Signs

Two weeks ago, the 50th season of The Hardscrabble Players opened at "The Barn" (otherwise known as The Red Barn Theater http://www.redbarntheatre-ricelake.com/) which has been their home since 1967. As I have noted in a previous blog ("Missing the Barn", 7/16/2010), I have had the pleasure of performing on the stage there since 2003 and was fortunate enough to contribute to the 50th year by playing "Charlie" in the touching Ernest Thompson play, "On Golden Pond."

One of the traditions of those who perform at The Barn is for the cast of each show to sign either a section of one of the back stage walls, a ceiling truss, a door or even a cupboard door will do. Customarily, the cast signs on the last night of the run and it becomes part of the legacy of the place, sort of a fossilized footprint of those who have performed and danced their way across that small stage over the years.

For example...

Our kids' first time to the Barn

I wasn't in You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown (2000) but I do remember bringing our family to see it. In fact, it was Ed and Emma's first time to the Barn and they enjoyed seeing a few kids they knew from youth group or school in it, namely Luke Fritz and Tzeitel Dutmer who would later be Emma's dance instructor for many years running. 

Sound of Music

I wasn't in Sound of Music (2000) as well but Linda and I came to the show and delighted to see many of the Fritz kids perform - Erica (as Liesl), Kylene as one of the nuns and Luke as a Nazi (we had a lot of fun with that one at Uhf, the youth group we facilitated on Wednesday nights). Funny, I don't remember who played Maria but I do recall that John Dutmer was Captain Von Trapp. John and I would later perform together in Minnie's Boys (2003) and The Music Man (2009) as well as be directed by him in most of the musicals I have been a part of at The Barn. John has also been Ed and Emma's choir director at C-WHS.

Minnie's Boys

My first show to sign for

 Minnie's Boys was my first show to perform in at The Barn. I was invited to play the role of "Harpo Marx" when the guy they had originally cast backed out. Some of my memories of that show include watching a few Marx Brothers films with my kids to get into character (The Stateroom Scene in Night of the Opera is one of our family's favorite shorts to watch) as well as reading Harpo Speaks, Harpo's autobiography of his life before, on and beyond show business. In fact, it was reading his book that inspired me to use his spoon routine as part of my nightly curtain call. Every night, I got to use Harpo-shticht throwing my leg into the aforementioned John Dutmer's hands and cutting off his tie. We had a lot of laughs leading up to the run and enjoyed both on-stage and back-stage antics with fellow brothers Jeff Hile (Groucho), Rick Snyder (Chico) and Matt Bitz (Zeppo). In fact, by the second week of the run, Jeff Hile would come on stage as Groucho to welcome the audience and then I would come running through (dressed as Harpo) honking my horn and chasing girls, whether members of the cast or, in one instance, the Coke bar girls. It was lots of fun and I ended up being nominated for a Barney award that year for Best Newcomer in a Male Role.

I didn't perform in any shows at the Barn in 2004 but in 2005 I was cast in a role that I simply loved: Sydney Lipton, the irascible angel in Neil Simon's rendition of the Book of Job, God's Favorite. Every night I had the joy  of saying the first and last lines of the show: "Guess who's absolutely crazy about you?" referring to God's amazing love for Joe Benjamin. I sweat like crazy in that oversized trench coach (the same one that I had wore for Harpo two years before, mind you) but to play Sydney was worth it. And for my performance I was blessed with my first Barney - Best Male Actor in a Supporting Role.

God's Favorite

The line says it all

Sweet Charity

In 2006, I was cast in my first "lead" role as Oscar Lindquist in Neil Simon's Sweet Charity. I put "lead" in quotation marks because really the only lead in this movie is Shirley MacLaine's character, Charity, which was played wonderfully by Tzeitel Dutmer (a performance for which she gained her first Barney award). I didn't even have to audition for this show - I was chosen to play Charity's boyfriend, Oscar. Emma thought it weird that for 10 nights I played her dance instructor's fake love interest. Linda thought it funny given that Tzeitel was young enough to be one of my daughters. But I loved doing the "elevator scene" with her. You can't find John McMartin's rendition of it on YouTube but I used it to help get me into character. Every night I would fake a claustrophobic episode and then we'd sing, "I'm the Bravest Individual" together.

The elevator scene

For the "ferris wheel" scene, we would climb on a table and then up a step ladder and crowd into a little window so that only our heads were showing. I then would sing "Sweet Charity" to her. But here's the thing: on those hot nights if it was 80-something degrees on stage, it would be 5-10 degrees hotter in the proscenium. So there I would be singing this love song to my girl (who was wearing a wig) and while she looked lovingly up at me my sweat would pour all over her as I sang. Pretty gross but she never stopped smiling. Now that's acting. I was (and I'm sure Tzeitel was, too) very grateful to her mom for coming up with the idea of pulling some helium balloons in front of our faces to give the impression we were kissing. But by the last night of the run, we only had two balloons left so we had to get very close to "sell" it. Certainly, Tzeitel won every inch of that Barney.

The King and I

The King and I (2007) was the first year that Ed and Emma performed with me on the stage. I had a small role - the Kralahome - and really I think I was cast just so Ed and Emma had a way to the Barn each night. But every night the show would begin with Anna (played artfully by Dolly Neby) and Louis dialoging from the band pit as if they are entering the port of old Siam and me entering shirtless with Tommy Yousten my servant in tow. The night Linda showed up the lights hadn't even come up and as I walked down the aisle bare-chested she started to laugh. I almost broke character and turned to her and said, "Please, I'm acting here..." The first two nights of the run it was warm but for the rest of the show we had a cold front come through so most nights the girls in their thin silk outfits would be huddling backstage under heavy blankets waiting to come on stage.

