AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY

Date of Run: March 10-26, 2023

Role: "Little" Charles Aiken

Photos by Mike Padua

"...Little Charles, played to nearly paralyzed insecurity by Michael Hunter."

    -John Henry Martin, Napa Valley Register, March 13, 2023.

Review: "Oklahoma" in St. Helena and "August: Osage County" in Yountville (napavalleyregister.com)

My first show of 2023 was a play that had long been on my radar, even on my bucket list of plays. This is one of those plays that has roles that dreams are made of. Most definitely an actor's play; one of those plays that had really good, meaty acting roles. Only one problem: I had to wait a long time (well over a decade) before I was old enough for even the youngest male role because the age range of the male characters is 37-69.

It was by sheer luck that I found out about the auditions for this show. I happened to go on Facebook at the right time when the post announcing the auditions was the first thing I saw. And a good thing too, since they would be held in five days. To my relief, the only requirement was to read from the script, so no having to jog my memory on one of my monologues. I happened to have the play in my collection, so I could brush up on it in that time. The one role I could go for was Little Charles Aiken. His stated age is 37 and by the time of the auditions I had recently turned 34. I decided to give it a shot thinking, "Close enough? Maybe?"

The company putting up this play was Valley Players, with whom I had done Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike nearly five years previously. I had hoped to work with them earlier in another play they did, which had a good role for a young man, but my work situation at the time didn't allow for that to happen. It was going to be a long commute and as well as a non-paid show, but for the right role or in this case, play, I would be willing to do it. 

The auditions for this show were divided into two separate dates: though both would audition women, the first one in December would mainly focus on casting the men's roles. The directors wanted to get the male roles taken care of first because they felt those would be harder to cast. They might have been right because even at the first date, there was no shortage of women auditioning.

The audition process was a little different than how auditions are traditionally done. All the people auditioning were in the room gathered in a semi-circle watching as two or three people read sides in a scene. There were at least five men auditioning and I was easily the youngest. While I mainly read for the role of "Little" Charles, I did also read for the roles of Steve and Bill, just for fun. I didn't believe for one minute I would be considered for anything other than Little Charles, since the stated age of the next oldest male role was 47. Not that I put myself forward for any other role; I had to be realistic.

After leaving, I had the strongest feeling ever that the role was as good as mine and I received the offer the following day. I suppose it's easy to get a role when there's no competition for it. Not that I'm complaining since this was a play that I had long dreamed of doing.

As I already had my own copy of the play, I immediately started memorizing my lines. Mine was not one of the more prominent roles. I would not appear until the second act, and I would not have as many lines as other characters. Truth be told, in this particular play, it was the women who had the roles that really counted. As this company's stated mission was to empower women over the age of 40, this play was an obvious choice.

Getting cast in this show was a godsend for me. Shortly after Cabaret closed, I had a project lined up, but that would not begin rehearsals until the end of April at the earliest and performances would not be until the first half of July. Any other show that I was aware of until then had either already been cast or there was no role for me. Not only that, but I had a weeklong vacation coming up in mid-April so that made any show that went up in April or even May not an option. Since this show would be done in March, that was perfect for my schedule.

 

The rest of the cast included Rhonda Bowen, Nancy Heine, Christina Julian, Marty Kassman, Anna Li, Dan Monez, Richard Pallaziol, Criag Rekdahl, Scott Slagle, Randi Storm, Kira Tavakoli, and Georgia Taylor.

Originally there were going to be three directors, June Reif, Richard Pallaziol and Debbie Bauman, but not long after rehearsals started, June assumed sole directorship, with Richard stepping into the role of Bill and Debbie stepping out due to personal issues. 

The Cast. Clockwise from bottom left: Anna, Craig, Christina, Georgia, Marty, Scott, Nancy, Dan, Randi, Rhonda, Richard, Me and Kira. 

If you haven't read the play or even seen the film, there are spoilers ahead. 

