Saturday, 5 July: Work Session and Designer's Run
Day 8 - Sunday, 6 July: Load-In*, Hang and Focus, and Running Lines
*Including one-minute timelapse video of the set going up!
Day 9 - Monday, 7 July: Costumes, Props, and Adjusting to the Stage
Day 10 - Tuesday, 8 July: Stage Management, Box Office, and Dress Rehearsal
Day 11 - Wednesday, 9 July: Final Dress Rehearsal

Thursday, 10 July: Opening Day Double Run

Hello! I'm Eric Silvertree, taking you behind the scenes into life in regional professional theater, with a day-by-day weblog covering Room Service, the third production in Tibbits Summer Theatre's forty-fifth season, from the first day of rehearsals to the last day of performance.

The rehearsal process is over now, and today we hit the stage and performed for an audience for the first time - and the second time. Today was a double run, meaning we had both a 2pm matinée and an 8pm evening performance. Our volunteer ushers had their work cut out for them preparing enough program flyers for the day.

First, though, for the morning session. I'm also performing in The Tortoise and the Hare and Other Fables by Aesop, part of the Tibbits Popcorn Theatre series for children. We have two more shows Friday and Saturday morning, but we haven't done the show since last week. To refresh our memories - and make sure that the set changeover from Little Women to Room Service hasn't created any problems for us - we had a brush-up rehearsal Thursday morning. It went great, and we'll have no problems re-opening the show tomorrow.

On to the afternoon. The stage manager of a show determines what time the cast is due to report in for a performance. That check-in time is referred to as call. Call times vary with the needs of the show. If the whole cast is in very elaborate costumes, or special makeup, or in a musical that requires time to warm up the voice, call may be an hour or more before the curtain goes up. Room Service has fewer pre-show demands on the actors, so Justin set our call at half an hour.

We're free to show up early, of course, and an actor who doesn't appear on stage until late in the show may be given a call time later than the rest of the cast. We each, by now, have a pretty good idea how long we personally will need to get ready, and we each have different ways of using the time. Some actors prefer to arrive early and get ready long before curtain time, then spend the extra time relaxing in the dressing room or greenroom. Some actors would rather get everything done just in time to hit the stage, because extra time spent waiting makes them nervous and jittery.

Either way, we're kept on track by Justin, who makes regular announcements of the time remaining before the show begins. One important timing mark comes just under a half-hour before curtain, when we hear that the house is open - meaning the ushers have begun showing the audience to their seats in the auditorium. The final announcement comes at two minutes to curtain time, when the stage manager calls us to take our places for the beginning of the show.

Then the house lights go dark, the stage lights come on, the curtain rises - and we begin. I'll talk more about what goes on backstage during a performance in later reports. Today, I'd like to tell you about some of our friends in the community of Coldwater, Michigan, and the special things they did for us on opening day.

The good folks at the United Methodist Church have a kind spot in their hearts for the Tibbits company, and on the days when we have two back-to-back performances they take special care of us by having the whole company over for dinner between shows. After washing off the makeup and changing back into our own clothes, we walked three blocks over to the church, where they had a great buffet with chicken casserole, tacos, rolls, salad, fresh fruit, iced tea, orange juice, coffee and dessert laid out for us. They've hosted meals for us on double-run days for many years now, and besides being grateful for the food, those of us who return to the Tibbits season after season are always happy to see them again. It's a delightful time spent catching up with friends. In the photo above, we raise our glasses to United Methodist volunteers Linda Luce, Diane Godfrey, MaryAnne Bair, Jerry Welborn, Carol Tinervia, and Marianne Hodson. Thanks again for your love and support!

We're just as grateful to the Northwoods Coffee Shop and owner Michelle Milnes, who started a new tradition this year. On opening nights, Northwoods re-opens late after the show, and we have the chance to relax and mingle with some of the folks who've just seen us on stage. It's wonderful to be able to meet and chat with the audience in such a pretty and comfortable place, and both the coffee and the food are excellent. Many of us at Tibbets make Northwoods a regular stop during the day, and the opening night receptions are a special treat - Michelle gave us each a beverage and dessert of our choice on the house!

As for the shows themselves, we couldn't be more pleased with how much the audiences enjoyed themselves. A lot is said about how much actors like the sound of applause, but there's one thing we love even more - the sound of a whole houseful of people helpless with laughter. Our double run on opening day left us very tired, but very very happy. We hope you'll come down and share the fun!

