By Music Director Andrew Wheeler

There's always a post-show lull the first few days after closing. While its sad to say goodbye to the new friends and colleagues with whom you've spent countless hours, worked seemingly endless late nights and shared abundant laughter, there are always the myriad memories that will continue to bring a smile to my face.

One of my favorites is the sounding board that our illustrious tech team made available especially for JCS. While it was freed from its vestigial frame by James (our Technical Director) and his crew, it couldn't have happened without Tom. Working with Tom Quaintance was a delight thanks to the great partnership we shared. One of Tom's best qualities is that he is a "yes" man. When the idea of a sounding board came up and I nearly jumped out of my skin, Tom said, "Let's do it. I've always wanted one."

James taking apart the piano

I'm getting ahead of myself, though. A sounding board is the part of a piano that holds the strings and helps their sound resonate. Inside the piano, the hammers strike the strings as each key is pressed. Take the sounding board out, though, and you can get your hands, or anything else you want, directly on the strings and even the board itself. The range of sounds you can create is only limited by your imagination, and discovering new ways to manipulate it is great fun. In fact, this is the first time I've gotten to work with one myself in a show. I was eager to dive in.

So, when Tom gave the word, James and his team began to take apart the piano piece by piece, and then add back a few that would come in handy. Then they carried it up to the pit. All 100lbs (at least!) of it. Love those guys! Then I started to play around.

Tom and I decided on a structure for "The Crucifixion" and came up with a few great tools. I ended up using just two: a hammer and a metal putty knife. Running the metal putty knife along the strings produces a hair-raising noise worthy of a horror movie. The hammer and sounding board were the perfect solution for a morose sound need we had been pondering since the beginning.

We have a sounding board

What sounds more like hammering than using a hammer? Even better, striking the sounding board causes every string to vibrate at once leaving behind a ghostly, dissonant echo. It was the perfect way to end "Superstar" and to strike the mood for the end of the show. To protect the sound board from the dents and damage from the head of the hammer I gaff taped a piece of 2x4 to the top. Over the production that one split into a few pieces and had to be replaced. The replacement barely made it through the run, having split in two by closing. Together with the hammer, we produced those bone-chilling hammer sounds night after night that propelled the show to its final scene.

The sounding board was the icing on the cake at the end of the show. With such a fantastic cast, pit, crew and artistic staff, I knew JCS would be a smash hit. I can't wait to return in January and see some familiar faces. Now let's just see if I can figure out how to get my new toy into the next one or perhaps find something else for James to take apart!

Around the World in 80 Days plays October 25 – November 11

Click here for tickets and more information or call 323-4233

Escape to

The Spitfire Grill

March 16 - April 1

Click Here for Tickets 

or call 323-4233

A Stranger Here Myself

by David F. Chapman (Director, The Spitfire Grill)

The Spitfire Grill tells the story of a young woman, Percy Talbott, who comes to the tiny town of Gilead, Wisconsin, after five years in prison. Percy doesn’t know a soul in Gilead, nor does she have a job or a place to stay.  She chooses Gilead, as she explains to the local sheriff, because of a picture of its autumn colors she tore from a travel book (never mind that she arrives in the dead of winter). Sheriff Joe sets her up at the Spitfire Grill, where Hannah Ferguson has been serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner to practically the whole town for decades.  Percy sets down her suitcase, puts on an apron, and gets to work.

Ok, so I didn’t come to Fayetteville from prison (despite what some might believe about crowded, dirty New York) and, thanks to Cape Fear Regional Theatre, I showed up with a job and a place to stay.  But in those first few days, I felt I’d come to understand Percy a little better than I had before.  Like Percy, I found myself working alongside people who had been plugging along for years – day by day, building something lasting, even though each production (like each order of scrambled eggs and bacon) is only temporary.  Like Percy, I was joining a community in transition – seasoned vets teaming up with newcomers to meet new challenges and build on past successes.  Like Percy, I was totally dependent on the folks I met to show me everything I needed to know, from where to buy groceries to how to best stage scenes in CFRT’s glorious 327-seat auditorium. (I even share with Percy a debt to the town Sheriff, although in my case it’s Fayetteville’s generous Shereff Family, in whose guest house I am staying.)

In just a short time here, I’ve learned what it means to work at a theatre that is also a home and a family to so many artists and staff.  During one rehearsal, our Hannah Ferguson – the inimitable Libby Seymour – pointed at a photo on a wall of CFRT memories and said, “That’s me at 8 years old, in my first show here.”  Others in our cast were also well-represented on those walls.  But our show also features artists making their CFRT debuts, and a few more who are somewhere in between “old regular” and “first-timer”.  It is so rare to find a theatre that nurtures an actor over the course of her entire life – from a little girl in a cat costume to the flinty town matriarch – and still has room for us newbies. But that’s clearly what CFRT does best, and helps explain why it’s still going strong after 50 years. 

As a freelance director, I’m used to adjusting to a new theatre and new collaborators every time I start a project. But this time, I feel less like a creative nomad and more like a guest in someone’s (or many people’s) home.  In rehearsal, we share stories and baked goods in equal measure, and on stage, that sense of hospitality, warmth, and hope is palpable.  By working together towards a common goal we all believe it, we each contribute to making this the home we would want to live in.  It’s a fitting parallel for Percy’s journey throughout our musical, and a feeling I believe will radiate from the stage to reach the audience. 

 

I hope to see you at the Grill!

-David

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The Spitfire Grill plays March 16 - April 1

Click here for tickets and more information

In The "We Couldn't Do It Without You" Category...