After the first reading, June sent each of us questions to think about for our characters. We didn't necessarily have to answer them; they were just for us to use to dig deeper into our characters. I can't speak for everyone, but I must say, mine were very thoughtful.  These were the questions I received:

• What is the truth about your missing the funeral? Did you sleep through the alarm, did the power go out, or did you forget to set the alarm?
• What do "those people" say about you?
• What are your plans for New York?
• What are the logistics of meeting up with Ivy? (She lives 1.5 hours away)

These questions really made me think much more deeply about Little Charles. The questions made me think about his motivations and his personality. The second and fourth were easier to answer in my opinion. But the first, and especially the third, really made me think. 

From what I gleaned from the play, it appeared to me that Little Charles was a sweet, thoughtful, sensitive man, and possibly a bit simple. He seemed incapable of holding down even a menial job (it's stated he got fired from a shoe store), and, though nothing of his dating history is mentioned, I assumed he had no long term relationships.

Little Charles is the result of an affair his mother had years earlier. I decided that Little Charles had been put down by his mother for most, if not all of his life, out of her shame and disappointment in her life. As such, that heavily wore down on his confidence and self-esteem. I made the choice to reflect that in my body language by always looking like I'm slouching when standing or looking like I would shrink smaller and smaller whenever I sat. I tried to make it look as though the furniture would swallow Little Charles whole at any moment, especially when his mother was in the room. Unknown to anyone else, he is having a secret affair with his cousin, Ivy. I decided that the only time Little Charles would ever stand tall was when he and Ivy were alone together.

This was an interesting role to take because while Ivy and Little Charles are thought to be cousins, it's revealed in the third act that they're actually half siblings, though neither of them knows that fact. If there's one thing that I find revolting, it's incest. I learned to compartmentalize their relationship, reasoning that while they are blood relations, they are two misfits in a soul crushing family and find love and security with each other. They were the heart of the play.

Whether or not I was called to rehearsal depended on which act we would be working on. If it was Act I, I would have the night off. Otherwise, it was an hour-long drive to Napa. The first few rehearsals were focused solely on individual scenes in each act. For the first three rehearsals (which I was not called to), they were rehearsed in an old chiropractor's office building on Imola Ave. From what I heard, that building was freezing, even with a few portable heaters set up. Then, for all rehearsals after that, Randi graciously allowed us to use her classroom at Vintage High School, which was heated and had furniture we could use. She directed a program for emotionally distressed teenagers that had been failed by other school systems.

Often, and usually on Friday as time went on, there were some rehearsals that focused only certain scenes that June felt needed work. This did not include the dinner scene in the second act where the majority of the cast was onstage. The scenes I had were short and needed only a minimal touch up here and there; very easily done on nights when we rehearsed an entire act. It certainly saved me money on gas.

One month before opening, we had our promotional photo shoot at Randi's home in Napa. The clothing we were instructed to wear was black. That's it. Just black. We didn't necessarily have to be dressed up in our best, but I wish that had been the case. I had a pair of black pants, but the only black shirt I had was a V neck T-shirt. I wish I had worn my suit jacket over that or just gone out and bought a long sleeved black shirt. I felt a bit underdressed since the other men either had a jacket or a long sleeve button down.

The shoot involved groupings of characters during certain scenes; for instance, Ivy, Charlie and Mattie Fae in one scene, Little Charles and Ivy in another, and Violet, Ivy and Barbara in another, etc. But first, we did an entire group photo, seated around the table, like in the second act of the play. The concept was to have it be like the Norman Rockwell painting "Freedom from Want," and then be like a parody wherein all the characters are manic. Here is where it got funny: Richard brought in weapons he owned for us to hold in the photo, such as a club, a few daggers, a mace, a long-handled medieval ax (I grabbed that fast), a skillet, etc.

Just your average family, right?