Room Service Rehearsal, Day Eleven

2008-07-10T09:50:00.000-04:00

Room Service Rehearsal, Day Ten

2008-07-09T12:23:00.000-04:00

Prior Reports:
Day 1 - Sunday, 29 June: Read-Through and Act One Blocking
Day 2 - Monday, 30 June: Act Two and Act Three Blocking
Day 3 - Tuesday, 1 July: Act Three Blocking, Publicity, and Working Act One
Day 4 - Wednesday, 2 July: Working Act Two and Meet the Cast
Day 5 - Thursday, 3 July: Run-Through and Meet the Cast
Day 6 - Friday, 4 July: Run-Through and Meet the Cast
Day 7 - Saturday, 5 July: Work Session and Designer's Run
Day 8 - Sunday, 6 July: Load-In*, Hang and Focus, and Running Lines
*Including one-minute timelapse video of the set going up!
Day 9 - Monday, 7 July: Costumes, Props, and Adjusting to the Stage

Tuesday, 8 July: Stage Management, Box Office, and Dress Rehearsal

Hi again! I'm Eric Silvertree, a member of the cast of Room Service, the rollicking farce opening Thursday, 10 July at the historic Tibbits Opera House in Coldwater, Michigan.

Time is speeding by as the show gets ever closer to opening. During the morning session, the technical crew - set, lights, props and costumes - were hard at work finalizing all the details, from repairing the facing on a step that one of us accidentally kicked in, to finishing a hat for one of the ladies, to finding the right mix of Coca-Cola and 7-Up to simulate champagne.

The afternoon session was a run without costumes (except for garments changed on stage as part of the show) and in the evening we had another full dress rehearsal. Yesterday, our biggest concern was adjusting to the move from the rehearsal space to the stage. Today, we were back to concentrating on our acting, polishing our performances, and establishing our personal routines for the show. We and the crew all rely on each other backstage to keep things running smoothly. For example, Robert helps Whitney and Sarah by remaking the beds during the first intermission, Brian and Steve help J.R. with a tricky little bit of costuming before he makes a re-entrance, and I help John maneuver the breakfast cart into place so when the door opens, he can wheel it right on.

You've caught sight of the stage management staff here and there in previous posts, but let's get to know them a little better.

In front is Justin Carroll, the production stage manager. Justin started working with Tibbits Summer Theatre five years ago as an assistant, and is now the man in charge when the show goes live and the director turns over control to stage management. Justin is working toward a degree in theatre technology and design at Central Washington University.

Behind him is Whitney Shouse. Whitney is the assistant stage manager for mainstage shows, and serves as primary stage manager for the Tibbits Popcorn Theatre series for young audiences. Whitney is a theatre major at Hanover College in Indiana.

At the lighting control console in back is Ben Paciorkowski, the master electrician. From this nest off to the side of the stage, Ben and Whitney perform the technical aspects of the show - raising the curtain, ringing the telephone on the set, controlling the lights on stage and in the auditorium - while Justin gives them their cues from his post in a booth behind the last row of seats in the balcony. Justin, Whitney, and Ben are in constant communication by headset microphone, and Justin also makes announcements to the actors thorough speakers in the dressing rooms.

We also have dedicated folks keeping things going at the Tibbits year-round. Joan Spaulding is the darling lady in charge of keeping things tidy throughout the building. Cleaning our individual dressing room spaces is each actor's responsibility, but then there's the auditorium, the lobby, the downstairs intermission space with art gallery and gift shop…

Dave Brown is the house technical director, making sure the lights and fans work for us on both floors of dressing rooms, for instance, as well as working with the community theater and other performance groups that use the opera house when Tibbits Summer Theatre is not in season. I never know when I'm going to come across either Joan or Dave when I zip through the place at random odd hours, and Joanie always has a sweet smile and a laugh for me, and Dave's always ready with a new joke.

There are a lot of people involved in mounting a production - not just the actors you see strutting their stuff in the light. We all work hard to bring the show together - and by now, I hope you're as eager to see the production as we are to present it. Here are the friendly people to talk to for tickets!

