The Road to the Show: The Beginning of the Road

This is the first in a series of posts describing the production of a show.

Road to the Show: The Beginning of the Road

This journey begins with a text message from Patch Editor Paul Singley about a message left on his company cell phone for me. Thanking him for serving as my secretary, I guessed who it might have been...incorrectly. It turned out to be Dianna Waller, a board member at Musicals at Richter, who invited me to attend the upcoming auditions for their upcoming season. I knew that it couldn't possibly be so that I would audition; it actually was so that I could get a behind the scenes look at what it takes to bring a season that will include three large musicals to the stage. How could I pass up this opportunity? I ran it by Mr. Singley, who was as supportive as ever, and we worked out a date that I could attend.

I attended my first show at Richter last summer on a tip from costumer Renee Purdy and enjoyed Brigadoon. In the review, I wrote:  "Dianna Waller is hysterical in the featured comic role of Meg Brockie." I also described the physical layout of the outdoor venue this way:

Musicals at Richter is a different experience than heading to your local brick and mortar theatre. Situated on the back lawn of the Richter Arts Center in Danbury in the midst of a beautiful golf course, it is Connecticut's longest running outdoor theater. Plenty of parking is at the Richter Park Golf Course, just beyond the Arts Center. Complimentary tickets were waiting for me at the gazebo that is the box office.

The stage is set in front of some trees, which in this case were simply an extension of the ones painted on the set. To the right of the well-lit stage is a plastic portable garage that serves as the orchestra pit for the five musicians. Patrons that arrived early set up their lawn chairs/blankets and some pretty impressive picnic dinners to enjoy while we waited for the sun to go down so that the magic of Brigadoon could begin. We knew it was curtain time when the actors began to file out the door of the Arts Center and walk backstage.

At that first show, I made the acquaintance of the Executive Director of Musicals at Richter Janice Gabriel, a relatively young lady for such a post with an impressive theatrical resume. She treated my son and me with equal parts of professionalism and friendliness and we became fast friends. We met up with her again when we attended a performance of Bye Bye Birdie. She was part of the reason I drove to Brookfield to see Into the Woods, where she played a wicked stepsister to perfection.

Ms. Gabriel is a wealth of information about Musicals at Richter, not surprising since she has appeared in or stage managed 20 of the last 21 shows produced there over the last seven summers. A Danbury resident for the last year, she is a substitute English teacher in Newtown by day. This year she will be taking a break from the Richter stage to focus on being Executive Director of the theatre.

Musicals at Richter (MAR) shares the Richter House with the Richter Arts Association. The huge white home was left by Mr. & Mrs. Richter to the city to be used for the promotion of the arts. Before 1985, the space was used for Shakespeare in the round. The adjacent golf course came after. The theatre company pays rent for the five months each year that they use the space, while the Arts Association uses the space for art shows and musical events. MAR uses the former music room and parlor as a rehearsal space, while the library and dining room are used as dressing rooms, where the actors are separated by gender.

The challenges of an outdoor venue would be almost insurmountable for some, but the Richter family take them on with aplomb. Moths fly around the stage and sometimes into the mouth of a singer, spiders cling to wardrobe, rain washes paint off of backdrops. The audience area is built over the Richter family pool and sometimes has drainage issues. There is some mud to keep off one's costume, rocks in the lawn in front of the stage, and sometimes the threat of rain. The surrounding trees sometimes add to the scenery and sometimes fall on the lighting booth. The MAR board is hoping that the repair of the booth will be covered by insurance. With all these bumps in the road, safety is always of the utmost importance and injuries are rare.

The large stage that is located on the lawn of the property is 13 years old and needs to be replaced to the tune of $15,000. The cost to produce the entire season hovers near $90,000, and the actors volunteer their time. Ticket sales have been affected by the recession, with audience size averaging at 200 per show. Donations from the public are always appreciated and are necessary for capital improvements. Their policy is to not recycle show within a ten year time frame, and they have a strict policy of family-friendly musicals. Because they do three shows each summer, they literally have one day to change the scenery between shows.

This summer MAR will celebrate their 29th year with three show: Some Enchanted Evening, 9 to 5, and Cats. They have planned a "big gala" for next year to celebrate 30 musical years. They also have held a Summer Youth Musical Theater workshop for children for the last four years which has doubled in size since its inception. This year, they already have 41 upcoming actors signed up to participate and the program will culminate in a performance of Grease School Edition.

This weekend was supposed to be dedicated to auditions for all three of the musicals. Nature interfered with a snowstorm, but they did manage to get in the children's auditions on Saturday and about 30 children came out. Thirty adults also showed up to audition for one, two or all three of the shows. The auditions were held in (surprisingly nearby) Brewster NY at a former private school that closed last year. The necessary applications were available online for the first time to speed up the process. The plan is for another day of auditions that will need to be in another space.

I was able to attend the second day of auditions and got to sit on the "other side" of the table. Stay tuned for all the details of the day that they allowed me to crash the party.