The rehearsals continued steadily on, though even after the off-book date had passed, there was still a lot of line calling. The two exceptions for off book were Randi and Rhonda. I grew a bit worried as we inched closer to the final week of rehearsals and the two of them were still calling for lines. I imagine Rhonda was having difficulty because not only was she playing Barabra, a major role, but she was also designing the set. As for Randi, who played the matriarch, Violet, I later heard her say that she auditioned for the role of Mattie Fae and she did warn June that she would have trouble remembering so many lines.

A little more than a week before opening, we had more reason to be worried. Dan had been exposed to Covid and began to wear a mask and test daily. We had to hope he would test negative by the Sunday before opening and he would be in the clear (he was, thankfully). He wasn't the only one with health worries. Nancy was very sick and out with a week only two weeks before opening, and Georgia fought a cold around the same time.

I had looked forward to returning to the theater that this company usually performed in, the Lincoln Theater in Yountville. But at the first read-through, I found out that we were not going to be performing there at all. From my understanding, the theater closed due to Covid, but it could not easily reopen since the building was on the same land as a veteran's home. A checkpoint had been set up to question visitors about their infection status. The state of California owned the land, but not the building itself. They had tried to buy it as part of their plan to convert any building that was not a money maker, but the building was owned by a trust which asked for too much money. Then the building suffered some damage and flooding from all the rain that happened in January that year and it was just left to rot.

It was sometime later that I found out that even before the Covid pandemic, the person who ran the place told Valley Players they wouldn't be back. This person also just completely ghosted anyone trying to contact him. Emails and calls from anyone, even city officials just went unanswered.

Since we didn't have the Lincoln Theater, we instead would be performing at the Yountville Community Center, which is where the company had been staging all their post-Covid shows. It was a one-story building and meant to hold a three-story house for the set. 

How did they manage that? By having six steps from the first floor to the second floor and then just three more up to the attic. The main part of the set was a large structure with had the second and third level, an entry way and the study. In front of that structure were some pieces of furniture. The dining room, which was stage right, consisted of a sideboard, a long table and chairs on a rug. The living room at stage center had a rug with an armchair, a couch with a hide-a-bed and a side table. On stage right in front of the study were two folding chairs, which were meant to be on a porch.

Beginning of the curtain call. This photo gives an idea of the set. The third story is meant to be where that lamp is near the ceiling.

Once we moved into the community center, we had to do a mini strike after every rehearsal before opening and on Sundays after the performance. That involved pushing all the furniture pieces as far back as they would go against the structure, roll up the rugs and cover up everything by putting moving wall barriers in front. Our green room was in the kitchen of the community center. Every Sunday after the show, we'd have to clean out all our costumes and put them behind the set. Basically, it had to look as though we were never there.

The lighting design of the show was a headache for everyone. Without the Lincoln Theater, Valley Players had to bring in their own lights and install them in the space. While they were asking for donations toward their light system in the playbill, what they had was definitely not enough. It was a struggle for all of us to make sure we weren't in a dark spot onstage. June was constantly having to adjust the blocking so that the actors would be seen. For the curtain call, we ultimately had to bring up the house lights just so there would be enough for everyone to be seen.

The rehearsal process seemed to go by rather quickly. I think it could be because I was not called to every rehearsal and that seemed to make the days go by faster. More than one person kept saying "Don't say that!" if someone mentioned how close we were to opening. Nancy in particular was very nervous; this was her first live theatre show in some time after having worked in independent films for a while. 

In college, I was told of how the first two performances of a play usually go. For the first, there's a lot of energy and adrenaline from the excitement of opening and the feeling of exuberance once it's done. The second night is when the energy and adrenaline levels come down and that causes people to lose focus, walk through the performance or even get sloppy. 

All three nights of the first weekend, there were dropped lines or even the wrong line said. On Saturday, I don't want to say what happens on a second performance happened, but there seemed to be even more lost than on Friday night. One small section of the dinner scene in the second act got skipped because someone said a line far too early, and another person got things back on track, but at the cost of skipping over a small section. The Sunday show was the best of the three, but a line or two would get lost in the mix.

