FIDDLER ON THE ROOF

 

Date of Run: September 8-October 8, 2023

Role: Fyedka

Photos by Eric Chazankin

My fourth and final show of 2023 was Fiddler on the Roof. It was through this show that I achieved a long-desired goal- do four shows within a calendar year, a feat I had not accomplished since 2014. I had not been able to do it since that year because in the job I had in the years that followed, they were kind enough to let me have time off to do shows, but I had to be careful. I didn’t want to take their kindness for granted or overstay my welcome.

Changing jobs in 2021 gave me weekends off and the freedom to do as much theatre as I wished without having to ask for time off. For me, that was four shows in a year, but even with the freedom of having weekends off, that was still easier said than done. I only managed to do two shows in 2022. There were not too many opportunities for me and Covid complicated matters. In 2023 I got cast in one show and then a second one. Not long after I got cast in a third show, the theatre companies of Sonoma County announced their seasons one by one, and it seemed like getting one more could very well become a reality. But which one?

Fiddler was not my first choice out of those lined up for the fall. My first choice had been Hello Dolly at Spreckels Theater Company because it worked the best with my schedule and the company was in the town where I lived. Unfortunately, I was not cast in that, nor was I cast in The Sound of Music at Cinnabar Theater, and I did not want to do The Addams Family at Novato Theater Company. By the time of this audition, I was running out of time and options. I had done the general auditions at 6th Street Playhouse in March that year, but in the interim, the playhouse had changed management. The artistic director of the playhouse was supposed to be the director for this show, but he left and, from my understanding, that caused some casting changes. Time kept inching closer to when the rehearsals for this show were slated to begin and I heard nothing. I thought my chance had passed me by. But not yet.

At the end of June, while I was starting performances for Joesph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, I found out that the director of Fiddler was Joe Gellura, who just happened to be the dirctor for Joesph. Perfect! I might just have a decent shot at getting in after all. Shortly after, I received an email about the audition signups, which were fortunately on a night when I had nothing else planned.

 

The auditions were scheduled for July 5. For this audition the criteria were to sing 32 bars of "your favorite Fiddler song" and dance auditions. The song part was unusual because, normally, directors don't want people auditioning to sing songs from the show. Whatever the reason, I had one character in mind that I wanted to play: Perchik. With that, I decided to sing 32 bars of his song "Now I Have Everything." In the show, the song is a duet, but it was easily cut down to just where he sings.    

 

I had one small worry over this though. The show was slated to begin performances on September 8 and I had performances for Romeo and Juliet which ended on September 4, which meant missing most, if not all of tech weekend. Not only that, I would likely miss several rehearsals due to rehearsals and performances for Romeo and Juliet and I worried that might hurt my chances of getting cast at all, but even more worried that it would hurt my chances of getting a major role. I was very clear about my conflicts on my audition form. Their move.

For this audition, all the people auditioning were brought into the auditorium together. I was in the room with five other singers and I went up second. The guy before me did the same song as me and that did not help my confidence. While the song briefly becomes a duet he did the whole song, with the accompanist quietly singing the other part, rather than a shortened version like I did, and he sounded like a better singer than I. Did not help my confidence. Then unfortunately, the accompanist botched my cut and I had to start over. Again, did not help my confidence.

And then came the dance part of the audition. The choreographer had something planned for the women auditioning, which had been done before the singing, but for the men, he had us learn the most famous dance in the musical- the bottle dance performed in the wedding at the end of the first act. While learning it, I got a small floor burn on my knee because I was wearing exercise shorts and the knee pads I tried on first were a bit too stretched, probably from overuse or used by someone with thick legs. Once I changed into a tighter pair and put my long pants back on, I started doing much better. When it was time to do it for the director, we had to do it twice and, amazingly, I managed to pull it off, though the first one time was much better than the second. Probably got a little too sure of myself.

 

The final part of the audition was to read sides from the script. I read for the three young men who marry one of the daughters of the main character, Tevye. I had no interest in the role of Motel, but I read his role to help with the young women who wanted the role of Tzeitel. In the end, the role I wound up reading for the most was Fyedka.

 

Shortly before the last performance for Joseph, Joe Gellura took me aside and told me he didn't have callbacks for the men because he had an idea where to use them...except me. He told me they were planning another callback and asked me to read for the role of Fyedka. Then a week passed, and I received no word. I saw posts on Facebook stating they needed more people to join, and I hoped that Joe wasn’t becoming the kind of director who just didn’t reach out to you if you were not cast after all. I reached out to him and asked what the status was. Apparently, the date of the callback kept getting changed because the new artistic director of the theatre company wanted to be at the callback. Shortly before getting that answer, I received an email with the details. And then the following day, I received a welcome email from the managing director of the company. So…I guess I am in after all?

 

And then I looked at the calendar attached to the email and that’s when I got worried. I would still be in rehearsals for Romeo and Juliet during the first two weeks of rehearsal for this show and I would miss all Saturday rehearsals since they were held in the afternoon and that's when Romeo and Juliet would have performances. I thought “What am I doing? Is this fair to them? I don’t know if I can pull this off.”

 

I ended up going to the callback, the sole purpose of which was to cast the roles of Fyedka and Chava. There were supposed to be two men that night to read for Fyedka, but the other guy never showed up. So, it came down to me and six girls/women who were going for the role of Chava, Fyedka’s love interest, though one was definitely too old. I read two separate scenes with each woman, one by one, while Ginger Beavers, who had been the accompanist for the auditions and was also playing the role of the leading lady Golde, read for the role of Tevye in one of the scenes.

 

In the end, I was offered ensemble. I figured Fyedka might be a hard role to get because he (usually, though not always) has a solo in the song “To Life” and it’s too high for me. Though I had wanted the role of Perchik, I had my reasons for wanting Fyedka. It would have taken some stress off my mind because for Romeo and Juliet, I had to be clean shaven, and I wouldn’t have had time to grow a full beard between shows. Also, he has no song and only does maybe one dance, which would have helped alleviate stress there. Not quite as much to learn, theoretically. With ensemble, who knows what I’d be doing? 

 

I was not able to attend the first read through rehearsal. I thought I would be able to when we got a rough draft of the rehearsal schedule, which had the first read through listed on a date when I didn’t have rehearsal for Romeo and Juliet. When we got the finalized schedule, the read-through was actually scheduled for two days later. I was able to attend one music rehearsal the following week because I miraculously got the night off from Romeo and Juliet.

 

I was glad I got at least one night off because no matter what kind of rehearsal it was, I could at least get my script. Luckily for me, it was a music rehearsal, and we went through all the numbers that involved the entire cast which meant I would find out which part I'd be singing and get started memorizing. However, even though I could start learning my things, it did not make me any less worried.

 

Once Romeo and Juliet opened, I could commit more to rehearsals for this show. The rehearsal schedule was Monday through Thursday evenings and Saturday afternoons, but since I had performances on all those Saturdays, it was not an option. When I returned after being away for a week, it turned out that I was in fact playing Fyedka after all. The deal was, since they wanted everyone possible in the songs “Tradition,” “Sabbath Prayer,” “The Dream,” and “Sunrise Sunset,” I would have to alternate as both him and a Jewish member of the village in the show. My main role required me to be clean-shaven and I did consider adding a fake beard when I was supposed to be a Jewish person, but I decided not to at performance time since the time I had for costume changes didn’t allow (More on that later).

It was a relief not to have to worry about growing a beard. Normally, I would have been disppointed about not getting the role of Perchik, the role I really wanted, but in this case I could make an exception.

As Fyedka

In addition to myself, the rest of the cast included Steven Kent Barker, Ginger Beavers, Ella Park, Megan Bartlett, Lydia Louviere, Courtney Romero, Fallon and Tatum Mullen (twins who alternated the role of Bielke), Laura Davies, Jeff Cote, Daniel Silva, Dwayne Stincelli, Max Bessire, Tracy Hinman, Laura Downing-Lee, Peter Downey, Cristian Caetano, Oliver Sweet, Diego Rodriguez, Maggie Belle, Langston and Kabelo Chuenyane (who both appeared as little boys in a brief scene), and Henry Miller and Samuel Strong (two preteen violin players who alternated the role of the fiddler). Skyler King served as the understudy for the Constable. There was another actor also in the show, but for professional reasons will be referred to as “Anonymous.”

Not everyone listed in the cast was involved from the start. Getting this cast put together was a headache, specifically finding enough men to join, which is often a problem in community musical theatre.

 

I found out at my first rehearsal that we did not have enough men, both young and older. We had lost at least one man before I could join rehearsals. I was disappointed because this particular man had done Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat with me, and I worked very hard to convince him to join this production. He had been to some dance rehearsals because I saw him on the videos, but then at my first rehearsal I saw his name scratched out. He told me afterwards that he was dealing with work and mental health (he was an ER nurse). He was to play the role of Sasha and shortly after, Diego came in and was given that role. Oliver joined the cast not long after when a teacher of his (also a community actor) recommended the show to him. But even with the people we did have there was one problem.