Ken Griggs shot and edited this video to help prepare the 2,000 Cumberland County students who will see the show at our two student matinees. The Classic Theatre Series provides free tickets to all 11^th graders for these performances as a part of our continuing effort to make the arts accessible for our community. We also provide study guides and have gone into schools with our Artists in the Classroom program.

Meet the Director and Cast of Othello

Rehearsing Shakespeare…

Jess Jones plays Desdemona in Othello

by actor, Jess Jones

Everyone has his or her different ways of doing it but it generally goes something like this

 

1.     Table work

2.     Staging

3.     …and GO

In the Othello adventure we’ve all embarked on at Cape Fear Regional Theatre with our captain Tom Quaintance at the helm, we began our journey on calm seas with a week of table work.  For table work the actor comes in (ideally) with the script scored, the words looked up, and a lot of thought poured into both the piece and the character they will soon inhabit.  After this work has been accomplished the director and the cast can sit together and pick apart the language – find the hidden treasures that Shakespeare has put in his script for the actors to use and prepare to use them.  During this time we hit a few waves as we figured out where to re-cut the script, but came out on smooth seas.  This process of discovery within the language will continue throughout the whole time we are working on Othello.

The staging piece of the puzzle adds in the physical aspect to the production.  You take the work from breaking down the script and add to it what you are physically doing, therein becoming your character.  Now you cannot only hear Iago but you can also see him and how he is working physically as well as vocally to accomplish his malicious goal.  We made harbor in a few places were we did not end up staying, but that’s all part of the fun.  The best processes allow for this exploration and acceptance of ‘OK, we tried it, and that didn’t work..’  And Tom always made sure we landed on the correct shore.  (Or one of them, as there are of course, many, many ways to stage this play.)  A particularly fun part in this particular process is the fight scenes.  There are quite a few fights in Othello and the last scene is essentially a giant fight involving most of the cast.  This in particular must be carefully planned so no one gets landed in the hospital.

And now here we are.  From here everything just flows.  The actors have all the pieces in their hands and are left to discover and play with the director remaining at the Helm steering us away from any glaciers and on to beautiful horizons.  This is my favorite part of a process as you get to actually see and experience what you are being given by your fellow actors and respond to it.  I cannot wait to jump back into rehearsal and back into the discovery process with this lovely cast and our ‘great captain.’

Tackling the 3rd Largest Part in Shakespeare

Sonny Kelly plays Iago in Othello

by actor Sonny Kelly       

As if creeping into the mind of a megalomaniac sadist psycopath like Othello's Iago were not challenging enough, I learned quickly after being cast, that I am required to memorize more lines than I ever have for any one play (much less, lines written in 17th century Old English). While this daunting task has indeed kept me up at night (and up again early in the morning), it's thrilling to see, hear and feel how richly Shakespeare develops characters through language that is full, complex and deeply meaningful.

I started the process of memorizing, as I normally do, when I take on a new part: Repetition, repetition, repetition. I tried reading my lines repeatedly, then saying them out loud with my eyes closed (don't try this while driving--- SCARY!), and even recording myself. With each day that passed, I found myself frustrated to no end at the huge amount of text that refused to stick in my brain! Being a husband, father of two (a 1 year old and a 4 year old), and a full time youth program director, my time is tight, as it is. I really can't afford to waste time on tactics that aren't working.

When I auditioned for Othello, I was drawn to the intensity and complexity of Iago. I love my character, and I love the story, but I have to admit that wrote memorization of these lines was killing me softly, and rehearsals became a gauntlet of frustration, disappointment and a deep longing to finally get this character up and on his feet, without a script to tether him at every turn.

Thank God, Tom directed me to throw myself into the vivid imagery to which Shakespeare's writing lends itself. The more passion, imagery and body motion I put into my study and personal rehearsal, the more the words jump from the page and inhabit my mind and body. It is amazing and quite engaging to wrestle with the text in such a way that I walk away having engrafted it to my performance (rather than just having memorized a bunch of words). I was tickled tonight, as I drove through Taco Bell's 24-hour drive through passionately delivering some of my most difficult lines-- arms flailing, face contorting, and voice booming through the car's cabin. Totally lost in my study, I noticed the frustrated driver behind me, looking confused (and perhaps nervous), edging up behind me to nudge me forward to the window..."And scene! More fun with Shakespeare after this burrito!"

SHAKESPEARE’S BEST PLAY

By Artistic Director Tom Quaintance

One of the best things I’ve read about Othello is that while Hamlet or Lear might be Shakespeare’s greatest Work, Othello is his best play. The tight, well drawn cast of characters; an exciting, clear, emotionally gripping plot; a towering hero with a tragic flaw; a fiery heroine who dies for her love; and perhaps the greatest villain in classic literature – it adds up to a spectacular evening of theatre.

The turnout for auditions was tremendous. There is a thirst for this kind of work, and I was thrilled to find such strong local and regional actors. The day before I was going to make an offer to an actor from New York to play Iago, I received this Facebook message from Phobe Hall, FSU professor and the Duke of Venice in this production: Tom, a former CFRT actor has returned home from Texas...

Sonny came in, with his four-year-old son in tow, and did a cold reading that made me sit up and take notice. He came back two days later with a prepared audition and killed it. I found my Iago!

Big thanks to PlayMakers Rep – for inspiring this blog page. I had the fourth ever post on that page during Nicholas Nickleby three years ago, and I continue to follow their marvelous work through their outstanding posts.

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Othello plays March 1-4 at FSU's Seabrook Auditorium

Click here for tickets and more information.

 

Check out our first ever blog post tomorrow from Artistic Director Tom Quaintance.