Nevertheless, we got standing ovations on Friday and Saturday and a few people stood on Sunday. Maybe more would have, but the audience on that Sunday was mostly older people and sitting through a play that runs over three hours must have been tough for them. Opening night was not a full house, but there were between thirty and forty people. Saturday was much fuller, possibly fifty people. Sunday had the largest audience that weekend; they had to add another row or two to accommodate any walk-ins.

Left to Right: Dan Monez, Me, Georgia Taylor, and Nancy Heine

On opening night, many in the cast decided to go out for a drink after the show. Only one problem: the show ended at 10:30 and many bars in the Napa region did not stay open much later than that. One was open until midnight, fortunately, but when we got there, it was packed. A wedding party alone had about twenty people and there was at least a dozen more people there as well. And only one bartender. We did manage to get some drinks and we sat at a table outside. The most amusing part of the night was that some guy kept hitting on Randi. She wasn't amused by it; she kept showing her ring saying "Hello? I'm married." 

My favorite part of this show was the dinner scene in the second act. While it is a highly amusing scene and ends in a family brawl, I got to eat real food onstage. Cold food, but real food. Every night, Rhonda brought in cooked chicken, some mixed greens for a salad, green beans, rolls, and tater tots meant to be potatoes, though one night she brought in real potatoes. To drink, we had non-alcoholic wine. Since I didn't say much in that scene, I chowed down, as Georgia noted. That basically became my dinner on performance nights, though it was not until 9:00 on Fridays and Saturdays when we came to that scene and I could eat.

I was the probably the only one who ate the food fearlessly. More than one person was reluctant to eat much because they were afraid that they'd choke or miss one of their lines. At times I did get hiccups, but that wasn't an issue since I didn't have many lines. I also acted like I was choking, which did make one or two people nervous, but I was reacting to a line being said, not actually choking. When asked how I managed to just eat like that, I simply shrugged and answered, "I know how to eat." It also became my job to help the stage manager put the food in the dishes.

Every night, there was one item of food I did not get on my plate. One night, no roll; another night, no green beans; and so on. I didn't mind as long as I got chicken, tater tots and one green item. It wasn't until the final performance that I finally got a little of every food item on my plate. Since this was my dinner on performance nights, once the show was over, I quipped "There goes my meal ticket."

Toward the end of the dinner scene in the second act

The dinner scene wasn't the only time I'd be munching on something. In the first act some of the characters have a piece of pie and when those were cleared, one usually came back without even a bite. I snatched that up quick. Not only that, but we always had snacks on the counter backstage. We had quite an array of selections from chips to pretzels to sweets. I always had a few bites (okay more than a few). I certainly didn't go hungry during this show, I'll say that.

My least favorite part was the beginning of the third act. I had to sit onstage on the very uncomfortable couch, acting like I was watching television for seven pages of dialogue before my lines. For every performance, that scene seemed to go on longer and longer. I evolved what I was doing overtime, rather than just sit there and stare off into space. I began it by acting like I was flipping through the channels until I came to something funny, I watched it for a while, then I flipped and found the news. I would watch it for a bit, then I would have Little Charles' mind drift to memories of various previous scenes, good and bad. I couldn't wait for the action to get to me.

Since there were quite a few missed lines the first weekend, we had to have a rehearsal on Thursday before the second weekend began. That rehearsal turned out to be meeting at Randi's classroom, sitting in a circle and saying our lines. It could have been because all the props were at the community center. Some in the cast wanted that rehearsal because of the four day gap between performances. Me? I didn't need it. The main point of the rehearsal was to get the lines down, but we did have some fun with our lines, like saying them funny or being overly dramatic. Still, it didn't seem like much of a point for me to travel an hour away for not even an hour of rehearsal.

My main scene partner was Georgia, who played Ivy. Everyone thought our scenes were so cute and touching, the light and heart of the show. In our first scene together, once we got into the performance space, I noticed that the audience could see mostly her back. Couldn't have that could we? I tried to make sure we were at an angle and in the light, so that the audience could see as much of our faces as possible. Lauren, our stage manager said, more than once, that our scenes were her favorite and she was sad whenever our characters were stopped by another.