 

I came to realize that I was not the one who would be the most worrisome. When I attended my first few rehearsals, I felt I was a little more ahead that some of the others, at least in terms of memorizing my lines and the lyrics to whatever songs I would be in. One or two people had the usual issue with getting off book, but there was still time. The actor playing the role of Avram was another matter entirely; he was too old in body and too old in mind with memory problems. Granted there were other men old in body in the cast, but they still were sharp enough to do a musical. But this particular actor, I could see it in his eyes; I wondered whether he even comprehended what was going on half the time, never being able to keep up even with the script in his hands. Then, with two weeks to go before opening, he quit the show. That was good, since he certainly should not have been doing this, but it was also bad because now we needed a replacement and fast. And that’s when Max joined us after Oliver got him to join. Max was much younger than we might have hoped (he was only sixteen), but we made the necessary adjustments.

 

On Thursday of my first full week back, we had a rabbi, Irwin Keller, come visit to help get a few scenes just right. First, he led us in a nigun, which is a Jewish prayer song with no words. Then he answered any questions we had, told us about the Jewish faith and just how much Jewish people relate to Fiddler on the Roof. Our largest concern was exactly how a Jewish wedding would be conducted. We did not do what they normally do at wedding receptions, which is hoist the bride and groom on their chairs (not enough people and not enough strong people).

 

While I was able to get ahead on memorizing my lines and music, the dances were my biggest concern. The rehearsals for those were held on Wednesdays and Saturdays. I couldn’t attend any Saturday rehearsals and the first Wednesday I returned, the choreographer, Joey Favalora, got Covid and was out for that week. I learned what I could from the videos posted online to the callboard, but I still had many questions, like where I needed to be and is this part a "do your own thing" or "do it this way and then this way" and so on and so on. With less than three weeks left before opening, I got scared. I wondered if Joey would have time to help me.

 

Since the videos of the dances were posted to the online callboard I wouldn't fall too far behind even if I wasn't there on the night they were filmed. I taught myself the dances “To Life,” since I would be Fyedka in that scene and I also taught myself the steps for the sons in “Tradition” since I would be a Jewish son in the first part of that number before cutting out and changing to Fyedka. I began teaching myself the bottle dance just in case I’d have to do it. As it turned out, I did have to do it and at the next choreography rehearsal, Joey and Megan, (who played the role of Hodel and was the dance captain) filled me in on the beginning of that dance. There were still some things I needed to learn for the very end of that one and also for “To Life,” but we ran out of time.

 

Before doing this show, I had seen five different productions of Fiddler on the Roof: two national tour productions, a community theatre production, a college production and a youth production. I never, never, never thought I’d ever do the bottle dance. I’m not what you’d call a dancer; I can move well, and I have a very technical brain which allows me to pick up the steps, but I’m not a dancer. I wondered whether I was flexible enough to do that dance. You can look up videos on Youtube if you want to see how it’s done.

 

Once I returned to rehearsals more fully, I found out, since I was playing Fyedka, I would be that role in “To Life” and not one of the Jewish men. I spent a lot of time learning and memorizing the part that the Jewish men sing, only to find out I wasn’t doing that part at all. So, I had to learn the second part that the Russians sing. The singing wasn’t actually the worst part; I didn’t have the high solo, or so I thought. The first night when Joey returned, we ran that dance. On that particular night, the actor who had been given the singing solo was out, I and the other two men who played Russians belted it out and Les liked it so much, he had all four Russian men sing that solo together.

 

For the longest time I was worried whether I would catch up on my things since I would miss so many rehearsals. I kept telling people “I’m going to have a nervous breakdown, I can see it coming.” When we muddled through the two acts, I realized that the first act would be the main worry for me. In the second act, I wasn’t onstage much, I had no costume changes since I would be playing just Fyedka, and the set changes on the whole were minimal. The second act of Fiddler is much more intimate with more focus on Tevye and his family and not as much on the villagers. 

 

Shortly before tech week, I began to think that I was miscast in the role. Lydia, who played Chava, my character’s love interest, was only fifteen. And I was thirty-four approaching thirty-five. We could get away with it somewhat because I still looked fairly young. In fact, Daniel, who played Perchik, thought I was at least a decade younger. Max (who took over the role of Avram) and Oliver (Ensemble and another bottle dancer) were both in their teens and both got on well with her. Not to mention both were rather handsome. Max in particular looked like my idea of Fyedka. He was about two inches taller than me, better hair, kind looking face and a little better built because he was an athlete. Looking at him I thought “That’s who should be playing my role, not me.” Not that I was going to give it up, mind you. 

Rehearsals plowed forward and I had a significant worry over how things would go down once the show opened. There were a few blocking and traffic issues onstage that were not getting addressed. Joe simply did not focus on them. In fact, I had a feeling that he was not making notes in the house and fully getting lost in watching the show.

 

The dances continued to worry me as the rehearsal period began to run out. We had never had one rehearsal with everyone, especially the men. For the bottle dance, we never had a rehearsal with all five men (Oliver, Diego, Cristian, Daniel and me) doing it in front of a mirror. And we kept having wrenches thrown in the works with the dropouts and new additions and losing a rehearsal when Joey got Covid. By the time we had everyone, we were doing full run-throughs of the show and Joey would not be around anymore since he had to prepare to perform in his own show. There were two dances that needed work, and both involved just the men.

 

“To Life” and the bottle dance during the wedding scene both needed cleaning up at the end of both numbers. In “to Life,” we were unsure of the last part where we all do a grand right and left and then pose at the front of the stage. Megan worked with us to improve it, but we would have to hope we’d get better in time. The problem with the bottle dance was, in addition to the last part not being clean, we never had the bottles and hats to use at rehearsals or to take home to practice with. Joey brought his own hat, which Diego took home for the longest time. I eventually had to take it from him so I could practice.

During "To Life"

In the end, it didn’t matter because we ended up cheating in that dance. We used plastic bottles, either because they had waited too long to give us real ones to practice with or because they didn’t want too much real glass onstage, and our hats and the bottoms of the bottles had magnets. Also, our hats were fedoras, rather than flat topped ones, which was something I felt to be too modern for this show.

 

There’s an old saying “too many cooks spoil the broth.” That was definitely ringing true in this show, though in our case, too many directors. There were far too many people who had a lot of directing experience in our cast, one or two of whom I’m willing to bet anything were secretly wishing they were the actual director. Laura Downing Lee (who played the roles of Shaindel and Fruma-Sarah) had a lot of interjections about areas that were not being addressed, like blocking and positions onstage, albeit very legitimate concerns. I had a feeling Peter (who played the Constable) was frustrated because there was “a plethora of ideas” that were going ignored. My thought the whole time was “Sorry, too bad.”

 

The rehearsal period flew by very quickly. It seemed to fly by because before this show, I was in performances for Romeo and Juliet, which was by all accounts a most wonderful experience, and I couldn’t wait for the weekend to arrive so I could get back to that. Don’t ask me to give a thoroughly detailed account about rehearsals for Fiddler; while I remember some things, like what I’ve already talked about, most of the process is a blur to me. Before opening this show, I had been rehearsing and performing in two other shows since May; I hadn’t had a weekend day to myself since June. In the mad rush that was my life at that time, there came a moment, two days before opening for Fiddler when I found myself standing in the theater, looking around and thinking, “How the hell did I get here?" I had been to rehearsals, I had learned my things, but I had very few precise memories of it all happening.

 

When tech weekend arrived, I was not available for most of it. I had a performance of Romeo and Juliet which was fifty minutes away. When I finally arrived, we were about to come to my first set change in the second act, which was actually the first thing I did in that half of the show. As I brought out the piece of furniture I moved, Celina, our stage manager, was saying whatever she was saying in the booth to the other people in the crew when she saw me and said into the microphone “Wait a minute, is that Michael?” A little bit later was one of my scenes in the second act. Celina later said to me “Your timing could not have been more perfect.” (Well, I do try my best.) I was only at that rehearsal for little more than an hour and we ended up finishing running all the light and sound cues in one day. I was a bit upset because there was a cast party for Romeo and Juliet that I had to miss and since it was so far away, there wasn’t much point in going driving all the way back.

 

The first act was going to be a hard one for everybody, in terms of scenes and songs, costume changes, and set changes. As I mentioned earlier, the second act would be a breeze. As Celina remarked (and I’m paraphrasing), “It’s not even funny how easy the second act is.” She was specifically talking about set changes, but in terms of everything, it would be easier. I knew I would not be able to help too much with set changes in the first act because I had to keep my costume changes in mind.

 

I spent days planning my costume changes in my mind from the moment I went in for a fitting. I had three separate pairs of pants, one for being a Jewish character, one black pair for being Fyedka and one black pair for being a bottle dancer. I had a red shirt, vest and prayer shawl for when I was a Jewish person and a different shirt for Fyedka. Finally, I had three different hats: a yarmulke, a hat for when I’d be Fyedka and a hat I would have as a Jewish son, which I initially only wore in "Tradition," but started wearing it during "The Dream" as the run progressed.

There were four of us who had to do one particular costume change from Jewish villager in "Sabbath Prayer" to Russian in "To Life" : me, Diego, Oliver and Daniel. It was a nightmare for all of us. Even though the costumes looked simple, they were certainly not. I'm not sure the costume designer took quick changes into account. Or she simply didn’t realize how little time we had to change. Our Russian shirt was big enough to get over our Jewish person costume, but it was hard to get on because we had an elastic sash sewn on it that kept getting tangled every way. In the script, there’s the set change music followed by half a page of dialogue, but that’s it. I had to beg to make my vest Velcro and honestly, we should have just been given one universal pair of black pants. 

