It's Opening Night

Three very successful preview performances behind us, and now we're ready to open "Memory House" at the Playhouse. Tonight's performance is already sold-out and rumor has it Judy Blume is going to be in the audience; she'll already be in Vineyard Haven, since she's doing a book-signing at the Bunch of Grapes bookstore down the street from us.

The show is playing remarkably well. The audiences have responded to both the humor and the tension between Maggie and Katia, and Kathy and Natalia's performances seem to get a little richer and fuller with each run-through. They got a standing ovation last night, which must have given them an extra jolt of confidence (or perhaps an extra butterfly or two) going into tonight's opening. As an opening-night present, I bought each of them miniature bottles of blueberry vodka, which they will hopefully save until after the final curtain.

Our set continues to get fleshed-out with more and more decoration and color. Since we are opening on what would have been the great chef/TV personality Julia Child's 97th birthday, I made sure to include two of Julia's books on the shelves for good luck; after all, this play does include actual baking, and we'd like to have Julia on our side. I also dropped in Wade Rouse's "At Least in the City Someone Would Hear Me Scream," a very funny and often tender memoir about his attempt to live out Thoreau's "Walden" in modern-day Saugatuck with his partner, Gary. Wade's cosmopolitan tastes and attitudes did not always fit comfortably alongside ice fishermen and church-social types, but the book is not a "look how stupid these country bumpkins are" jab. It's about how he re-examined his own outlook on life and tried to come to terms with his childhood in the Ozarks, which he had spent much of his adult life burying and running away from. Wade contacted me through Facebook several months ago and had very kind things to say about my writing, so of course I immediately added him as a Friend. Yes, all it takes is a few compliments and -- ding! -- you're my new Facebook Friend. Anyhow, he is collecting pictures of his book being read or displayed in unusual places and I thought, what better location than on a Vineyard Playhouse set? Hey, even if Julia doesn't smile on us, perhaps Wade will -- although I have no idea how his baking skills would measure up to Julia's.

What rocks the Capawock

On Tuesday night, I walked into downtown Vineyard Haven on my dinner break and saw a line of people stretching down an entire block. What could attract this many customers to the Capawock Theater on a pleasant Tuesday evening? They were there to see "Julie & Julia," with Meryl Streep and Amy Adams; unsurprisingly, the showing was sold out. It was the first time since the opening week of "The Hangover" that I've seen such a crowd at the Capawock. By the way, I went there Sunday to see "(500) Days of Summer," and the film was terrific. I have somehow avoided buying tickets for some of the theater's other attractions this week, such as "Aliens in the Attic" and "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra." My loss, I am sure!

A nervous night

The rehearsal period for a play is sort of like going to school: You ask a lot of questions, try to remember important information and spend time getting to know the other people around you. The "tech" period and preview nights, however, are like finals week. Everyone is a little more nervous, things you were certain you knew vanish from your memory at inopportune times, problems pop up regularly, and preparation takes much longer than you anticipated.
At the same time, I have always felt relieved if my tech period is full of trouble; if you have a smooth, trouble-free tech period, believe me, the gremlins will show up in full force once you have an audience in the house.
Wednesday night marked the first public preview of "Memory House," and it was like many first previews, with missed lines, last-minute emergencies and technical tricks that didn't go quite as perfectly as we hoped. There were tears backstage and tensions in the air. And yet, the audience completely embraced the show. They didn't know or recognize what might have been missed or what might have gone wrong: They became utterly absorbed in the relationship between Kathy and Natalia, and they didn't focus on a set that still needs tweaking, or the fact that Natalia's costume was delivered literally seconds before she had to be onstage. All they cared about was the performance itself, and Kathy and Natalia completely captivated them. The applause went on for so long that I had to send them back out for an encore, which completely surprised both of them.
The show is in good shape, and I have no doubt tonight's audience will see something even better. Previews are like first drafts, a chance to see a work-in-progress, and last night's crowd obviously enjoyed what it saw.
As for me, I spent the entire 75 minutes backstage, listening to the play and silently praying that all the necessary props were in place and ready to go. Since the play is one long scene, there's no chance to run out and make changes during a blackout: Once you're running, you're running and you can only hope the pie pan is where it belongs and the lemon made it into the shopping bag and everything somehow comes together.
Coming off the stage last night, Kathy expressed concerns that a crucial prop had been left out along the way. "We're missing the bourbon that's supposed to be backstage after we get finished!" she joked.

