THE THREE MUSKETEERS

Date of Run: June 17-26, 2016
ROLE: Rochefort

This was a show that almost wasn’t.

Nearly a year would pass after West Side Story before I did another full scale show. I had chosen not to do a fall show because I had taken a vacation to Hawaii and there was nothing else auditioning at that time. Then I got some bad news from work. I couldn’t return to the stage for some time because my two bosses had time off coming the following year at the same time. One went on maternity leave from January to April 2016 and while she was gone, the other one left on a two week vacation in February. However, in February I was offered to take part in a one night only staged reading of a play. Script in hand, minimal set and only for ten minutes, but I was honored the director asked me to do it. After that I had to wait until June at the earliest to go do a full show. I only had a few options for that time, but I went for them all.

I auditioned for three shows that would play in June, but I was not cast in two of them. One of the directors didn’t give me a callback and never even contacted me saying they didn’t have a role for me. Then I was cast in The Three Musketeers at Pegasus Theater Company, directed by Beulah Vega, which was probably the one I wanted to do the least. From the beginning I had reservations about doing this show for several reasons. It had nothing to do with the people, but rather what it involved and the location.

To begin, the show was to be staged outdoors at the Riverkeeper Park in Guerneville, underneath the Highway 116 Bridge. Because it was outdoors the show would start at six in the evening and from what I had heard of the show that Pegasus had done the previous year, it was a race against the clock since there were no lights. That would probably not be the case this year since the show would be in June, whereas last year it had been in August. It also meant mosquitoes, motorcycles (and there were quite a few each night), and the miserable summer heat.

And I worked in Sonoma! So basically, it meant having to move quickly from my work to there for rehearsal, which on a day with no traffic (if I was lucky), would take roughly one hour. For me, it meant I would have to leave work an hour and a half early four days a week for four weeks. My schedule was also very hectic during April and May because I had class on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings. I was cast and when I gave my schedule I expected the reply to be that they couldn’t accommodate me, and I couldn’t do the show. You can imagine my surprise when that wasn’t the case. Then I was given my parts and when I read the script, I found I had relatively few lines and I wasn’t sure yet if I would be doing any fights.

We arrived at the first read-through during which, I found out that all but two people would not be in at least one fight scene, but I was not one of those two (Whoo-hoo!) I would be playing multiple roles, but if I was in any other scenes as a background character without lines, I did not know that yet (though I figured I likely would be). When I received the rehearsal schedule I saw that I would miss quite a few rehearsals due to class and a couple other previously scheduled events.

Many times, in between being cast and the first read through and during rehearsals, I asked myself, “Is this really worth it? Am I doing the right thing?” I asked myself that repeatedly when I left work to go to rehearsal, especially on Fridays when the traffic was at its worst.

The cast included my friends Nicolas Christenson, David O’Connell and Jana Molina, and also included Rusty Thompson, Rosie Frater, Athena Gundlach, Vincent Black, Elizabeth Henry, Olivia Rooney, Marcia Schwartz, Noel Yates, David Abrams, and Yelena Segal.

In the beginning my rehearsals were sparse. This was mostly due to me being unavailable Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings since I was in class. I had a few other previously scheduled engagements, but my class schedule caused the most interference. In fact, there was one period where any rehearsal when I was called ended up cancelled, in addition to that. But as soon as school was out of the way, I could get there for every rehearsal.

Very early on we lost one of the actors playing one of the main supporting characters in the show. The actor playing the character Rochefort left for what he said were family reasons, though he did build our set. It was a few weeks before we found a replacement, a guy named Martin (pronounced Mar-teen). We spent all of May preparing this show, but as time went on, there began to be problems with the fight choreographers and certain individuals that cumulated in a breaking point that nearly derailed the show.

To begin, there were two fight choreographers, a husband and wife. The husband was very well suited to the task at hand, and we made very good progress with some excellent fights. His wife, however, was detrimental to the progress, taking forever to explain how to do something or piping in saying she wanted to see more of something when we really needed to move on. Not only that, but several times when it was their night to teach, they were often late, sometimes as late as an hour, when we had only two or two and a half at the latest to rehearse before it got too dark. 

As I understood it, some actors were also not very careful with the fights. One of the actors (the lead) expressed that he did not feel safe from this, feeling that safety was the first priority, even more than lines or blocking. Though he may have had a point, he was hardly the one to say it since he still didn’t know his lines or blocking well enough, not even a week before opening. During all that time he still had his script in hand when he was supposed to be fighting. And soon enough, it came to trouble for the show.

Exactly one week before our scheduled opening, we lost that actor and then we lost another, the actor playing Rochefort. I do not know the full details of what happened that night because I was not at the rehearsal, having been at a class, but I’m not sure I even want to know. The bottom line was the lead quit the show. The following day, Beulah gave us two options: either continue on with new people and push the opening back from June 2 to June 9 or just walk away from the show all together. All except of us wanted to continue the show, save for one person, Martin, who as one another cast member said, “took the pussy way out.” I contemplated asking to play D’Artagnan, and I was close to doing so, but before I could, Beulah promoted me to Rochefort and hired Elizabeth to do my scenes. Meanwhile, David O’Connell, the original Aramis, would play D’Artagnan.