I think that was the last year Barn shows began at 8 p.m. As we got out by 11 each night. It was fun doing a show with two my kids in it. One of the kids cast as the King's sons was Hispanic and I recall one night while we were both putting our make-up on in the dressing room I did my best Nacho Libre impersonation and said, "Chancho, when you're a man sometimes you were stretchy-pants in your room - for fun." Seven-year-old Hose turned to me and said, "I personally find that movie very offensive." I apologized and never referenced it again - until I was in the van going home as he did resemble Jack Black's little sidekick from the movie.

Barefoot in the Park

That was the first summer I did two shows. I figured since I only had a few scenes in King, I could handle a larger role in Barefoot in the Park. Since it was the next show, many nights during the run I would be next door in the Shed rehearsing with the cast of Barefoot. To me, part of the magic of theater is how the same place can be portrayed in so many different ways. Like all shows of the Barn, King and I ended on a Saturday night. By Monday night, the stage had been transformed from a throne room in old Siam to an apartment on Manhattan's east side. I played the charming ne're-do-well Velasco who was doing his very best to woo Mrs. Banks, played wonderfully by Julie Reid, a pastor's wife herself. But it was also that summer that I developed my little mantra: "One is fun. Two is work." I.e., to do a show at the Barn is fun and a great outlet but to do two - especially two in a row - is to commit nearly two thirds of your summer to driving back and forth to the place, practicing and performing there. I love the Barn but there are limits to my endearment for the place.

Playing Fagin

In 2008, I got a dream role when I was cast as Fagin in Oliver! I watched Ron Moody's portrayal of him in the movie version constantly trying to mimic every facial and hand gesture to get Fagin right. Ed was cast as the Artful Dodger and Emma was one of my gang. You've Got to Pick a Pocket or Two was such a fun song to do and coming into the audience every night as I sang Reviewing the Situation was one of my highlights for each performance. I grew my hair out and had a full beard for over a month. Linda loved it and thought I should get a stud in one of my ears and a tattoo on my neck to go with the beard. But I was so hot in that get-up that as soon as the show was over I shaved the beard and all my hair off and went bisque for the next three years.

"Energy, energy, energy..."

It was a great show and a fun cast. Every night Ed and I would circle up "me gang" and we would get our game face on and energy up for the show. It was also this show that our association with the wonderfully talented Arnold sisters, Jaimie and Amanda, began. I won my second Barney for Best Male Supporting Actor for my portrayal of Fagin and when the final curtain call was made for me it was a melancholy moment.

Oliver!

It really was a dream role

Bawling out Tommy

2009 was a busy summer for the Martins for we were featured in both The Music Man and Aladdin and his Wonderful Lamp. I broke my personal rule of doing two shows a summer for the sake of Charlie who was cast by his former teacher in Aladdin. Music Man was the largest cast to ever perform on the stage at the Barn and I absolutely loved being associated with the show. As Mayor Shinn every night I got to bawl out Ed who was cast as Tommy, Zaneeta (my daughter)'s boyfriend. To help the Mayor I actually got a haircut that perfectly resembled my dad's - much to his delight.

The Music Man

Aladdin and his Wonderful Lamp

Aladdin was a far smaller cast and didn't have the same dynamics of Music Man but we muscled through for the sake of having the pleasure of performing in a show together. But it wasn't all work. Having David Mickelson back stage is always a plus and during the run of this show I got better acquainted with Lee Namtvedt (who played the Jafar-character). I'd like to believe this connection became fortuitous for Lee for the very next year when he was involved in an accident because of being intoxicated. While he was incarcerated locally, we met weekly and now that he is serving a 10-year sentence downstate we correspond regularly. If being in Aladdin made these conversations possible, I'm thankful I said "yes" to Patsy.

On Golden Pond

Due to my sabbatical in 2010, we all committed to doing no shows last summer. But this year I wanted to be a part of the Barn's 50th Season and was cast in a relatively small role of "Charlie Martin" in On Golden Pond. But to share a stage - or, at least part of it, with Bill Koslofsky - is no small thing. Plus I got to rub shoulders with buddies from previous shows - Mary Hankins, Tommy Yousten, Tanner Ritchie and Lee Pisa. For the two nights it was nearly 90 degrees in the Barn, it was nice to be the only guy in the cast in shorts. But when the thermometer went south by 40 degrees there were a few nights I looked like an old man back staged wrapped up in a blanket and winter coat. Several nights, after our make-up was on, Lee and I would contemplate how we might spice up the show and we settled on threatening Heidi, the house manager, that on the last night of the run we were going to kill Norman and Ethel as they went down to Golden Pond to say goodbye. We didn't, of course, but we were back stage with the plastic swords we had used in Aladdin feigning slicing them. It got Meg to break character for a moment which, I guess, was the point.

I started this particular blog the night before the run began never anticipating that it would take me so long to compose. And now the show is over and a new cast is getting ready to perform The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. The cabin on Golden Pond is gone - literally erased - and the stage no doubt is taking shape into something completely different. This cast will probably sign on the new doors where apparently we were supposed to sign but no matter. We've left our mark and like the guy said, "...here's looking at you, kid..."