While we're on the subject of clothes, I'd like to note one thing about Celina. In addition to being a very level-headed and intelligent stage manager, she was also a very well dressed one once performances began. No one ever sees the stage manager since that person is up in the booth calling the cues, but that didn't stop Celina from dressing to impress. Every night she wore a skirt and a different and stylish top, with her hair and make-up done and sometimes even wearing rhinestones around her eyes. I told her at one point she always wore the best things. Someone should have taken a picture of each outfit she wore and made a collage or a reel.

 

“To Life” continued to be problematic. Since we never had a full music or dance rehearsal with everyone, it was very shaky. The fact that at least two men joined the show a little later in the process also slowed us up. The song begins as a duet between Tevye and Lazar Wolfe, then the rest of the Jewish men join in, then the Russians sing their part and it ends in a dance. The men who played the Jewish men were having trouble with their cue to start singing. From where I was sitting, I saw Les raising his arms to cue them in clear as day, but they did not. It was hard at the end of the dancing part because there was not a loud and clear music cue for us, though we did get there eventually.

I had one single request for anyone who told me they were planning to come see the show: Please do not come the first weekend. We were out of rehearsal time, and I hoped very much that we could iron out the kinks that first weekend so that they would be resolved, and the show would be in much better shape from then on. I spent the entire first weekend of the show trying to get my costume changes down and hoping we’d get the dances right.

 

Before each performance, for a minute or two as the pre-show announcement was being made, we gathered in a circle. Led by Megan, we held hands, took some deep breaths and said a word of two of encouragement. We called it a Hodel huddle.

Our opening night was sold out and the other performances that weekend had nearly sold-out audiences. And each one loved the show, laughing where the laughs were supposed to be. I could not thoroughly enjoy the opening weekend success, however.

 

Most of my costume changes were finally going smoothly, but there was one that still proved to be a problem, which was when I changed from Jewish villager in “Sabbath Prayer” to Fyedka for the inn scene in “To Life.” Twice that weekend, when I made that change, somehow my Russian shirt ended up on my backwards and that slowed things up. I didn’t understand how that happened. I had it set so I could just slip my head through with it facing the front. In my opinion, we should have just moved the entrance of the Russians and all the lines there to one page later in the script since that costume change was problematic for everyone. Who would know the difference? I was the one who had the lines in the scene when we entered and the only one who managed to make the entrance on time (usually and often only barely); I did the best job I could covering for the others; instead of saying “We’d like a drink,” I said, “My friends behind me and I would like a drink,” or something in that vein. A few times, though very rarely, Oliver managed to make the change in time and join me for that entrance.

 

By the second weekend, I figured out how to work out that costume change more smoothly, if just a little. In "Sabbath Prayer," Oliver and I would close a curtain behind the main characters while the rest of the cast stood behind it to sing. I had long since decided to just wear the Russian pants and have my upper half be Jewish villager. Originally, I had reservations about doing that since the audience would see me, but I decided maybe they either just wouldn’t notice or they’d forget very quickly. Up top, only the top button of red shirt would be buttoned, the prayer shawl and the Velcro vest over it, holding it together. Then when I got off stage, I’d rip it all off, move the microphone pack to my side and slip the Russian shirt and hat on. It was a bit easier to slip it on and off with only a wife beater undershirt. It allowed me to make the entrance (if only just barely), but only if the elastic sash sewn onto the Russian shirt didn’t get caught in something. Even though the change went a bit more smoothly, I still worried very much about it every performance while we sand "Sabbath Prayer."

Final pose for "To Life"

At one point in the run, Diego (who played the roles of Mendel and Sasha) asked me what my least favorite costume in any show I’ve ever done was. I didn’t think of it then, but wearing leather pants in The Three Musketeers was no fun. In that instance however, I had no other costumes, so they only went on before the show and came off only once, at the end of the show. The Russian shirt however, I hated it. It often got caught as I was putting it on and ripped twice. I thought about asking if I could keep the shirt just so I could rip it to shreds.

 

After opening weekend, those Covid worries started picking up. Anonymous, who played the innkeeper, tested positive two days after the first Sunday. We had one understudy, Skyler King, and while he was supposed to be Peter’s understudy, he was the only readily available man (Peter was the understudy for Steven, who played Tevye). Based on my experience with Cabaret a year earlier where we had eight people test positive at once including me, I kept nervously checking my emails to see if someone else tested positive and if we’d lose the weekend. We could handle one older cast member (teenaged or hgher) being out, we could handle having one fiddler sick, and, since we had a set of twins alternating a role, one of them as well, but that was it.

 

Skyler had stepped in as my understudy for two performances during Cabaret, so I knew from personal experience that he’d do well enough to get through the show. Unlike Cabaret however, I couldn’t look after him and help him along during performances; I had my own problems this time around. We had an emergency rehearsal on Wednesday before the second weekend resumed. Even though all the men were requested, only Steven, Max, Diego, Daniel and I came in. We worked with Joe and Celina on all the things Skyler would need to know the best we could.

 

Given that Skyler would only have two hours of preparation, the scenes he appeared in were kept to a minimum. He did not take part in anything that required choreography, which ruled out “Tradition,” “The Dream,” the wedding dances, “Chava Sequence,” and “Anatevka.” We kept him in “To Life” since the innkeeper had lines in that scene, “Sunset/Sunset” and “The Rumor,” since all he’d have to do is stand there. While the innkeeper had a singing solo in “The Rumor,” Laura Downing-Lee took over that section; Les would tell us that for anyone to cover that part, he trusted her the most to do it. Skyler did manage to do the dance section for “To Life,” since it was simple enough and he seemed comfortable enough with it. He was also kept out of "Sabbath Prayer," butI think he could have easily joined “Sabbath Prayer,” since it was just standing in one spot holding a fake candle. I beleive they kept him out of that song so he could focus on the set change that was after it.

 

In the meantime, I covered something Anonymous usually did; during “The Dream,” there are three moments in the song where there was a cymbal noise and he would bang two fake wooden cymbals at those parts. Then, at the Thursday performance, we realized we overlooked something: we didn’t realize that Anonymous had a single line in that song. It was glaringly obvious when we had dead air where that line was supposed to be. I quickly took over that line as well, though the following night, the actor who had the next line ran over mine.

 

Skyler did have to cheat a little. In the scene before “To Life,” I’m almost certain he had the page of script with his lines taped to a piece of the set where the audience couldn’t see, though if he did, I wasn’t paying attention. In the wedding scene, his character had quite a few lines and he read off a piece of paper, but in that instance, since he was basically giving a speech in the scene, he could get away with that.

 

We all viewed Thursday as an invited understudy practice rehearsal since it was the first one with Skyler and it was not sold out anyway. Skyler did a very good job during that weekend. A number of us congratulated him after the first day and when he finished out the week and some of us were wondering, “Can we keep him?” He got more confident as the weekend went on. By the two Saturday shows, he inserted himself into “Chava Sequence,” since all the cast (excluding me and Peter) just moved hand in hand across the stage. By Sunday, he inserted himself into “Anatevka,” since there wasn’t what you’d call choreography; it was more “move where the scene and music take you,” and interact with the other people as if you’re comforting them. 

 

We had one other small hiccup on Thursday. Courtney, who played the fourth daughter, Shprintze, came into the playhouse feeling a little under the weather so the decision was made to send her home. Luckily, since we had a set of twins alternating the youngest daughter, we simply brought the other one in to cover her. Fortunately, whatever Courtney had was fleeting and returned the following night.

Twice during the run, Lydia had a health scare and had to take a Covid test before a performance. She never tested positive; I think she just had a cold or she was erring on the side of safety. Good thing she didn't get sick because I don't know what we would have done if she had had to step out.

 

On the Saturday evening performance, somebody in the audience was filming our show and posting it on Snapchat. Not the whole thing, but certain scenes here and there. Big no, no. I’m sure they caught him and stopped him at the second act. The videos he posted stayed up for more than a week, which surprised me; I thought someone would report them for copyright issues.

 

Aside from the hiccup of two actors being out temporarily, by the second weekend, it was just as I had hoped; other than the costume change from “Sabbath Prayer” to “To Life,” things started moving along much more smoothly. At the Saturday evening performance, a cast-mate from Romeo and Juliet came to the show and afterwards, referring to me closing that show and opening this one in the same week, she said to me “I don’t how you managed to pull it off.” Neither do I. Neither do I.

 

Anonymous ended up being out longer than expected. In the very early morning of Thursday of the third weekend, when he was supposed to return, his car was vandalized. Very badly. It wasn’t a robbery or anything like that; just some jerk with a bat or pipe or whatever destroying his car just for kicks. Skyler continued on in the role for two more performances. At least if he had to be back again, it was for the same role.

 

The bottle dance was one of the few times I wished my eyes could handle contact lenses. Jeff (who played Motel the tailor) told me that the audience was always who he looked at when we did that dance and how several of them were transfixed by us. I couldn’t see faces, but I could see people clapping along to the music and I could tell in their body language how invested they were. I would have loved to have seen the looks on their faces clearly.

