How We Started
By Michal McDowell
Oh man, oh man! Can you tell we’re excited?! We have been working on this concept for over a year now so it feels really good to get this out there and share this with everyone. I’m sure some are thinking, “Great. Another theater company. Just what we need.” And it IS great and it IS just what we need!
We came together via The Evergreen Players production of The Old Man and the Old Moon. It was my first adult production to direct. I had no “style” of directing but knew what I liked as a performer. When I was working as a stage manager for Doc Newman; he would often ask me questions during breaks or after a rehearsal. “How did you think this scene went? Was the blocking strange to you here? What’s missing from this part?” I really enjoyed sharing my input with him and that time we spent rolling ideas around with one another. My other influencer of “style” was Fran Arniotes. When she’d direct us she’d often say, “Just play with it! See what happens. If it’s good we’ll keep it.” She was great about keeping it light and reminding us that theater is FUN and is PLAY acting!
The Old Man and the Old Moon was the perfect production for open collaboration and exploration. It’s a small cast and the script has a childlike feel to it. It’s just a magical tale and the writers, PigPen Theatre Co., suggest classic effects like using waving fabric to create rippling water and shadow puppets for the more graphic parts of the tale like swarming sharks, drowning and falling out of a hot air balloon. It sparked our imaginations and we added sound effects made right on stage instead of coming from recordings.
My favorite part of the show was when the actors were all tossing about and clapping boards and creating thunder while still acting as if in a ship in a storm at sea. We had, what we called, the “thunder sheet”. It was a sheet of corrugated metal off of my neighbors barn. Brian Dowling would man the thunder sheet. Hence his new moniker, Brian Thunder!!!!
Another great moment was when the Old Man is in the belly of a fish and the cast is making creepy sound effects by moaning into a long pvc tube, scratching a cajon, playing the chords inside a piano, and more.
We felt like kids again! Remember putting on plays for your friends or family in the garage or whatever? It was like that! Coming up with on the spot costume changes, sound effects, and set hurdles. We did it TOGETHER. Everyone would come to rehearsal with new ideas for this or that to happen. It was so incredibly fun!
We all realized that was what we wanted to keep doing. We’re tired of the same big shows over and over. We wanted to do new works and to allow the obstacles and constraints of finances or spacing to fuel our creativity. How cool would it be to perform this outside? How would we accomplish that? What would have to change?
The more we talked, the more we realized that we not only wanted to do more shows like this but that we already had shows in us that we wanted to bring to life.
Brian Dowling, our Vice President, already had a play written for us to try. When he sent it to us to read I was so nervous. I just prayed, “Please, God. Let this be decent so I don’t have to break this man’s heart.”
It wasn’t just decent. It was great! I couldn’t put it down! We all agreed to do a read through of the script. It was like an early Christmas as we waited for Brian to cast us in his own show. That read through was a total blast and something we could tell was special for Brian too. He went all out setting up his living room into a mini set for us.
I’ll write more about Legacy and we’ll all have pics and videos to share as we work on putting this together. For now, I can tell you it’s in May and will be at The Evergreen Players Black Box Theatre.
When we think of how fortunate we are that The Evergreen Players brought us together and now they are hosting our production of Legacy of Baker Street….it’s just a full circle thing. The Players are truly our home base. In fact, Ryan Glaser and Leann Ritter are on their board, they’ve allowed me to perform with them, stage manage, and now direct for…8 or 9 years now, and Kellie Fox is their production manager. We owe The Evergreen Players so much love and thanks. They are the sort of theater that truly loves and promotes the arts and community.
I don’t think I should divulge all of the other irons we have in the fire but they are hot, hot, hot and ORIGINAL. Not a bunch of love stories.
Our name comes from a line in The Old Man and the Old Moon. “The third side of the coin…” There’s a place for the classics, the love stories, and the big Broadway productions. We are the Third Side of the coin.