That's box office manager Jo Summitt on the left, with assistant manager Vanessa Bloom on the right. In the second photo are Shannon McKinney and Sam Haberl.
They'll be very happy to reserve your seats - either in person, or at 517.287.6029. The box office is open from 10am to 5pm every weekday, 9am to 4pm on Saturdays, plus at 7pm (an hour before curtain time) on all dates with evening shows. Room Service opens on Thursday with two shows - a matinée at 2pm and an evening performance at 8pm. We continue Friday and Saturday at 8pm both nights. The following week, we re-open on Wednesday with a 2pm matinée, then complete the run with 8pm shows on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.

Tomorrow (Wednesday) we have our final rehearsal before we open the doors and bring up the curtain - and your backstage pass with me on the blog will go on all through the run of the show. More coming soon!

Room Service Rehearsal, Day Nine

2008-07-08T20:09:00.000-04:00

Prior Reports:
Day 1 - Sunday, 29 June: Read-Through and Act One Blocking
Day 2 - Monday, 30 June: Act Two and Act Three Blocking
Day 3 - Tuesday, 1 July: Act Three Blocking, Publicity, and Working Act One
Day 4 - Wednesday, 2 July: Working Act Two and Meet the Cast
Day 5 - Thursday, 3 July: Run-Through and Meet the Cast
Day 6 - Friday, 4 July: Run-Through and Meet the Cast
Day 7 - Saturday, 5 July: Work Session and Designer's Run
Day 8 - Sunday, 6 July: Load-In*, Hang and Focus, and Running Lines
*Including one-minute timelapse video of the set going up!

Monday, 7 July: Costumes, Props, and Adjusting to the Stage.

Hi there! I'm Eric Silvertree, back with another installment of the day-by-day backstage blog of Room Service, part of Tibbits Summer Theatre's forty-fifth season of summer stock.

I'm sure you noticed some props and furniture pieces gradually replacing the folding chairs that stood in for the real things during rehearsals at the Jefferson Elementary School gym. On Monday, however, we got our hands on all the genuine articles we'll be using in the show. Minor additions and changes will continue right up to the final rehearsal, but all the departments try to make sure that the technical aspects of the show are as close to finished as possible for the first on-stage run.

Properties master Sarah Simrau had her work cut out for her - there are three and a half pages of fine print on the last pages of the script, listing the props called for in the action of the play - and none of them are allowed to look as though they were manufactured in the twenty-first century. Period suitcases, doctor's bag, dinnerware, linen and towels, a typewriter in a carrying case - all have to be either found, made, or modified from items in the Tibbits stock.

It all looks like a pile of mess as it's brought in, but Sarah and assistant stage manager Whitney Shouse quickly get things organized. Props are either pre-set in the right locations on the set or laid out on tables backstage, with a specific place for each prop, so that we actors always know exactly where everything is and can easily grab what we need and get back on stage.

Lights and set also have some details to attend to, like wiring the lighted sconces attached to the wall above the side tables by the beds. Here you can see Whitney and master electrician Ben Paciorkowski hooking up power to a bell ringer that has the right sound for a 1930's telephone and can be controlled from the light operator's station.

During the morning session, while the crew was busy working on the stage, the actors met in the greenroom. Nobody can agree on why the room set aside for actors to relax offstage as they're waiting to go on is called the greenroom, but it's been called that since at least the beginning of the eighteenth century. Ours is down a flight of stairs from the door opening onto the back of the stage, and it's the perfect spot for the whole cast to go through the dialogue of the whole show from beginning to end, talking our way through the script one last time before we start doing it on a set with stairsteps and doors and furniture and props in our hands.

After lunch, we walked around on the set for a few minutes to get used to the space, and then we began our first onstage run-through. We've been rehearsing on a flat floor without walls up until now, pretending to be holding papers and dishes and things, so we were all a little distracted the first time through, and kept forgetting our lines. That's not a problem - the director expects it to happen, and so do we. When an actor goes blank in rehearsal, he or she doesn't (and shouldn't) waste time apologizing for it. Instead, we just shout "Line!" Someone - usually Justin Carroll, the stage manager - has a script right in front of him, ready to feed us a few words to get us back on track. There comes a point, of course, when we're expected to recover from problems on our own (since we can't shout "Line!" during a performance) but that point doesn't come until we've had a chance to get used to the stage.

For the evening session, we added costumes to the mix. We've paid individual visits to the costume shop for fittings at various times during the last week, but this was our first time wearing them for a dress rehearsal, or rehearsal in costume. Getting used to our clothes, and when we change them for different scenes, is another distraction, but we all settled in very quickly. In fact, I think I was the only one who called "Line!" during the evening dress.