 

The bottle dance, L to R: Oliver, Diego, Cristian, Daniel, Me

During the second weekend, the Thursday and Saturday audiences were responsive and laughed a lot. The Friday and Sunday shows were quieter, though the one on Sunday was the more responsive of those two.

 

The day after we finished out the third weekend (each day of which had packed houses), yet another wrench was thrown in the works. We received a call from the new artistic director of the playhouse. She told us that Cristian, our rabbi, left the production and we would have someone replace him. I didn’t ask what happened or why he left because I felt she probably would not divulge that information. Fortunately, they had someone already in mind to replace him- Jonathen Blue (referred to as Blue by all), the education director of the playhouse. Blue was an experienced actor, singer and choreographer who everyone was confident would step up to the task.

 

The Wednesday before the fourth weekend began, we had another put in rehearsal. This time, more of the cast would be called, though not everyone could make it. Blue had recently finished a show in Sonoma appearing alongside Joey, our choreographer, so he had at least two days of preparation beforehand, reviewing the choreography with him and any videos available. We had two hours of rehearsal; it may not seem like much, but we just moved so efficiently and Blue was competent enough to get it down that we were done earlier than anticipated.

 

On the Thursday performance of that weekend, the performance did not go smoothly. In “To Life,” when all the Jewish men start singing, they missed their cue; no one seemed to want to be the one to start it. Lines were dropped or flubbed and an entire section of the wedding scene dialogue was skipped. The following night, Celina made sure to have the cast run through that scene twice. I had always been glad that I was never in that scene and never had to deal with the mechanics of it- quick paced dialogue, ad-libbing moments of outrage, etc. Not my problem.

 

The shows for the rest of that weekend went very well and all to sold out houses. The Saturday audience was one of the best we had had up to then in the run. Blue did a very good job in the dances and his scenes. We did have to practice the bottle dance with him just one more time before the show on Thursday, but it went perfectly, considering we still never practiced in front of a mirror.

 

After the show on Sunday, we had a little cast party at Tracy’s house. She played the role of Grandma Tzeitel and her daughter Lillian was the assistant stage manager. It was a party that seemed to die down rather quickly. Most people left after two hours, which was a shame because Tracy had a grand piano and she told us to bring sheet music. By the time we got around to singing, it was just me, Tracy, Lillian, Ginger, Ginger’s husband Chuck, Laura Downing-Lee, Lydia, the twins, their sister and their mother. Steve made a late appearance after having dinner. We sang some songs, while Ginger played the piano and Steve played the guitar and sang a few Elvis and Johnny Cash songs. It was a fun night, though it would have been more fun if more people had stayed for the singing.

 

In the days leading up to the closing weekend, I put out the word on my social media, telling people the weekend was already nearly sold out and that they had better think about getting tickets. And the closing weekend sold very fast. Here’s how fast I mean- On Sunday of the weekend before that I started counting how many seats remained and there were 142 seats among the remaining four performances combined. On Monday there were between 90-100 seats left. The Sunday performance was sold out by Tuesday and that day started with just under 85 seats left for the other three performances combined. By the end of the day on Tuesday there were 42 seats left. By very early Wednesday morning, there were 33 seats left. By the end of that day there were only 16 seats left and the Saturday evening show was sold out. Two more seats were gone by Thursday, but by then it started leveling out by the Friday show, there were only 8 seats left.

 

In spite of audience selling out, there were often empty seats that were noticeable. There were various reasons: something came up and people couldn’t make it after all, season subscribers bought tickets because they had to, but didn’t make it or, on Sundays, retirement homes would buy blocks of tickets, but not be able to bring enough people in the end. Without my glasses I couldn’t see details like people’s faces, but I could make out bodies and where there weren’t any. Still, the houses were still packed full and there were only a few empty seats that were easily forgettable as the show went on.

 

The audiences were also very complimentary and gushing over our show. A number of them said it was the best production they’d ever seen of this musical, even more than the touring production that had been around earlier that year. I didn’t buy that. I’m guessing they had very short memories and were just overwhelmed in the moment. Still, it was nice to hear.

 

Two incidents at my work made me worry whether I’d be able to do my dancing in the show for the final weekend. On Monday when walking out of a room, I turned too soon and bumped my knee on the doorframe. That wasn’t a big deal, but it was sore for nearly two days. Then on Wednesday I was moving between two heavy pieces of metal equipment and bumped the same knee in a different spot. Hard. It really hurt for days afterward. Even by Sunday it was still a bit sore if I pushed down on it.

Friday of closing weekend had one of our better audiences, though an almost empty second row of seats was conspicuous. I worried we’d have a repeat of the first performance of the previous weekend since we had just had four days off, but it went off without a hitch. On Saturday it was the second time we had two shows in a day. Both audiences were good that day, even the matinee one, surprisingly. While that one was lively enough, the evening one cheered and applauded raucously after every song. The audience on Sunday was the quietest audience that weekend, but not by much.

 

Closing day was emotional for a few people. Laura Davies (who played Yente the matchmaker) presented Steve with a little musical figurine of Tevye autographed by the entire cast. Megan cried openly backstage after finishing her song “Far From the Home I Love.” Even during that scene, she was choking up and working hard to get through it. I myself almost cried more than once, but I had to force myself not to. The first was before the show started while we were in our huddle and the second was while I waited offstage for my set change after "Far from the Home I Love." In both instances, I had to go on soon and I worried if I lost my composure, I wouldn't be able to pull myself together again.

 

I was not feeling sadness over the show ending; of all the shows I did that year, this one was probably my least favorite because it was the most problematic and nerve-wracking. Rather, I almost cried from happiness that I achieved my goal of doing four shows in a year and not a single one had a cancelled performance due to Covid. That alone was a remarkable feat in itself. There were one or two close calls during the run of this show, but every performance went ahead. It was also a joy to play to packed houses at every performance of Fiddler, regardless of whether every seat was full or not.

Curtain Call, final performance

With four shows behind me in 2023, I was done performing for the year. I could only hope that the following year would be just as busy and fulfilling.

ROMEO AND JULIET

Date of Run: August 12-September 4, 2023

Role: Paris

My third show of 2023 was Romeo and Juliet at Curtain Theatre in Mill Valley and this show was without a doubt, one of the happiest experiences of my life. I can only describe this show as a perfect theatre experience.  

The last Shakespeare show I had done was The Comedy of Errors nearly five years earlier. Before that, there was a seven-year gap since the last Shakespeare play I did, The Merry Wives of Windsor, and I had hoped it wouldn't be so long the next one. At nearly five years, it was a smaller wait this time around, but still longer than I would have liked.

Mercutio had been a dream role for me for the longest time. I auditioned for this role in 2014, only to see it go to another actor and for me not be cast at all. I was only in my mid-twenties then and I thought I had more time. By 2023, however, I was thirty-four and feeling that I was starting to age out of the role. I felt that this might be my very last chance. While this is Shakespeare's most famous and often produced play, it hadn't been done anywhere in the North Bay since 2014, at least not that I knew of.

I was unable to attend either audition date. I was out of town on the first date, and I had a rehearsal on the second date. I emailed the director that I was interested, but not able to attend auditions and asked if it would be possible if I could send in a video or something. He responded that while I could send a video, he would be reluctant to cast someone in a major role without seeing them in person and finding out their chemistry with other actors. He invited me to attend the callbacks and he would have me read the sides for Mercutio and Paris.

On the day of the callbacks, I started to have second thoughts on my way there because I underestimated how far away Mill Valley was from my home. It was roughly 45 minutes, even though most of the drive was on a freeway and a smooth drive if there was no traffic.

 

The director, Steve Beecroft, told me to come at 3:45, nearly two hours after the start time. It was held in a small room on the second story of a church, which had a great echo off the walls. Everyone sat on either side of the room, while pairs or groups of three would get up to read sides in front of the entire room. I assumed the role of Romeo had been cast because the same actor got up to read for that role in all the scenes in which Romeo appeared and he already had the lines memorized. I listened to the balcony scene not less than four times as he read with each woman, one by one. Fine with me, I didn't want that role.

 

I gave it my best shot with the scenes as I read for Mercutio, trying to have the high energy required for the role, and the actor who read for Romeo was a good sport with what I wanted to try. At one moment, I asked if he wouldn't mind me picking him up and spinning him around and he didn't mind it at all. Even watching the other actors, I felt a good energy in the room, and I rather liked it. I never did get to read for Paris, however. After reading two scenes that had Mercutio, I was released.

 

Two days later I received an email offering me the role of Paris...I knew it. Somehow, I knew that was the role I might get. Though some part of me did hope if I didn't get Mercutio, then maybe, just maybe, I could get Tybalt. I had a hunch about who did get Mercutio though the cast list would not be released until nearly a week later (My hunch was indeed correct).

I was not sure whether I would accept the role of Paris. I had to seriously think it over for a day. It would be hard for me to see someone else play a role I wanted to play for years and there was also the commute to consider. To help me decide, I read the script that we'd be using. After reading it, there were a few things that made me decide to go ahead with it. One- I did not get to do Shakespeare shows often (this would only be my third); two- Paris has lines, sword fighting, and he dies on stage (that's always fun), everything Mercutio has but in a smaller amount (even though Mercutio doesn’t technically die onstage); and three- as I mentioned earlier, I liked the energy in the room at callbacks. 

