We first experimented with presenting multiple short plays with our second production back in 2009 when we partnered Yasmina Reza's Art with Jack Finney's Telephone Roulette. We liked the structure of that production. We used the same set for both shows and the all female cast of TR contrasted nicely with the all male cast of Art. We never really considered doing that again, but when the idea for this years production popped up we were intrigued.
The shows presented included Thursday Evening by Christopher Morley, Wisdom Teeth by Rachel Field and Catherine Parr or Alexander’s Horse by Maurice Baring. Each dated in their own way, but they all had wit and punch that we thought we could do something with. I decided early on that I wanted to do a readers theater format for these. I figured that would give the audience an idea of what the 1937 production was like without doing a full scale recreation. Readers theater allowed us to play up the humor without getting bogged down in all of the trappings. I hadn't participated in readers theater since college and it was definitely a first for Valley Theatre. I asked some of our regulars to take a hand directing them.
Sarah Badger, who has been involved with most of our productions since 2011 took on Thursday Evening. Aside from Graham Badger who played the role of Gordon Johns, her full cast consisted of actors who have not been in our shows before: Emily Rhoades Pundt as Laura Johns, Mary Ann Reisdorf as Mrs. Sheffield and Mary Eckstein as Gordon's mother. It's always nice to have new faces and they each did a wonderful job. Of all the shows, this was the most dated so I took a pass at updating some of the humor that wouldn't play to a 2017 audience.
For Wisdom Teeth, Debbie Young directed and played the role of Henrietta Wellington. We learned later that her 1937 counterpart did the same thing. I love a good coincidence. The rest of the cast was made up of Valley Theatre veterans including Amanda Cox, Hannah Mills Woolsey and Mike Cox. They had a lot of fun doing this one and it was evident in the performance.
For Catherine Parr or Alexander's Horse I thought it might be fun for Hilary and I to take the roles of Catherine Parr and Henry VIII. We hadn't been in anything together in quite a while and Hilary hadn't been in a Valley Theatre production since Cinderella in 2011 (and really not since Guilty Conscience in 2010). I asked our niece Evie to play the role of the page, so she finally got to make her Valley Theatre debut. Even though readers theatre is a simple affair, I'd learned my lesson on acting and directing at the same time. Instead, I cajoled Eric Mikols into directing. He did so reluctantly, but had some good insight. I'd like to see what he could do with a full show. I bet it would be good. We had fun working together. Ours was shorter than the others and had a zinger heavy batch of dialogue. We really got in to it for the performance.
Overall the the night went very well. I hadn't seen or heard the other plays, and while I had faith in the cast and directors, it was a relief to see that they were all good. They flowed together well and each cast had a good chemistry which is always crucial, but even more so in something like readers theatre. I don't see us returning to the format any time soon, but it was energizing to do something so different.
Now we are free to turn our attentions to another non-standard Valley Theatre production... A Grand Night for Singing is set to open on September 21, 2017.
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