Costuming a show set in the 1930's - or any other historical period - presents the same challenges as gathering props. All the garments have to have to be in the right style, with no obvious color or fabric choices from the wrong era. Some of the clothes are simply pulled from the Tibbits inventory, and some are constructed from scratch. Let's meet the costumers!

In front is Melissa Swanson, the designer for Room Service. Behind Melissa is Kathleen Reid, and behind Kathleen is Em Rossi. Kathleen recently earned her BFA at the University of Central Missouri, and Em is working toward her MFA at Wayne State University. They all share the work as stitchers for every show, but they divide the design responsibilities up. Em designed Little Women, which just closed, and is working on the upcoming show The Goodbye Girl, which follows Room Service. Melissa will design again for The Bop She Bops, and Kathleen is in charge of all the shows in the Popcorn Theatre series for children.

Now that we're on the stage, and into the dress rehearsal phase, we're almost ready to open. Tuesday and Wednesday will be our time to work out the last of our hesitations and uncertainties as we prepare to open the show to the public on Thursday. I'll talk to you again soon!

Room Service Rehearsal, Day Eight

2008-07-07T09:45:00.000-04:00

Prior Reports:
Day 1 - Sunday, 29 June: Read-Through and Act One Blocking
Day 2 - Monday, 30 June: Act Two and Act Three Blocking
Day 3 - Tuesday, 1 July: Act Three Blocking, Publicity, and Working Act One
Day 4 - Wednesday, 2 July: Working Act Two and Meet the Cast
Day 5 - Thursday, 3 July: Run-Through and Meet the Cast
Day 6 - Friday, 4 July: Run-Through and Meet the Cast
Day 7 - Saturday, 5 July: Work Session and Designer's Run

Sunday, 6 July: Load-In*, Hang and Focus, and Running Lines
*timelapse video

Hello again! Eric Silvertree reporting from the Tibbits Opera House in Coldwater, Michigan, on all the preparations here for our production of Room Service, the classic 1937 comedy by John Murray and Allen Boretz.

After the Saturday designers' run came the final performance of Little Women. Once the audience had gone home and the actors changed out of their costumes and cleaned off their makeup, it was time to strike the set. To strike something is to move it off the stage, and everybody in the company - even those not otherwise working on a particular show - participates in strike at the end of a show's run. Chuck Griffin, our technical director, is the man in charge at strike, and under his well-organized leadership, we had the Little Women set dismantled, piled on a trailer, trucked over to the scene shop, and unloaded in just a little over an hour.

Of course, we were all pretty tired at the end, but we were in a very good mood, because earlier that afternoon at the end of the designers' run, our director for Room Service, Charles Burr, had announced to the cast that he was making a change in the schedule. Because the show is so fast and takes so much energy to perform, and because rehearsals had been going so well, he'd decided to give us the whole day off on Sunday! After a few seconds of stunned silence, we all cheered. Imagine playing tennis or basketball flat-out for three hours at a time, two or three times a day, for a whole week, and you'll have some idea how most of us were feeling Saturday night - even before we started striking Little Women.

I spent a leisurely Sunday morning at the laundromat, and then a few of us who have a huge amount of dialogue (or have been memorizing more than one show at a time) got together on the front porch of the company house to spend a few hours running lines. Running lines is something actors do on their own time. One actor, or a helpful friend, will hold the script and follow along while the others practice. The book-holder will read any parts that belong to an actor who isn't there, and will interrupt the rest of us if we skip a line or make a mistake. We concentrate purely on the words, without worrying about movement, emotion, or delivery. It's a very intense memorization technique, even more focused than working a scene. If one of us keeps getting stuck on a particular line or two, we may do that half-page over and over dozens of times until it's perfect.

Meanwhile, on the stage, Chuck and Lex were overseeing the rest of the load-in process. Load-in, for a set, is the opposite of strike. Let's meet the fine folks on the set construction crew.

Chuck Griffin, the technical director, is in the center, and Lex vanBlommestein, set designer, is all the way to the left. Kyle Garrelts, our technical theatre intern, is standing between Lex and Chuck. Kyle starts working on his BFA in technical theatre this fall at the University of Wyoming. The gentlemen on the right are Charlie Cochran, carpenter, and Chris Otwell, master carpenter. Charlie has a degree from ITT in Phoenix, Arizona, and Chris is working toward his MFA at Wayne State University.