I accepted the role, though at the back of my mind was the worry that I was making a mistake. This was a long commute, and I had no idea how this company would operate. I hoped against hope that I was making the right choice.

The rest of the cast included Nick Moore, Dale Leonheart, Grace Kent, Nelson Brown, Ramon Villa, Kim Bromley, Glenn Havlan, Evan Winet, Amy Dietz, Tom Reilly, Marianne Shine, Heather Cherry, Grey Wolf, Alexandra Fry, Marc Berman, Thomas Thelly, Grisha Driscoll, and Adelaide Finnegan.

Cast and Crew

We had lost four people from the original cast list. Grace was one of the replacements and in her case, I was rather happy that she joined, having worked with her previously. Even so, I also knew and liked the original actress, and I wished that someone else had dropped out instead to make room. But if one person in the room at call backs could replace someone else, I’m glad it was Grace.

I had not given much, if any, thought to this company since they only had matinee performances on weekends. As such, since I worked on weekends for the longest time, I could never even go see a show they produced let alone work with them. The only time I was able to see a show from this company had been ten years earlier and the only reason I was able to see it at all was because I had been in a bicycle accident and had to take a week off from work. I could get an idea for how this show would be by the previous year's production, which was filmed and posted on Youtube. It was Two Gentlemen of Verona, and it looked rather good in my opinion. Costumes in the style of the Elizabethan era, sword play, dancing and singing with a live band and performed outdoors surrounded by redwood trees. What more could you ask for?

Rehearsals would not officially begin until early July. Before that, however, the first read through would be in mid-April and Steve would do some character work developing background and relationships with the actors. In addition, there might also be sword fight action started on. Unfortunately, for me, I was not able to be there for the first read through. I was in Utah on the first day of a long-planned vacation. I did mention that I would be more than happy to join in over Zoom since I would be taking my computer along, but he never responded back to me on that. I guess he was fine if I missed it.

I waited (and waited) to hear from him when we'd have my session with character development, but April stretched into May and still nothing. I wasn't sure how to handle Paris since the character always seemed to be rather two-dimensional to me. There's not much about his background or personality in the text to go on. If you ask me, he is more of a plot device than a real character. Later on in rehearsals, Steve and I did have a few brief discussions about him; in Steve's opinion Paris is one of the nicest people in the play. He’s kind, gentlemanly and he loves truly does love Juliet. It just wasn’t fair that he ends up dead in the play. You could say that, or you could have him played like a snobbish, arrogant noble man since he's written so vaguely.

Finally, in June, I received word from Steve scheduling a rehearsal for a Saturday where we'd do a character session and he'd also start working on my sword fight. The location was to be at the stage in the park in Mill Valley where the play would be held. When I arrived, there were not only Steve and Nick, who played Romeo, but also Thomas and Grisha, all practicing what their sword fight in the opening would be. All four were very welcoming individuals and I immediately felt at ease talking to them. We didn't end up discussing my character, but we did spend a good amount of time on the sword fight.

My sword fight with Nick wasn’t very long (I had a few rounds recorded to study my form and look for areas to improve). What Steve envisioned was that Paris may carry a sword, but it's mainly for show and he's not as good a fighter, whereas Romeo is virtually a gang member and an excellent swordsman. My fight was to lunge at him upstage, then four sword taps while moving in a circle, lunge at him downstage, then upstage, raise my sword high trying for a desperate attack and then he grabbed my arm stopping me and stabbed me. We spent an hour and a half rotating fights; Nick and I would do ours a few times, then the other fight would be worked on and so forth. It was a very fun rehearsal, and I didn't want to leave. I was cautiously optimistic that this might be a good experience.

When July arrived, rehearsals were held in two places. The weekday evening rehearsals were held at a church only two blocks from the park where we'd be performing. The weekend rehearsals, which took place midday, were held at the park on the actual stage where we'd be performing (with the exception of one day when there was a pre-scheduled event). It was like the church rehearsals were a warm-up and then the park rehearsals were to get a feel for the actual space. From the first rehearsal, I immediately fell in love with the space in the park. Outdoors, surrounded by redwood trees? Count me in. I may have gotten dirty every time I was there, but I could live with that. I will say, even though I had not been to that spot in ten years, it looked smaller than I remembered.

My first formal rehearsal was on the first Saturday after they began and held in the park. The main focus of this rehearsal was to stage the opening scene. In this, we’d start with an original song, have two couples dance a “happy dance,” go into the fight scene through the speech the prince makes and finally stage the prologue.

The song, entitled “If Only” was written by Don Clark, who was the leader of a quartet of musicians who would be playing throughout the show. The others were Michele Delattre, Jo Lusk and Hal Hughes. There was also a closing song that was introduced a few weeks into rehearsals. This song was titled “L’Amore Vince La Morte” and for this song, I only had to learn the third verse and sing only “Ahs” during the chorus. Much easier than learning the entire song, as was the case with “If Only.” In addition to the two songs, the band also play incidental or scene change music, all of which they wrote themselves. That was a specialty of the shows of this company- original music which really gave the production a boost.

L'Amore Vince La Morte. Photo by Russ Johnson

Since my character was not one of the fighting members of the Capulets or Montagues, I had to learn "If Only" and I was in one of the two couples that would do the dance that followed, along with Grey Wolf, Kim and Grace. I was partnered with Grace, which I was grateful for because she wasn't a stranger, and she had dancing experience. Grace’s character was Benvolio (renamed Benvolia for this production) and while her character was a family member of the Montagues, she wanted peace, so it made sense for her to dance in the beginning. This dance had quite a few spins in it, and I often got dizzy from it, especially after rehearsing it repeatedly.

Steve wore many hats in this show. Not only was he the director, but he also was the dance and fight choreographer, and he acted as one of the Montague members in the opening scene. I found more reason to be cautiously optimistic after the first formal rehearsal because he had something I rarely, if ever, saw in a director: efficiency (or at least efficiency that satisfied my standards). He was never lost, he noticed little details in his dances where mistakes were made or areas to improve and he also gave the actors freedom to explore their own movements. I will admit he was a bit anal retentive on minor details and I wish that he had spent a little less time on the two leads, but I could look past that since he was efficient.

In addition to the happy dance, I had another one to do: the dance at the Capulet ball. At first, I thought I was the only one to have two, but Nick and Dale, who played Romeo and Juliet respectively, also had two dances. Dale actually had three, one of which was a solo jig that opened the second half of the play, but don’t ever ask her about it. For the second dance, I was partnered with Marianne, who played Lady Montague and understudied Lady Capulet. In this particular dance/scene, she was merely a party attendee. She was almost my height, and it was rather nice to dance with someone tall. She was also relieved that I was her partner because I was tall. It took us both a moment to remember everything we’d been taught. While we did remember certain things we did, we couldn’t remember the order. But once we got a paper copy of the steps from Steve it jogged our memories.

At every subsequent rehearsal, I would take either Marianne or Grace aside (if they were also at that rehearsal) and review my respective dances with them at least once. Steve wanted that in addition to people reviewing their sword fights at every rehearsal.

My dance with Marianne in the Capulet ball. Photo by Russ Johnson

Since we were rehearsing outdoors in broad daylight, but in a shaded area, I decided to try my hand at photographing people while they were acting out scenes. Normally, I don't like photographing people because it was impossible to get a good natural and candid shot since people these days only look down and stare at their phones. In this instance, however, I could capture people being active and in the moment. What can I say? We had two photogenic leads and a number of animated supporting actors. Gold. The only sad part was that, as both Dale and Nelson mentioned to me, there weren’t any of those photos of me. Oh well. I also could never get any photos of Heather because I was onstage every time she was.

I showed a few examples to Nick, and he liked them so much he asked if he use them on the Curtain Theatre social media. Fine with me. He started using them for “Meet the cast” posts where each member got their own post with their playbill bio along with three or four photos each. Photos that were taken by Heather’s husband, Peter Bradbury, were also featured on the posts, though mine were used far more. Peter was often at rehearsals and performances taking photos of rehearsals and backstage moments, though many of his photos were not that good; he was not good at focusing his camera and, as a result, many of his photos were blurry. 

As rehearsals progressed and the show grew, Nick asked me if I could supply photos that represented romantic and tragic elements of the show as part of a series of posts he would be doing. I did my best to oblige him; Romantic was not a problem, but tragic was very hard. The really tragic moments of the show, meaning the double suicide scene, I could never get since my character had to lie dead onstage at the same time. He also made posts for levity, violence and swordplay, all of which he used some of my photos for.

Though I did my best to get photos of everyone during rehearsals, I found that I took photos of Nick and Dale the most. While they were both physically attractive, they had such incredible chemistry when acting together. After taking maybe 600 photos of the cast during the rehearsal period, I told Dale that I still hadn’t had my fill of taking photos of the two of them. They both gave me so much to work with. Nick was especially a pleasure to photograph because it seemed as though he never did his performance quite the same way twice. He did the basics the same, like being where he was supposed to be at certain moments, but there were just little touches here and there that were different. Like, he might say a line directly to someone one time and another time out to the audience. Or maybe he'd use his hands differently. Or he might slam the stage with his hand for one line, but not any other time. Or he might even just emphasize a word more than usual. In Dale’s case, even from photos that other people took, I thought, “Do you never take a bad photo?” She was that attractive.