There were pros and cons to my role change. The main thing I was sad about was that I did not get to die onstage, which I had wanted to do for a long time. On the other hand, I got more lines, I still got to do sword fighting and now I had a character role, which was sorely lacking on my resume. There was one catch for the show after all this. The two fight choreographers were released from the project (good riddance) and now we had to simplify the fights for the two new people. That meant taking things out and shortening the fights.

The Big Fight in the Show

David, who was already fight captain when we began, assumed the responsibility of the fight choreographer, in addition to playing the lead. That being done, we were short a musketeer. Granted it was the musketeer who had the least amount of fighting and the fewest lines, but nonetheless, we were still an actor short. Fortunately, we found one, Jordan. Unfortunately, he went missing the very next night; not even his family knew where he was. Apparently, his grandfather had died a few days before he was hired and while he thought he was okay at first, he decided it was too much for him to go on with the show.

Now the show was really in trouble and dangerously close to being cancelled because we were only a week from the new opening and the new person would have to learn lines, blocking and the staged fighting; an impossible feat in such a short time to anyone, but an actor with prior sword training. Beulah went through her entire pool of actors, some more than once, but all were unavailable, and she refused to hire anyone she did not know or had not worked with previously.

 

We had a cast meeting at rehearsal one night and we were given the option to cancel the show. Some were in favor of ending it. I myself was much divided on whether I wanted to continue at this point. Ending the show would mean that all our work and the driving to Guerneville would have been for nothing, but at the same time, I was half hoping the show would be cancelled. Part of it was my mother not seeing the show, the first show I ever did that she missed. Part of it was also my experiences from The Elephant Man and Hamlet, not to mention the train wreck that was West Side Story the previous year, and I was wary of another bad theatrical experience. I’m sorry to anyone from the cast who reads this, and this is nothing against any of you, but that’s just what it is.

But then at the eleventh hour, the show was saved! David found a friend of his, David Abrams, who could do it, but to keep the show open there would be a price: the show would now open on June 17 and play only six performances. It was an even higher price for me because now this would be the first show of mine that my mother would not get to see. She would be on a vacation in Europe by the new opening. We spent the next few rehearsals training David and Elizabeth for their scenes and fights, and they were ready by the new opening date.

As the set was outdoors in a public park and left unwatched all day for most days (except perhaps by the builder, who lived next to the park), it was vulnerable. This became evident just less than two weeks before opening. One day a group of vandals spray painted red paint in the park with pentagrams and signs saying, “Say 10” (Satan). In addition to trees, park signs and the ground, they also spray-painted part of the platform set, but just a rail on the back. Fortunately, as I later learned from the park’s Facebook page, at least one of them was caught. It was all cleaned up before we opened.



Photos of the vandalism

Every dress rehearsal and performance we had to set up two changing tents as well as a couple clothing racks and tables and the table and chairs for the set. After each performance everything had to be taken down. Some of the things were taken up to the set builder’s house just up the hill from the park, while the rest was loaded into Noel’s car.

Not to brag, David O’Connell and I did much better at learning our lines and blocking than our predecessors, having our lines fully memorized fast; I was off book the day after the role change and David the day after that. Quite necessary since we only had so much time. However, David absolutely deserved more applause and praise, since not only did he have new and many lines to memorize (being the lead, he was in nearly every scene), but he also had to learn new blocking and fights for a new character and choreograph the fights that still needed to be done.

As Rochefort



Close-up of my face with the scar

When the first weekend of our show finally came the universe threw one last punch at us: the weather. For our invited dress rehearsal, it sprinkled a bit as we were setting up, but only for a moment. Then on opening night there were a few drops on us when the second act started and when we were taking everything down it poured on us. The invited dress and first performance had about ten people in attendance each and the second performance had about thirty. The first Sunday show had a slightly larger audience, and it was the best one yet. They cheered and applauded parts, made catcalls in others, and all in all were really into the show. In the end we got a standing ovation.

The sword fighting was my favorite part of doing this show. It wasn’t quite what I expected, since my lower body stayed still for most of them. I expected to move around a bit during the fights, but then I suppose it would have been better had we had more time and better people staging it as well as a larger space. We had to be very aware of our distance from the audience. Nevertheless, I was never happier during the show than when I spared with David O’Connell (almost all my sword fights were with him) and, at the end of the largest fight show, with Nick Christenson.

Sparing with Nick

The second weekend was unbearably hot, and the costumes were soaking during all of it. My costume in particular was hard on me because my pants made of real leather. Imagine leather pants in the summer heat, even under shade. Easy to get on, very hard to get off. The first show of that weekend had fifteen people, and the second show had thirty. The final show was sold out, but the audience was not as responsive as the first Sunday show. I didn’t ask how many people a sold-out audience consisted of, but it must have been over forty. We had a few motorcycles drive over us every performance, but on the last night a car that played loud music with the windows rolled down was stopped on the bridge over us for a couple minutes during the show. Annoying.

For the cast party we drove down the road to the Rio Nido Roadhouse for food and drink at the bar by the pool. We were lucky because the kitchen staff agreed to keep the kitchen open a little longer for us. Definitely had to give them a tip for that.

After West Side Story, I said that whatever show I did next needed to be one that I could be proud of. I said it had to be a show that felt rewarding. In a way this show was that. While I wish the circumstances could have been better, I was proud of the fact that after many setbacks and against all odds, we still managed to go on with the show.