Top: Georgia and I acting a scene for the promotional photos
Bottom: The same scene during a performance

In this play I had to mime playing an electric keyboard and sing a song in the third act. In the play, the stage direction is "He plays, and quietly sings a quirky love song."" And that's it. While there was a recording of the Broadway production on Youtube, the third act only had the last twenty minutes. As such I would never know what he sang in that. Eventually they got me a song of some kind to sing. I listened and mimed how I think the song would be played. I decided Little Charles was not a singer, so I did my best to do a bad, but sweet-sounding singing voice. These were the lyrics:

But there's something about you, there's something

Keeps pulling me to you, there's something

The good that shines through you, there's something

There's something about you

And I can't let go.

For the second weekend, it was the same as the first weekend in terms of audience size, Friday the smallest and Sunday the largest. The first performance had only twenty people. That wasn't surprising since it was St. Patrick's Day. On a Friday. By the second act, they were laughing quite a bit. At one point one person laughed so hard, we heard him say "I'm sorry." I opted not to go out to the bar after the show this week because, since it was St. Patrick's Day on a Friday, I was worried that the police would be out in full force, and since I had a long drive home, I was not going to risk getting pulled over. 

On Saturday, there were at least thirty people, and they were quite responsive. They laughed at several of the right moments. On Sunday, I heard from June that there were 53 seats sold so we had at least that many people there. This audience was the loudest of all and the one that gave the most laughs so far. This was definitely a good weekend, though on two separate days during the dinner scene we had to be on our toes. 

On the Saturday performance, there was one moment during the dinner scene in the second act when we were circling around with the dialogue; the right line was not being said no matter who tried to improvise and move things forward. Around that moment would be one of my few lines in the scene so I said it, Richard responded with his next line and that got us back on track. The following day, Randi, who played Violet and had the lion's share of the dialogue in that scene, blanked on one of her lines, but fortunately Christina jumped in with something that jogged her memory.

On the final weekend, it was the same story in audience size, Friday being the smallest and Sunday the largest. On Friday we had just under thirty people and this particular audience was quiet; they didn't even applaud at intermission! But apparently, they loved the show, as we heard afterward. Saturday's audience had under forty people, and they were a little more vocal. On closing day, we probably had our largest audience yet- over 60 people and they lapped up every minute of it. 

Since I had a lot of backstage time, I eventually started reading a book in my own corner of the room. I got through two books, and I had started a third when we closed. At one point, Nancy, who was a bit nervous during the whole run said to me "I don't know how you can just sit there and read." My response was "I've been doing this long enough." In another time, I would have been nervous, but by now, other than the usually jitters I get from opening night excitement, I didn't really get nervous about going onstage.

I was really grateful that we had no cancelled performances due to Covid. When that happened with Cabaret, the theatre company added performances to make up for it, but to the best of my knowledge, they were the only ones that did something like that. With all other companies, if Covid cancelled performances, then there was no making up for it. Since we only had nine performances, it would have been a shame to lose even one.

We were all rather sad to see the show end. It was a very good experience. We had a cast where there was no weak link; everyone was good in their role. I think the worst remark we got from someone was that it was a "dialogue heavy play." Other than that, the audiences enjoyed the show, even remarking that it did not feel like a three hour long show. My main disappointment was that other than my mother and her friend, only one person I know came to see the show. Since this was in Yountville, which was a long drive from anywhere in Sonoma County, that was a bit much to hope for. Still, it was great to hear that people loved it.

I will say, other than the lines not being word perfect, this was a good cast to work with. There wasn't a single weak link. It was also just what I needed. If I had not done this show I would have had to wait many months from Cabaret to my next show which would not begin rehearsals until May at the earliest. After two years of nothing due to Covid, I had enough of long waits. Also, now that I had a job that gave me weekends off, I no longer had to worry about taking advantage of the kindness of my boss in getting time off. I was ready to do as many shows as I could manage in a year.