These five photos of Dale and Nick are just a sample of all I took, but these are among my favorites. The first one is my personal favorite of the hundreds of photos I took. The fourth one was Nick's favorite (he even made it the wallpaper on his phone for a long time). None of these photos are poses; I captured these moments as they acted out their scenes. Sometimes, when I need something to make me feel good, I go back and look at the photos I took during rehearsals.

In addition to being wonderful photographic subjects, the two of them were very talented onstage and very good people offstage. They were the anchors of our production, setting the bar really high for the rest of us. They were very close (as in best friends close) during the production, I’m guessing because Steve already had quite a few character sessions with them. They also had a shared connection in that they were both vegans. Often, they'd meet up before rehearsals and performances and arrive together, Nick might bring her a vegan treat or meal and if they arrived separately, they would have to greet each other and go off and bond or whatever. It certainly paid off because, as I said, the chemistry was incredible.

Nick had done a few seasons already and he was pretty much a full member of the company, and he couldn’t have been more welcoming to all us first-timers. He was as good an actor as I’d ever seen; he made his performance interesting every time during rehearsal, he always projected loudly enough, he never missed a cue and he never once called “Line” during rehearsal. I came to be honored that he was the one who killed me onstage. During rehearsals and performances, before he went on in his first scene in each act, he would put on his headphones and get into the mindset to play Romeo (he called it “marinating”). I don’t know what he listened to, but I couldn’t watch him before the second act because it reminded me too much of me nearly ten years earlier after my father died and I spiraled into a dark place.

Like me, Dale was also a newcomer to this company. She was a very lovely person and as sweet and kind to me offstage as her character was indifferent and cold to mine onstage. Every rehearsal she greeted me, and everyone else for that matter, warmly with a winning smile. She was just one of those people whose presence could just bring a smile to one’s face. She had one acting ability I wish I had: I never failed to see tears come to her eyes when she was supposed to be sad in the scene.

My scene with Dale in the second act. Photo by Robin Jackson

My main problem with my role was what to do with my arms. You may or may not agree with this, but onstage, arms are so useless if you’re not moving or holding something. I felt like a statue onstage for many of my scenes where I just stood there, arms hanging at my side. I thought of various ways I could stand, like arms behind my back or just one behind my back, but I thought “Is that too modern?" I asked mentioned this to Steve and he said he could help with that, only it never happened. Eventually, I had to look up paintings of Elizabethan era nobles for clues as to what they did.

My main scene partner in this play, meaning the person I shared the most scenes with, was Evan, who played Capulet, Juliet’s father. It got very trying to share the stage with him because every time he spoke, he kept moving upstage, forcing me to turn that way to deliver my lines. I would have given anything for him to either stand still or move downstage a little. In time I learned to just look out regardless of where he was.

At several rehearsals, we rehearsed some big group scenes a lot. Steve had them all memorized by where they were in the play; two that come to mind were “Act 1, Scene 1.5” and “Act 3, Scene 1.” I know there was at least one other, but those two are the ones I remember the most. Having a decent enough memory, I learned what happened in those scenes fairly quickly, but some people, especially the older cast members, never comprehended what he meant when he called places for those scenes. I couldn’t understand why it was so difficult to pick up on a pattern, especially since we rehearsed these scenes the most.

Rehearsals went very well until one Sunday, with thirteen days left until opening. We were rehearsing the final act, staging the last things that needed to be staged, which was everything that happens after Juliet stabs herself. Nick, Dale and I were lying "dead" onstage, waiting for the other actors to come on, when Marc and Greywolf started arguing. I don't know what started it; at first, I thought they were goofing off, as Greywolf was wont to do (he often did ridiculous out of place accents with his lines, but only in rehearsals), but it quickly became apparent the tones of their voices that it was not funny at all. It looked like it could have gotten very ugly. Steve quickly moved to defuse the situation, calling for a five minute break. He spoke to them both, individually and privately. I saw them hug it out shortly after, so I'm assuming they made their peace. That was apparently the first time there had ever been something like that during a rehearsal for any show at this company. 

On a side note, Marc was the one person in the cast who was not popular, at least not by the younger members. He may have been able to project well, but that’s all he brought to the table. He had fewer lines than I did, but he took his sweet time getting off book and learning his entrances. He was also inconsiderate; often when we were performing scenes, he’d be in the back yammering away to somebody and not even whispering. Dale later said that she once very nearly yelled at him while she was performing one of her solo scenes (I wish she had). He had a tendency to give other actors notes (big no-no) and he was too rough with both Alex and Adelaide onstage; in one scene with Alex he actually pulled her back when he should have just grabbed her arm and let her do the rest and with Adelaide, he had a sword fight with her in the beginning and he fought a bit hard. He also became increasingly demanding of the attention of Jody, the costume designer. Often when she would be working on someone else’s things, he marched right up, interrupting and asking about the smallest things with his own costume. Since Dale had five costumes, she needed the most attention, but that didn’t stop Marc from thinking his things were more important. To top it all, he certainly did not respect Steve as a director. From what I gleaned from his complaints about Steve and comparing his opinions of previous directors, it sounded as though he preferred directors who let him have his way and shrug off his slowness and Steve wasn't like that. Fortunately, since Marc lived far away and always left immediately after rehearsals and performances, we didn't have to hang out with him. 

There were two times that some of the cast, mainly younger members, hung out in the park after rehearsal. I couldn’t go to the first one since we didn’t end rehearsal then until 10 or later, it was Tuesday night and I had to get up at 6:20. But the second time was the night of our final rehearsal. On this night I could hang with them for a couple hours since we ended before 9:00, the next day was my Friday at work, and we didn’t have rehearsal the following night so I could rest after work. I was perfectly willing to endure one tired day at work just to spend time outside rehearsal with (some of) these people. Our little group that night consisted of Nelson, Amy, Grisha, Ramon, Alex, Nick, Dale, Amy, Adelaide, Thomas and me. Just having a few snacks and a beer or two.

It was wonderful to finally get to spend time with some of the cast after a rehearsal. This was the kind of cast I wanted to hang out with afterwards. As it turned out, I had fooled at least two people in this cast in some way. The first person I fooled was Nick. After talking to him about going to Sonoma State for college and the year I started (2007), he asked “Wait, how old are you?” I said I was 34 and he was genuinely surprised; he thought I was maybe a decade younger than I actually am. I told him to look closer.

The other person I fooled was Ramon, who played Tybalt. He told me that when he first met me, he thought I was going to be the quiet theatre kid type, but I was more talkative than he anticipated. He wasn’t technically wrong because I am a naturally quiet person; for example, sometimes at rehearsal the first thing I would say to someone whatever my character says to theirs. The main reason why I was more open to him than he might have thought was because he made the first move and made the effort to get to know me. Ramon also fooled me in turn. The first time I saw him in person was in the park during my first rehearsal there. He was on the stage getting ready to practice one of his sword fights when I arrived. When I found out who he was playing I thought, “That’s who’s playing Tybalt? He looks so... skinny.” I joked to him later that if he turned sideways, he’d almost disappear to anyone sitting far enough away. But then I started following him on Instagram and I thought, “Damn! This guy may be thin, but he’s a ripped surfer dude!”

I’m pretty sure I fooled Steve with my headshot when I auditioned. He probably thought of me for the role of Paris because he thought I was handsome based on that photo. That photo was almost ten years old, and I do not look like that most of the time (if ever). The character of Paris is repeatedly described as handsome in the play. When I saw production photos later, I thought “Why am I playing this role? Did they not have a better option or something?” (Personally, I don't think I photograph well) However, Nick told me shortly before the run started that when they were reviewing headshots and having a look at their resumes, he (Nick) thought, “Okay he seems good looking and he’s been around and he’s done stuff,” and then when I came to the callbacks, he thought “No wait, he’s more handsome than I thought.” (Aw shucks)

This was the first time I ever had to wear period costumes for a Shakespeare show. While the company did have a few things, they had to rent costumes from one or two other places, including from the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF). Two of my costume pieces came from there- a vest and a doublet. According to the label that was still sewn in, both items were used in past production(s) of Richard III. I was not overly fond of the doublet; for one thing, it was gold. Not my color, though when Jody showed me photos of it, I thought it was orange (could have been worse I guess). I saw other doublets on the website that I personally would’ve chosen, but everyone else in the cast thought it looked good when they saw me in it.

I would have two costumes: my Paris costume and a guard costume. After the opening dance, I would run backstage, change into a guard and march onstage behind Heather, who played the Prince. Then when I got offstage, I’d change back to Paris, perform two scenes as him and then, after a long break, change back into a guard for the final scene of the first act. The second act was easier since I had no costume changes. Some people did not get why Paris was being a guard, but obviously, it was not Paris; it was Michael playing a guard. Steve wanted two guards with the Prince, I was the only available man, end of story.

