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THEATRE IS ETERNAL.....no two ways about it.....the "actor" in all of us is unmistakable and amazing. This subject alone can fill volumes (the unification of actor and audience), but nothing is more thrilling and enlightening than to be a part of a fine LIVE theatre experience.
This is an update since my last blog entry going back to Fall of '08 when PBT enjoyed the world premiere of a home grown musical by our Managing Director, Andrew Nielson, "GRADE SCHOOL MUSICAL" starring 14 of PBT's young Dramatic School Players. It opened and closed with a bang, a perfect entertainment for the entire family. (Did you know that Rick Basoyan wrote and composed LITTLE MARY SUNSHINE during the summer he apprenticed at PBT?) Then for Chirstmas time of '08 we presented a very unique version of "LITTLE WOMEN", 16 actors all doubled.....playing a different role in repetory each performance. We opened our '09 Spring season with THE MAGIC FLUTE, the fairytale story of Mozart's opera. It was refreshing to experience a brand new fairytale story since Mr. Disney has immortalized all the others. Also, THE FOUR DOROTHYS was presented at Manomet Elementary School at the beginning of March. At present we are in rehearsal for PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, a brand new play featuring the same Jane Austin characters. I wrote it specifically for our actors and there is no greater excitement and discovery than working on an original piece.
Summer of '09 is around the corner and we are now in the process of planning the upcoming workshops to celebrate PBT's 73rd summer of "presenting live Theatre that elevates the spirit and dignifies the individual".
We continue to raise money for a restoration and makeover of the Theatre. Many have been so generous and permit us to continue our artistic work and training with glad and grateful hearts.
The REAL magic has to do with the ability for everyone, both players and playgoers, to cooperate in directing the positive power of our unique imaginations.
It is very gratifying to me to hear from PBT alumni, who keep in touch with fond memories of their time on the PBT stage. It seems like everyone agrees that it was time worth spent (a time that was timeless) and for the majority of actors it proved to be life changing.
PBT is a great Teacher and I am still so lucky to be a part of its ongoing MAGIC. Be in touch and, by all means, COME VISIT.
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Where did it go? The summer is over.....and yet.....
It seems only yesterday that we started a whirlwind of a 72nd "summer stock" season here at PBT.
Now we are getting ready to embark on our Autumn workshops of '08, GRADE SCHOOL MUSICAL and LITTLE WOMEN by Louisa Mae Alcott.
GRADE SCHOOL MUSICAL, a PBT original, promises to be wonderful fun for all. PBT prides itself on its world premieres. This will be yet another auspicious one, indeed. In contrast LITTLE WOMEN has has been a part of PBT's repetoir for half a century. The reasons are many. Meg, Jo, Amy and Beth and the many colorful characters are many. The story is inspired to postive and loving family value. Most of all the heart of the writer, Louisa Mae Alcott, is full of theatrical magic.
But if I may look back, I would like to share with you that our ENROLLMENT broke broke records this summer. Many actors appeared in several shows. The play titles made up a perfect "summer stock " bill of fare with enough contrast to attract any red blooded aspiring actor. PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, THE PLAY.....THE WIZARD OF OZ.....THE BEVERLY HILLBILLYS.....WUTHERING HEIGHTS.....THE COMEDY OF ERRORS!!! What a Roster! What memorable performances! The audiences were plentiful and enthusiastic and always VERY appreciative of the live theatre experience.
I feel the barre was raised this summer, both as a Drama School and in its production values.....the actors working on the art of listening, truly reflecting each other in each other's eyes, learning the difference between self-consciousness and being conscious of one's self. Effective backstage preparation, breathing fully, staying mindful, giving heart tranmission to an audience......Using the imagination in dynamic action with the immediacy of the moment. Learning about the time period, geography and costuming of the respective play......the character's view (many a time a girl actor gave stunning portrayals of a men). Projection, movement, stage combat, and rehearsal, rehearsal, and MORE rehearsal. From auditions to closing night, not a step was repeated. Our young actors grew leaps and bounds, developed their self-esteem, became FEARLESS..... and all left happier than when they arrived. In summer stock everyone accomplishes in two weeks what would ordinarily take several months. It builds those artistic muscles like no other theatre training. What a splendid season! Congratulations to all who played a part in it and a big THANK YOU to both players and play-goers. Long may Priscilla Beach Theatre wave!