So many blueberries, so little time

"Memory House," which I have been working on at the Vineyard Playhouse, starts its public previews tomorrow night. Written by Kathleen Tolan, it's a drama set on New Year's Eve in the New York apartment of office worker Maggie (Kathy Baker) and her adopted teenage daughter, Katia (Natalia Payne). More than a decade ago, Maggie and her then-husband went to Russia to pluck 6-year-old Katia out of a dismal orphanage. But no good deed goes unpunished, as Maggie learns when Katia, faced with the prospect of writing a college application essay about her past, finally begins to express the anger about her confused past that's been building up over the years.

While Katia stews, Maggie bakes, whipping up a blueberry pie as a kind of domestic defense mechanism in the hopes of distracting her daughter and calming her down. The play begins with Maggie bringing in the groceries needed to make the pie and ends with the pie coming out of the oven, (hopefully) in all its splendor. If Maggie doesn't follow the necessary steps at the proper times, not only does she fall out of sync with the script, she also risks ruining the dessert.

So, for the past week and a half, the "Memory House" team has been trying to coordinate great acting with a sort of Blueberry Bake-Off. We are fortunate to have Kathy Baker as our champion. Kathy is a world-class performer -- while she is perhaps best-known as the villainous trampy housewife in "Edward Scissorhands," she's also given marvelous performances in such films as "Street Smart," "Cold Mountain," "Permanent Record" and, my personal favorite, "Clean and Sober" and she starred in the original production of Sam Shepard's "Fool for Love" -- and a delightful woman. But I'll reveal her secret: She also lives up to her name.

Although she is playing a woman who barely knows her way around a kitchen, in real life Kathy studied at the Cordon Bleu in Paris and had a career as a pastry chef. She created wedding cakes and cream puffs to pay for her theater classes, and she told me the challenge of "Memory House" has been trying to keep her natural flair for cooking from coming through in the performance. "It's as if I'm a ballerina who has to pretend I can't dance," she said.

In early rehearsals, she merely mimed the kitchen work, pantomiming rolling out the dough and mashing together the butter and Crisco for the crust. But for the past week, she has actually been baking a pie a day, which means I have consumed more blueberry pie in the past few days than I have ever eaten in my entire life up to this point. Kathy plays around with the recipe, sometimes adding a little extra sugar, sometimes putting in more lemon, sometimes letting the berries and cornstarch thicken a few more minutes; I must add every one of her variations has been delicious. I don't know what will happen to her pies when we get a paying audience in the house, but for now, director Claudia Weill, stage manager Kate Hancock, Natalia and I are greatly enjoying the fruits of her labors.

I'm the assistant stage manager on the show, which means I am something of a troubleshooter. If Kathy or Natalia need prompting with a line, I'm there following along in the script to give them the right words. I make the emergency lemon runs to Tony's Market or Stop and Shop. And Kate and I get to set up (and clean up) Maggie and Katia's apartment every night, which is almost as challenging as making a perfect pie. While "Memory House" is only one scene -- the two characters never leave the stage and don't change their costumes -- it involves dozens of props, ranging from teddy bears to broken video cassettes to rolling pins, butter cutters, computer printers and more. Things are messy as the play begins and a bit messier when it ends, 70 minutes later.

In addition to having a new appreciation for blueberry pie, I have a new appreciation for the magic of the dishwasher, since the Playhouse does not have one and I must do all the dishes by hand in the sink. Do you know exactly how many bowls, pans and utensils are required to make a pie? So many that I have established a close and intimate relationship with the cucumber/aloe lotion we keep on the set. Blueberry pie may tickle the tummy, but cucumber and aloe soothe the skin, which is just as important.