Unfortunately, we did not get the costumes from OSF until a few days before opening. According to Jody, the woman who ran the rentals there was delayed because of a series of personal tragedies in her life (or so she said). While they did arrive before the run started, adjustments had to be made and also, Jody kept working and adding onto some of them right to the last day. Dale for example did not have any of her costumes all finished until opening day. That being the case, we never got a full run of the show in the park with our costumes.

For this company, we were responsible for our own costumes, taking them home and bringing them with us every day, since the show was to be performed outdoors in a public park and there was no backstage area for us to leave our stuff. We had to wash the shirts and the leggings we wore, but everything else had to be sprayed with Vodka water. We were also advised to bring them in a garment bag. Since not everyone owned one, Jody offered extras to any in need; Dale got the largest one since she had five costumes and she needed someone (which was usually Nick) to help her bring her stuff down and back up the hill to her car. She was even given her own private costume rack.

Our backstage crew consisted of Diane and Lisa, the stage manager and assistant stage manager, respectively. Diane’s job was to follow along with a script and give everyone a one page warning for their next entrance. Lisa’s job was to help with quick changes and brush the dirt off our black shoes, no easy feat since dirt would get everywhere. Lisa was always the one with the calm head during these changes which I was very grateful for. In addition to that, she brought the snacks for us to munch on backstage, such as chips, candy and cookies. All sorts of goodies!

Before every show, Diane would lead us all in a circle to have us breath and bring us into the moment, share each other's energy and prepare us for our performance. At the end of it, we’d go around the circle, clockwise or counterclockwise and say, “I will hold you up,” to whomever was next to us.

I don’t recall the last time I was so excited for an opening day. The night before and the morning of it, I kept thinking “Yeah! All right! It’s opening, I’ve been waiting for this for so long! Let’s do it!” But time had a way of fooling us all that day. When we arrived for our call, 11:30, Steve had us do warm-ups and do a rehearsal of the dances, songs and sword fights. Then he also had us run the big group scenes, meaning the opening scene, the ending scene of the first half and the final scene at the end. When it was all done, I looked at the time and it was only 12:40. And then it just slowly crawled to 2:00. It was exactly the same the next day, even though our call was 12:00.

Opening night was universally referred to by the cast as an invited dress rehearsal, mainly because of the delays with the costumes. My first costume change was meant to be fast, and it went horribly. I ran offstage when I was directed to, but I did not realize how little time that was to make the change and my costumes, despite being all snaps and Velcro, were difficult to maneuver and it caused me to be late for my next entrance and I looked terrible and disheveled to boot. I couldn't get my head piece or my belt on, so I had to hold the sword I wore in my hand and hope no one would notice. Not only that, but a few other entrances were late, one of which was one of the ones I had with Glenn. Glenn was supposed to lead us on, but the timing went badly because someone onstage forgot a line and he just waited and waited while moving oh so slowly toward the stage.

The second show of that weekend went much better. I knew immediately the previous day how to fix my costume change- leave earlier. Much earlier. Also, they (meaning the crew backstage, more on them in a moment) decided to have someone assist me with the change. Some entrances could have been improved, but it wasn’t as horrible as the day before. During my scene with Nick where he and I have our fight, he spit in my eyes...twice. Not intentionally, that’s just what happens sometimes from actors. I’ve been onstage with other actors, and I’ve seen spit just go flying from their mouths. It wasn’t that big a deal, but one of the times was when I was supposed to be “dead,” and when his spit hit my eyes, they reflexively shut before he mimed closing them. Oh, the crap I gave him afterwards for the rest of the run over it.

The weather for opening weekend was perfect on both days. Sunny, but not hot and no wind to drown out our voices. In the beginning, I thought I’d have to have sunscreen before my death scene (Nick’s recommendation) and I put some on, but then, when I got to that scene, I realized that the sun was behind the wall of the set by then and I was completely in the shade.

In spite of the hiccups, the opening weekend was a success. After the performance on opening day, I was so overcome I hugged the first person I could backstage, which happened to be Nelson. We got two good reviews (though I was not happy with what one said about me; next paragraph) and the audiences loved it. The toughest critic came on our opening, which was by all accounts the worst of the two days that weekend, and he gave us a glowing review. But after the second show, I felt sad because we would not be back until the following Saturday, a full five days later.

I would not have thought my character prominent enough to earn a mention in a review, but it happened. It said, "Michael Hunter's Paris, Juliet's family sanctioned suitor, is stiff and uncomfortable in social situations." Ouch. To make matters worse, when I mentioned it to people in the cast, one too many of them said something in the vein of "Isn't that how you've been playing it?" It was not and the fact that everyone was thinking it meant how I was trying to portray the character was not coming across. I had to rethink the whole thing.

The Saturday of the second weekend had a much smaller audience than either of the first two performances. It was also not a very responsive audience. To top it off the weather was not ideal; it was very windy. During the last part where I was supposed to be lying dead, I kept wondering whether leaves or twigs were going to fall on my face from the branches overhead, though by some miracle, that never happened during the entire run. In spite of the less than ideal weather, it felt good to be back after being away so long.

After the performance on Saturday, a group of us got together and went to see Twelfth Night at Marin Shakespeare Company. Since we had no evening performances for our own show, we could easily support another company doing Shakespeare. Our group consisted of Thomas, Nick, Dale, Adelaide, Alex, Grisha, Marianne and me. We sat right in the front row, thoroughly enjoying ourselves and to top the whole evening off, some people attending the show that night had been to our show earlier, recognized us and complimented us! What a way to start off the weekend.

Sunday of the second weekend was a very ugly day. The ugliest of the entire run. It was unbearably humid with no breeze, and we were all soaked very fast. The first act was only bearable for me because I spent so much time offstage. After the scene that takes place in the Capulet masked ball, I had a long break before going onstage again and I stripped everything off from the waist up, even my undershirt. Shamelessly. By the end of the performance, I felt lousy. I was drenched, hot and incredibly thirsty, despite having drunk a lot of water. 

My death scene on Sunday did not go as well as it had before. Though both Steve and Nick more than once complimented me on my dying (they felt I did it really well), on this day, it didn’t go as well. It started the same: Nick stabs me, I collapse into his arms, he turns me and brings me down to the ground and after I say my last line, I go limp. Usually, I drop my head to the side when that happens, but on this day, given where his arm was around me, I dropped it forward, thinking that might be a nice different way. That was a big mistake because my head with my eyes open went into his sleeve and that got them so watery that, even when they were closed, I kept thinking “I really need to blink a few times, but I can’t.” Nick’s leg got caught under mine, and I was stuck in awkward positions when my hat nearly slipped off me and my doublet collar got stuck under my neck. 

Immediately after being stabbed in my fight with Nick. Photo by Robin Jackson

I’m also going to say this about my death scene: even though I was laying down on my back with my hands on my chest, it was not always very comfortable. It was never so bad during rehearsals when I was in my street clothes, but in the doublet and a hat, it was another matter entirely. The hat always seemed to end up in an awkward position on my head and I never felt comfortable in it lying down. At one performance it fell off, but that didn’t make matters better. I often shifted myself ever so slightly to try to make myself more comfortable hoping the audience wouldn’t notice. Sometimes I got an itch, but I couldn’t scratch it. It was always a long time before I could move again and I was often thinking “Hurry up, hurry up. Hurry up already, I want to move again.” Dale told me she often thought the same, lying onstage in between where Juliet takes the sleeping potion and wakes up again. Months later, I found out how long the two of us were lying onstage. She had to lay there for a little over twenty minutes, and I had to be there for nearly sixteen. 

Nick almost caused me to break onstage when I supposed to be dead, more than once. I stated earlier that he never quite did his performance the same way twice, though I will stress that he never did anything that threw a wrench in the works like ad-libbing or dramatically change his blocking in a way that affected everyone else. There was one time he changed his blocking, but only for safety's sake because a sizable section of the stage was wet and slippery from the night before. The first time he almost made me break was after he lowered me to the stage and took my hand before he would lay it on my chest. Holding my hand in both of his, he kissed it twice, having never done that before. Another time, he delivered one of his lines in an over-the-top way and it nearly made me laugh. Fortunately, I’ve learned a few tricks how to prevent myself from breaking character.

After the second weekend, once again, I had to wait five days before returning for the next weekend. For that entire week, I began to get worried over Covid. Cases were starting to rise at the time, and it entered my personal orbit three times recently. Two co-workers got it and the choreographer for my next show got it all in the course of two weeks. I spent all of that week nervously checking my emails several times a day, hoping we would not get an email saying there was a cancellation.

We had been told many times by the Curtain Theatre people that audiences would get bigger as time went on. During the third weekend I definitely noticed that was indeed the case, especially Sunday. It’s always good to play to a large audience; I just hoped they had no problem hearing me. The more people in an audience, the more the sound from your voice gets absorbed and doesn't bounce back off something.

After the second weekend, we received photos from Peter and two other photographers who came to the show. During all the time I was taking photos of rehearsals, I shrugged off the fact that there weren’t any of me because I thought I would get some during performances. But after three photographers, there was not a single good picture of me. What you've seen already are the best ones of me, and that's not saying much. Most of what there was of me was either blurry and out of focus, of just my profile shot or my back or from a distance. Some of them also looked weird; for instance, in one photo, it looked as if I didn't have a nose or a mouth (seriously). I think it must have been the result of moving while the photo was taken. I decided to take matters into my own hands and get a good photo of myself in costume on the set. On Sunday of the third weekend, using Ramon as a stand in so I could focus my camera, I got the desired result. 