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LAUGHTER FROM A DOG
Way back in the early '60s soon after we took over the operation of PBT, a lady named Mrs. Magilacutti ordered two season passes, one for her one for Fifi.
She requested front row center seats for every Wednesday nite. When the first Wednesday performance arrived I was on stage acting in a comedy and, all of a sudden, I heard the first laugh from the audience, but the sound was intermingled with a yap of a dog's bark. I glanced down to the front row from where the bark eminated and did a double take, for there, sitting on her hind legs, was a little white poodle. She was bejeweled in rhinestone necklace and tiera. She obviously got the joke, for she was barking her head off. This was Fifi, who we actors would get to know every Wednesday night throughout the next three seasons. Fifi barked whenever there was a laugh line and/or when there was applause. Sometimes she even barked alone when the audience failed to get the humor of the line. She DID. Also, she whimpered during the sad moments of the play as well. During intermissions, Mrs. Magilacutti would stand in front of the theatre with Fifi preening in her arms and inevitably tell surrounding audience members, "Fifi just LOVES the THEAHTAH".
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The Difference
between
BUSINESS and SHOW BIZNESS
Recently I was asked to present a "key to the city" from the downtown merchants to the new Plymouth Rock Studios.
I could not help but having so many insights about the two kinds of businesses during my preparation for the event. Here are some notes I took during that time.
The difference between BUSINESS and BIZNESS is that they are spelled differently.
BUZINESS with a Z...has a zing. It has a nickname; BIZ.
BUSINESS is serious fun. It is shrowded with bottom lines of red and black.
SHOW BIZNESS is FUN fun. It has no bottom.
Another difference is that SHOW BIZNESS is about giving and taking at once, simultaniously. BUSINESS is more slanted on the TAKING side.
BUSINESS is conditoned, the other unconditional.....even a "B" movie or an audience of three people can be glory to the BIZNESS of it all.
If you lose in BUSINESS you might jump out a window, but it you lose in BIZNESS you start all over again and see how it comes out THIS time.
BUSINESS is business.
SHOW BIZNESS is a part of something greater.
In BUSINESS money comes first and life comes second.
In BIZNESS life comes first and money, hopefully, follows, but comes second.
A partnership between the two, BUSINESS AND SHOW BUSINESS, can only enhance each other, but a marriage would be incest.
BUSINESS is grey and brown, suits, ties, and cover up.
BIZESS is naked pink, yellow, and rainbow...beads and glitz and glamour.
BUSINESS is mater of fact and cold as in "NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS." It is hard-nosed prose.
BIZNESS is abstract and warm as in "belonging to EVERYONE or "what's my business in this scene?" (as a movement on stage)........ 'tis a poem.........
Both are releted, to be sure.....but with definite and undeniable differences.
By the way, the seventy second season is underway at Priscilla Beach Theatre and is progressing beautifully. PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, the play, was "perfect" and WIZARD OF OZ (cast of 21) is a spectacular outdoor production. The barre has been raised yet a again. Now THAT'S
Show Biz!!!
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Theatre offers students one of the most humanizing experiences education can present, the inherently unique opportunity to look out through the eyes of somebody else.
Let a student actor submerge self in honest characterization, and that student's horizon will from that moment include something of another life and another viewpoint.
I suggest that this is as much a practical function of education as the teaching of mathematics.
The drama student is given a special perseptive from which to understand what it is like to be somebody else. Perhaps he or she is also given a little head start in mathematics too, for typically it is the drama student who is first to understand that people add up to more than one.
The playwright and his actors become ONE. The actor and his audience become ONE.
PRISCILLA BEACH THEATRE offers such a math education. The benefits are untold and, unfortunately, not offered in schools. Today school systems say, "CUT the ARTS = CUT the HEART out of the student to make for a more selfish and war-friendly Society". How sadly ignorant this is when the truth remains that ONLY the creative Artist can save our only world from the deadly effects of these CUTS. Bloody sad, indeed!
Here's some crazy logic MATH -
FIVE SIX- bundle of sticks.
SEVEN ELEVEN- all good children go to Heaven.
TWO in ONE-makes for FUN!
THREE AND FIVE - Act ALIVE!