The set was constructed and pre-painted at the Tibbits scene shop, and we carried all the pieces of Room Service in and stacked them against the back wall during the Little Women strike. On Sunday, it was time to put it all together. Thanks to Chris, we have a series of photographs taken at five-minute intervals, enough to make a short video showing the construction of Room 920 at the White Way Hotel in Times Square, New York City.

^ ^ ^ Click the play button above to watch the video

Once the set is up, it's time for the lighting crew to work their magic. Lights for theatre are referred to as instruments, and each instrument needs to be hung in place, aimed, and focused to make sure both the actor's faces and the entire set are clearly illuminated, without unwanted shadows, hot spots, or gaps. The color of the light is controlled with gel, sheets of colored heat-resistant plastic held in frames in front of each instrument's lens. Even shows without visible color effects have a gel in every light.

That's Kat Lanphear, lighting designer, on the left, and up on the ladder adjusting an instrument is Ben Paciorkowski, the master electrician. Ben has a BA from Hanover College, and starts working on his MFA at Purdue this fall. Together they test each instrument, individually and as part of the complete lighting scheme, until the whole setting has the right atmosphere for the show.

On Monday, we actors get our first chance to rehearse on the actual set. More about that, and about the props and costumes for Room Service, in my next report. So long for now!

Room Service Rehearsal, Day Seven

2008-07-06T11:17:00.000-04:00

Prior Reports:
Day 1 - Sunday, 29 June: Read-Through and Act One Blocking
Day 2 - Monday, 30 June: Act Two and Act Three Blocking
Day 3 - Tuesday, 1 July: Act Three Blocking, Publicity, and Working Act One
Day 4 - Wednesday, 2 July: Working Act Two and Meet the Cast
Day 5 - Thursday, 3 July: Run-Through and Meet the Cast
Day 6 - Friday, 4 July: Run-Through and Meet the Cast

Saturday, 5 July: Work Session and Designer's Run

Hello! I'm Eric Silvertree, a member of the acting company with Tibbits Summer Theatre in Coldwater, Michigan, bringing you yet another backstage report on the rehearsals for Room Service, the mile-a-minute comedy opening this Thursday, 10 July.

This is the end of the first week of rehearsal, and also the opening morning of the other show I'm acting in at the moment. The Tortoise and the Hare and Other Fables by Aesop is part of Tibbits Popcorn Theatre for young audiences. The Popcorn shows are performed on Friday and Saturday mornings at 10am. Because of the holiday, the theater was dark all day yesterday - which means there were no shows scheduled. Also because of the holiday, our audience for Aesop was relatively small. A little over a hundred kids came to see the show, which was pretty much what we'd expected.

Besides the free popcorn and juice during intermission, Popcorn Theatre shows feature a meet-and-greet after every performance, where the audience can get autographs and their parents can take pictures of them with the cast. With a small audience, the reception went by quickly, and I was able to make it to the morning Room Service rehearsal before it was halfway over. When I got there, we were in the middle of working Act 3.

The afternoon session was the designer's run. The heads of all the technical departments were in attendance for a complete run-through of the show. The designer's run is a final check for props, costumes, lighting, and set, so that they know - for example - whether a water pitcher on stage will actually need water in it or not, and which corners of the set need to be lit for actors' faces, and which just need lighting for atmosphere.

We'll be moving onto the actual set on Monday, and although there are always a few minor surprises and hiccups when we make the transition, all the departments (including the actors) do everything they can to make the transition as smooth as possible. You've met the cast. Let me introduce you to the designers.

First, on the left, is Sarah Simrau. Sarah is the properties master. Properties, or props, are any objects in the show which are moved or handled by the actors. In Room Service, that includes things like luggage, newspapers, champagne bottles, a stuffed and mounted deer's head, a serving cart of real breakfast for three of the actors to wolf down on stage, and much much more. Sarah has a theatre degree from Mid-Michigan Community College, and interned at the Florida Studio Theatre before joining the staff at Tibbits.

Next is Lex vanBlommestein, the set designer. Sets are anything on stage that doesn't get moved around. The walls and doors are part of the set, of course, but so are the furniture and decorative objects arranged on them. Lex holds an MFA in scenic design from Wayne State University, and is soon to take up a professorship at Southern Illinois University.