Shortly before the second weekend, I came up with an idea for something for Dale, Nick and me to do. It concerned the distracted boyfriend meme. I had seen a photo on Nelson's Facebook from Two Gentlemen of Verona the year before when he and two actresses in that play did their own take on it. In our case, it would be a distracted girlfriend type thing with one woman and two men, but Dale and Nick were both on board with it. Unfortunately, that was easier said than done.

I wanted the three of us to do the photo in costume, which gave us three options: before the show, at intermission or after the show. But accomplishing that proved to be incredibly difficult.  Dale did not have her first scene in the play for a little while and her first costume was not the most comfortable, not even to sit in. Therefore, what rush was she in to get into it? As for Nick, I mentioned earlier that he had to go through his process to get into character before his first scenes, so even at intermission, as soon as he got off stage, he went right to that. I tried on Sunday of the second weekend (the very humid ugly day) to do it after the show, but Dale was taking time up front talking to people, Nick decided it was not a good day to take it. I was too hot and decided I really just wanted to get out of my costume, so I decided he was right. Taking the photo after the show was never really an option because the two of them could spend a good deal of time talking to people in the audience who really loved the show; in Dale's case, she had a few little girls come up to her like she was a Disney princess. On Saturday of the third weekend, I really had to nudge the two of them to get it over with at intermission (I would have begged on my knees if that's what it took), but we did it in the end. 

The distracted boyfriend meme and our recreation of it

The weather on that Saturday was very cold and even windy at times. But I would that over a humid day. On Sunday, it started out pleasantly enough, but by the second act, it got much warmer. On both days of this particular weekend, in spite of whatever the weather was, I actually somehow managed to get rather comfortable while lying on the stage “dead” and I thought I’d fall asleep. If I had had a pillow underneath my head, I would have.

Performing outside came with its drawbacks. Since we were performing in a public park, there were things we had no control over. There were times where people in the park would be talking or yelling not too far away from us. There were times where children were screaming just a short distance from us. And then there were times when a helicopter or airplane would fly overhead, or cars would make noise. At one performance, immediately after Romeo kills Tybalt and flees, police sirens started blaring. That was actually kind of perfect. The following day, a car alarm started blaring during Romeo’s death scene, one of the worst possible times. Nick told me later he acted as though that was the alarm that Romeo was spotted in Verona after being banished.

Performing outside also meant dealing with nature. If it was a windy day, it could drown out our voices and it could cause leaves and other bits of the trees to fall. There were also quite a few crows in the trees around us. Glenn remembered the previous year when a large group of crows (a murder it's called), just went off squawking and squawking, and made it difficult for the actors. One day during the final weekend, when I was sweeping debris off the stage, I noticed quite a few spots of bird poop on the stage. It was then that I realized by some miracle, nothing had ever fallen on me while I was laying there. I had considered myself lucky with the leaves or twigs falling on my face, but I had never even thought about bird poop. Luckily, even that never fell on me even once.

In the days leading up the final weekend, I had new worries in addition to Covid. Smoke from several wildfires that were raging near the California-Oregon border had made its way down to Sonoma County. According to the weather app on my phone, Mill Valley was not affected, but that didn’t alleviate my fears. I thought “If Covid doesn’t finish end us early, then this might.” Once again, I spent those five days nervously checking my emails hoping we wouldn’t be cancelled.

The run flew by so quickly. I blinked and suddenly we were at the final weekend. I kept hoping the five days that I had to wait in between performances would go by quickly so I could go back to the park. It would seem that I got my wish every time. The final weekend of performances was Labor Day weekend, and we would have performances on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.

Very sadly, I was not able to go to the cast party. I knew it from the very beginning after Steve announced the date that I wasn’t going to be there. It was scheduled for Saturday of closing weekend and that happened to be tech weekend for my next show, Fiddler on the Roof which would be in Santa Rosa. I had to leave immediately following the show to get to Santa Rosa. When I got there, that rehearsal was only done an hour after I arrived. The two locations were fifty minutes apart and, had it not been such a distance, I would have gone straight back. It really made me sad because this was the kind of cast that I wanted to hang out with outside of rehearsals and performances.

That Saturday was also the day when we filmed the show. Nick and his contacts came in with three cameras which they set up in the audience. This particular performance ran a little longer. I believe it was because Nick was fully hamming it up for the cameras. My death scene for this particular performance was the weirdest. When my character was stabbed, Nick lowered me to the stage, I said my lines and he cradled my inert form while he said his next lines before laying me down. But for this performance, he ended up just holding me up by my arm. I kept thinking, “Put me down, put me down, this looks weird, put me down. Or drop me.” Again, the crap I gave him for that afterwards.

The weather for this weekend was the best of all four weekends. It was nice and cool on all three days. The last day was the coldest and also windiest day of that weekend. The audiences, which on the last two days were very large, probably the largest ones we had, would probably be very chilly, but at least we in the show weren’t going to suffer.

I really misjudged how I was going to react on the last day. I honestly thought this would be the show where I would cry at the end of the run, but it didn’t happen. A few people were teary; Dale cried quite a few times that day, but while I tried, I couldn’t. I didn’t understand; on Thursday I felt sad, on Friday I felt teary, but on Monday nothing happened. Maybe it was the excitement of (finally) having a few friends in the audience who specifically came to see me. Maybe it was the fact that my next show was opening in a few days, and it was weighing heavily on my mind because there were still problems with it. Or maybe I was just not as sentimental as I thought.

Regardless of why I was not more emotional, this was the first show ever where I gave cards to my fellow cast members. There have been one or two other shows where I would have done it, but I’ve never been good with words; I’ve never been sure of what to say. This time around, I finally decided to give it a go, though I wasn’t sure if closing day was more appropriate than opening day. On opening day, Dale and Grace gave out little cards and Nick gave each person a rose and while I did think about handing out cards then, I didn’t have time to get all my thoughts in order. It was hard trying to make sure the messages didn't all sound the same. I had to take more than a week writing and, in some cases, re-writing what the messages would say on a piece of paper first. Some people did get longer messages than others. I only hope I said enough.

After the end of the Monday performance and before we got out of costume, we had to assemble onstage for a group photo. I brought my camera to help with that and set the timer on it, but people kept rushing me and two others who were taking photos had their chairs and belongings in the way and I had to take it at an angle in an effort to cut out the chairs as much as possible. Unfortunately, and I didn’t realize until too late, two people on the end got cut out. They were two of the musicians, but even so, I said later that Curtain Theatre might not want to use my photo for anything since two people involved with the show as much as anyone else got cut out. We also took a few more photos; I for one, wanted a group photo of the six characters that die in this play.

The six characters who die in this play, L to R: Mercutio (Nelson Brown), Tybalt (Ramon Villa), Juliet (Dale Leonheart), Romeo (Nick Moore), Lady Montague (Marianne Shine) and Paris (Me)

After the photos came time to strike the set, which was a shame because it was so beautiful. The cast had to first take their costumes to the church and make sure they weren’t missing anything. Four men who worked with the company before came with drills and three trucks. When the set pieces were loaded, we had to take them to the Throckmorton Theatre which was a short distance away. The set designer of our show had his shop there and all his materials. It was a very complex and tall set and the whole process took four hours.

The Set. Isn't it beautiful?

Halfway through the set coming down, we had pizza and hung out for a short while. When everything was done and it was time to go, we all said our goodbyes and dropped off one by one. Finally, it was just me, Dale and Nick. The people who played the love triangle in the show. At the risk of gushing over Nick and Dale more, especially since I’ve spoken a good deal about them already, they truly were my favorite people in this cast. And not just because they gave me so much inspiration with all the photos I took during rehearsals. They were both very good to me throughout the whole run, never once letting me feel less about myself. I felt so lucky to meet them and to have had one scene with them each. I don’t mean to lessen how I felt about anyone else in the cast, I love them very dearly.

After the show was over, a few of us made an end of show post on social media saying how wonderful the experience was and all that. Ramon would end up having quite the story to tell about his, which would be a good example on why representation on film and stage is so important. When Ramon was in high school, he saw the film Romeo + Juliet by Baz Luhrmann where the role of Tybalt was played by John Leguizamo. It was the first time he ever saw a Latino actor do Shakespeare and it inspired him to want to play the role himself. He said all that and more on his social media...and then on Instagram, Leguizamo himself commented on the post congratulating him! I (and I’m sure everyone else) was incredibly happy for him. Ramon was a great guy, he deserved that.

I will always count this show as one of personal favorite experiences. I was hesitant to accept the role of Paris when I desperately wanted Mercutio, but I look back on it with no regrets. I worked with a wonderful group of people who brought the best to the table, and I came to love them very much. I told Steve and anyone else for that matter more than once, that I would definitely audition for whatever show they did the following year. It was truly a good company to work for and I was sorry that I was never able to work with them in the past.

There’s never a guarantee that you’re going to be cast in any show, but I will say this: Auditions for the show next summer would not come soon enough.