Behind the scenes

There is much to be said for being in the right place at the right time. On Monday afternoon, I dropped by a rehearsal of "Shrew," the production of Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew" that is being staged at Tisbury Amphitheater, a marvelous natural stage nestled in the middle of the woods just beyond Vineyard Haven. I was there to take some pictures and set up interviews for a story I'm doing for next week.

Midway through my visit, MJ Bruder Munafo, the Vineyard Playhouse producer and artistic director dropped by and came over to sit with me. We'd run into each other several times during my ushering stints. She was curious if I would be willing to help out as a dresser for the new show she's about to open, "Walking the Volcano": It's a series of eight short plays focusing on the lives of various people who grew up in the 1960s and how they adjusted (or failed to adjust) to the changes in the next four decades. The various characters are played by four actors -- two men, two women -- and they have to completely transform themselves from one scene to the next, which requires quick changes of clothing, wigs, shoes, etc. The dresser is essential to pulling off these overhauls. You have to know exactly what your actor needs next and how to make the change as smoothly and efficiently as possible, so the job involves keeping a watchful eye on the wardrobe and making sure everything is in place and easily accessible when it's needed.

I decided to take the job. It's a challenge, certainly, but an enjoyable one. After running through a few changes on Monday night with Christian, the actor I'm working with in Act One, I went through the entire show a couple of times on Tuesday, assisting both Christian and Bob, who takes over in Act Two. The brief running times of the plays (most of them are about 10 minutes) does not allow for much fooling around and you have to prepare as much as possible in advance, but the day went surprisingly well, I thought. (Christian and Bob told me they were happy as well, which is even more important.)

If you don't work in theater, you would be surprised to find out how much a play develops in the final days before the opening. Even yesterday, one day before we start public previews, costumes and makeups were still being modified (a jacket that's too small was thrown out, easily attached sideburns for one of Christian's characters were brought in, etc.). Sometimes the tweaking continues even after the show has opened: When I was in "Class Reunion," a largely improvised comedy-drama at the Kalamazoo Civic five years ago, the decision was made one night to completely "rewrite" the end of my character's subplot -- and this was halfway through the run of the show! It was a smart choice because the revised finale seemed to play better for audiences, but to be told at the start of the show one night that you need to completely revamp something you've been doing for more than a month? And you're going to be trying it out in front of a sold-out house? Yes, there was a certain amount of nail-biting suspense, you might say.

So I have plenty of sympathy for Christian and Bob as they deal with costume touch-ups while getting ready for their first public preview this evening. Anyone who's done many plays will tell you that the dreaded "tech week," the time just before the show opens, is almost always the most trying time. It's been my experience that if tech week is a breeze, all those invisible, malicious theater gremlins materialize during the run to ruin your sound, play tricks with your lighting, cause you to forget your lines and make crucial props and costumes vanish at the last minute, so I'm always happy if tech week is tough. If it's not, I tend to brace myself for the crises to come!