Moving on, we come to Melissa Swanson, costume designer. Costumes, obviously, are the clothes that the actors wear on stage, but her department also covers things like the actors' hair and makeup styles. Melissa is a student at Western Illinois University majoring in both art history and costume design.

And on the right is Kat Lanphear, the lighting designer. In addition to the lights for the show, her department has a hand in anything on stage that requires electricity and remote control. Kat has a degree from Alma College, and is working toward her lighting design MFA at Wayne State University.

The boundaries between these departments are not rigid. Lex and Sarah collaborate on the knickknacks that dress the set. Sarah and Melissa work together on the items of clothing that aren't actually worn but are tossed around as props. Kat and Lex consult on the light fixtures mounted on the walls in the room. And, of course, they all work together with the director to make sure that the actors look the way he wants them to in their costumes on the set when they're lit and carrying props.

My next report will be a closer look at the stage as the set goes up and the lights get focused on Sunday. Be back soon!

Room Service Rehearsal, Day Six

2008-07-06T02:42:00.000-04:00

Prior Reports:
Day 1 - Sunday, 29 June: Read-Through and Act One Blocking
Day 2 - Monday, 30 June: Act Two and Act Three Blocking
Day 3 - Tuesday, 1 July: Act Three Blocking, Publicity, and Working Act One
Day 4 - Wednesday, 2 July: Working Act Two and Meet the Cast
Day 5 - Thursday, 3 July: Run-Through and Meet the Cast

Friday, 4 July: Run-Through and Meet the Cast

Happy Independence Day, everyone! Eric Silvertree here with another behind-the-scenes report on life in the world of regional summer stock theater, as we prepare to present Room Service at the Tibbits Opera House.

My daily routine is pretty familiar to you by now: rehearsal for The Tortoise and the Hare and Other Fables by Aesop in the morning, Room Service in the afternoon, and the evening off to study my lines and run my errands - not actually part of the schedule, you understand. I only have evenings off because I'm not in the current mainstage production of Little Women.

Today would have been different if it weren't a holiday weekend. Aesop is part of the Tibbits Popcorn Theatre series for young audiences, and Popcorn shows have their opening "nights" every other Friday morning - but families' plans for the Fourth of July usually don't include dropping the kids off for an hour. It's not cost-effective to burn electricity to light a show when everyone's out of town or at the lake. Therefore, Aesop will open on Saturday instead, and we used the time to get in another round of rehearsal. For the same reason, there's no performance of Little Women tonight. We figure everybody in Coldwater will be at the fireworks show instead - and since Tibbits is giving everyone in the company the evening off, that includes most of us!

So, in a roundabout way, the fact that it's a holiday means my workday worked out to be exactly what it's been all week. At 2pm, I and my fellow cast members were in the gym at Jefferson Elementary School for another run-through of Room Service. Each run-through gets smoother and sharper as we gain confidence in our lines and refine our acting choices under the watchful eye of our director, Charles Burr.

Enough about the schedule - let's talk about the rest of the cast. Some scripts are written with one or two dominant characters, called the leads, while others are written as ensemble pieces, in which the entire cast has roughly equal stage time. Because farces depend so much on multiple relationships and interactions among wildly different characters, even a farce with an identifiable lead (in Room Service, that would be the role of Gordon Miller) has a strong ensemble feel, and needs strong actors in every part.

To the left is Ken Washburn, who plays Senator Blake, president of the company which owns the White Way Hotel. This feisty Southern gentleman has a strong opinion on every topic, from the right amount of credit to extend a guest, to the kind of message a proper American stage play should present - and from his position of power, nobody else's opinion matters at all.

In the center is Kevin McDaniel, playing Simon Jenkins. Jenkins is an investing agent who represents a man so wealthy he can afford to bankroll an entire Broadway production just to give his stage-struck mistress a little something to occupy her time - as long as nobody knows the money came from him. Jenkins handles his business with the utmost discretion, and his job has never caused his heart condition the least bit of stress - until he met Gordon Miller.

To the right is Robert Dozzi, as a messenger from the bank that handles the hotel's finances. With the Great Depression in full swing, high-powered executives are just as nervous about money as any group of starving actors - if not more so. In that kind of atmosphere, whole fortunes depend on the messengers, and this young man doesn't do his job halfway. If he can't find you in your office, he'll track you down, and one piece of paper in his hand can spell the difference between success and ruin.