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THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
from SAI BABA in India
WHEN YOU WAKE UP, FEEL THAT YOU ARE ENTERING THE STAGE TO PLAY THE ROLE ASSIGNED TO YOU BY THE LORD. PRAY THAT YOU MAY ACT IT WELL AND EARN HIS APPROBATION. AT NIGHT, WHEN YOU RETIRE TO SLEEP, FEEL THAT YOU ARE ENTERING THE GREENROOM AFTER THE SCENE, BUT WITH THE COSTUME OF YOUR ROLE ON, FOR PERHAPS THE ROLE IS NOT YET OVER AND YOU HAVE NOT YET BEEN PERMITTED TO TAKE THE COSTUME OFF. PERHAPS, YOU HAVE TO MAKE ANOTHER ENTRANCE THE NEXT MORNING. DO NOT WORRY ABOUT THAT. PLACE YOURSELF FULLY AT HIS DISPOSAL. HE KNOWS. HE HAS WRITTEN THE PLAY AND HE KNOWS HOW IT WILL GO ON AND HOW IT WILL END. YOURS IS BUT TO ACT AND RETIRE.
BABA
This is for both players and play-goers.
Geronimo
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I think the words SPIRITUAL SANITY are perfect for what a real actor must possess. How can we make the young actor who is aspiring to master the art of true theatre realize that REALITY TV is NOT acting, but a show off type of entertainment? To come into this field all full of your aquired personality, no matter how entertaining you might think it is, and mistake it for talent is a BIG mistake. Denise Richards, Hulk Hogan, Hugh Heffner, all the bachelors and bachelorettes are NOT actors, but dysfunctional personalities for the most part. Interesting, huh? The Theatre does not need them or want them, they have not earned their way in. How sad. "Look at me, I'm so special! I could have my own TV show and set the record staight to everybody about ME!" From this vantage point these "stars" are not sane.....they pander their made up "show off " limited personalities for money or TV fame or plain old conciet. The actor must be completely in the middle with clear vision of both ends and know how to give and receive alternately and together. An actor must have "crazy" logic to be lightning-like and true, and not shine to brightly off stage, but store up energy for his appearance on stage. He must surrender his or her own razzle-dazzle personality in order to portray another personality. He or she must have an unlimited inner life with nothing to lose. Acting is not a gamble. The actor mirrors the truth of light traveling at the speed of 186,000 miles a second. These are some notes after discovering potential addiction to the fake laughter of a layed back bunny or the cruel neurosis of an old child actor, or insulting Judges or insane "Idols" of all kinds.
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These days we are blessed with cameras- the Art of Film, the awesome discovery of the computer, and, of course, television. The machines all came about by man's pumping heart and need and organic pleasure to communicate.
When Carl Reiner was here at Priscilla Beach theatre in 1967, he told our actors that LIVE THEATRE started with the first caveman. This caveman told a funny story. Others gathered around him and laughed or cried or discovered and then clapped in appreciation for more.
The history of LIVE THEATRE throughout the ages shows it as an organic tool to look objectively at ourselves. The actor mirrors the audience and the audience responds. It is a giving and taking of the hearts and souls of us all.
Robert Service, poet, called Theatre the "House of Life" and, indeed, it is. We time-travel together, we recreate the past and imagine the future all in the present. We dance in imagination and insight. One man's mind, the playwirght's vision, is exposed and naked in the light on stage and his story is told by the storytellers, the actors.
WOW! - we PLAY - with no judement, no score, nothing to win or lose, just an intention to leave ourselves behind so that our present moment can live free, easy, deep, fulfilling, and happy.
LIVE THEATRE is where all the cameras came from....film, tv, computer....and this source (the heart pump) of that first caveman continues to change and save the world.
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We are back again with the 72nd season of PBT. At the moment during these beautiful spring May days Priscilla Beach Theatre is enjoying being the recipient of a grant from Manomet Elementary School and Entergy giving us the opportunity to direct third, fouth, and fifth graders in TWELFTH NIGHT by William Shakespeare. It is an afterschool dramatic workshop and will be presented for the school and the parents on June 6. We have 25 in the cast and, besides, falling in love with Shakespeare all over again, I once again am amazed how the children speak his lines as if they were born to do so.....a completely ORGANIC playwright. No wonder he is the BEST.
We bring back THE JETSONS by Andy Nielson beginning on May 10 and will be presented in June (June 13, 14 and 20,21 at 7:30 PM).....then the SUMMER.
Can't wait. This will be my 47th summer season at PBT! If you are nearby do join the "sacred" action of LIVE THEATRE at PBT.
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THE FALL SEASON IS COMPLETED AND WAS ONE OF THE BEST IN HISTORY. THANKS TO THE MUSE AND THE WORK!!!
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