And finally, our cast is rounded out with the presence of George Spelvin. No authentic photographs of Mr. Spelvin exist - and who am I to buck tradition? His name has appeared in literally hundreds of stage programs, in a career that has spanned decades. He's a legend in the American theatrical tradition, with roles in comedies, tragedies, and musicals - there's nobody better to portray Timothy Hogarth, the representative of a collection agency called We Never Sleep.

Now you've met the cast - in my next report, you'll meet the designers, as they attend a run-through held specifically for them. Stay tuned!

Room Service Rehearsal, Day Five

2008-07-04T22:21:00.000-04:00

Prior Reports:
Day 1 - Sunday, 29 June: Read-Through and Act One Blocking
Day 2 - Monday, 30 June: Act Two and Act Three Blocking
Day 3 - Tuesday, 1 July: Act Three Blocking, Publicity, and Working Act One
Day 4 - Wednesday, 2 July: Working Act Two and Meet the Cast

Thursday, 3 July: Run-Through and Meet the Cast

Hello again! I'm Eric Silvertree, back with another report on the rehearsals for Room Service, part of Tibbits Summer Theatre's forty-fifth season. Many thanks to my fellow cast member Tiffany Weisend and director Charles Burr for snapping the photos for today's post.

As we get closer to opening the show on July 10, the rehearsal process is gradually shifting from memorizing and working individual sections of the script toward integrating all of our work into a smooth, unified show. We're becoming more confident with our lines, and some of us are starting to put our books down. I'm not ready to do that - not yet. Since I'm also appearing in The Tortoise and The Hare and Other Fables by Aesop, which opens Saturday morning, I've been spending more study time with that script than this one. After the holiday weekend, though, all my focus will be on Room Service.

My time on Thursday was once again split between the two shows. I spent the morning session with Aesop, but in the afternoon I was there for a complete run-through of Room Service. A run-through is just what you'd think: we do the whole show from the beginning to the end, stopping as few times as we can - although we do go back and work on problem spots when they pop up.

Speaking of problems, farces are built on them. There are many different types of comedy, and in a farce, the emphasis is on an ever-increasing level of frenzy as competing characters with opposite goals keep out-maneuvering each other. All the action of Room Service happens in one place: Room 920 at the White Way Hotel in Times Square, New York City. All the characters you met yesterday (except for Christine) are living in this one room, the bill is hopelessly past due, and they're desperately trying to keep one step ahead of the hotel staff. Let's meet the opposing team!

Seated on the bed is Dennis McKeen, who plays Joe Gribble, the hotel manager. The only reason Gordon Miller has been able to put off the bill for feeding and lodging the twenty-two people in his company as long as he has is that Gribble is married to his sister Flossie. We never meet Flossie, but judging from Gribble's nerves, it's a fair bet that she's about the same size, shape, and disposition as her brother.

The perky lass to the right is Tiffany Weisend, in the role of Hilda Manney, Mr. Gribble's secretary. She's got a heart of gold and a taste for chocolate. She'd love to help the theatre troupe any way she can (especially that cute young playwright) but anyone thinking of breaking a promise to her had better think twice.

All the way to the left is John Marsh. He's playing Sasha Smirnoff, a waiter in the hotel and friend of Miss Manney. Sasha's from Russia, where he spent seven years working under Stanislavsky in the Moscow Art Theatre. Here in New York, however, he supports his wife and kids on a waiter's salary - all the while yearning to get back on the stage.

Second from the right is J.R. Colbeck, who plays Doctor Glass, the hotel's staff physician. He's a respectable man, focused on his job, which he performs with (uncomfortable) thoroughness. He does his best to brush off frustrations of his efforts and assaults on his dignity, but the herd of jokers and con-men in Room 920 are going to test the far limits of his patience.

Finally, there in the middle is me - Eric Silvertree. I'm playing Gregory Wagner, supervising director of the firm that owns the White Way Hotel. Wagner's a bully who answers to nobody but the board of directors, and he was sent here personally by Senator Blake, president of the company, to remake this failing flop-house into a money-making operation - and on the very first day, he discovers a twelve-hundred-dollar unpaid bill. Guess who's going to be the theatre company's biggest problem!

But wait - that's not everyone yet. You'll meet the rest of the cast in the report on Day Six. More to come!