Be careful what you wish

Throughout the month of June, I had a wide-open schedule with very little to do. Every day began with the question, "What do I feel like doing today?" And for a while, that was great. But then I started to realize you can only go sight-seeing so many times or visit so many beaches before you start looking for something a little more, well, profitable, to be honest.
I was not making much money and I had lots of spare time, so I started looking for a part-time job. And nobody -- absolutely nobody -- was hiring. I scoured the ads, walked up and down the streets of Oak Bluffs and Vineyard Haven, kept an eye on employment websites and still came up completely empty-handed.
This is no longer my problem.
I am now in rehearsals for one show during the day and helping out on another show every night. Every morning and afternoon, I serve as assistant stage manager for the next Vineyard Playhouse production "Memory House" and then I hurry over to do behind-the-scenes work on "Walking the Volcano," which is now in its final week. I get breaks for meals, but that's about it. So please forgive me if I do not post as often as usual between now and next Wednesday. It is not because I am lazy, I assure you! I will, however, try to update as often as possible -- hopefully, while still getting at least a few hours of sleep.

Possible Dreams become profitable realities

"I like those five figures!" Possible Dreams co-auctioneer Rick Lee growled as the bidding on a day of painting with Allen Whiting topped $10,000 at the annual event. That particular Dream wound up going for $11,000, making it one of the top events at Monday night's auction.
The 31st annual Possible Dreams Auction drew hundreds of attendees, some of whom were active bidders and many of whom paid their $25 admission fee just to watch the action and look for celebrities beneath the spacious white tents set up in Oak Bluffs' Ocean Park.
While lawyer Alan Dershowitz and director Harold Ramis took turns at the podium to help pitch some of the Dreams, the crowd seemed most intrigued by a star who wasn't there: Carly Simon literally phoned in her appearance. The singer-writer called auctioneer Susan Klein to apologize for not being there in person -- she blamed too much wine and chocolate on Sunday evening -- and to sing a few bars of her Vineyard-inspired ballad "Never Been Gone" via speakerphone. A musical sailing trip with Simon, Singer-songwriter Benjamin Taylor and boat designer Nat Benjamin brought in $10,000.
Here's a sampling of the final prices on some of the other Dreams: a visit to the set of "Monk," including lunch with star Tony Shalhoub -- $4000; a job as an extra in director Peter Farrelly's soon-to-be-shot new comedy with Hugh Jackman and Kate Winslet -- $10,500; a Provencal Culinary Adventure with Espresso Love chef Carol McManus -- $16,000; a visit to the school or library of your choice by "Arthur" creator Marc Brown -- $10,000; a private screening of director Doug Liman's "Fair Game," starring Sean Penn and Naomi Watts -- $5000; a consultation with designer Kenneth Cole -- $3500; dinner and cocktails for 30 people aboard Nancy and Chuck Parrish's yacht Freedom -- $13,000.
Proceeds from the event, which was dedicated to the late newsman and Vineyard resident Walter Cronkite, brought in approximately $260,000 for Martha's Vineyard Community Services.
The nearly three-hour-long auction featured guest appearances by Clifford the Big Red Dog (a picnic with Clifford and creator Norman Bridwell sold for $6000) and Pulitzer Prize-winning authors Tony Horwitz and Geraldine Brooks (dinner with the couple at Sweet Life Cafe went for $7000). The tone was generally lighthearted, with some good-natured warnings being issued to audience members. "If you're not waving to somebody, ma'am, you're in trouble," Klein told one woman in the midst of a sale.
Pushing a Dream that involved dinner with author Robin Cook and an autographed first-edition of his soon-to-be-released thriller "Intervention," Ramis poked fun at Cook's fondness for one-word titles by referring to the novel on separate occasions as "Migraine" and "Hernia." (It took $3500 to buy Cook's book, by the way.)
Even so, there was a brief moment of tension when Lee sold a kite surfing lesson with Black Dog CEO Rob Douglas for $1000, even though a patron had signalled his willingness to pay $1500 for the Dream; Lee hadn't seen the man's hand go up and closed the auction, prompting a few unhappy murmurs from the crowd. "Forgive me," Lee said. "It gets crazy up here."
That wasn't a joke. A few Dreams provoked miniature bidding wars, particularly the last Dream on the block: an oil painting created by Meg Mercier as the auction was unfolding. A flurry of early bidding gave way to an intense contest between two very competitive parties. In the end, Mercier's artwork brought in $4200, a tidy sum for a few hours' work.

Back to the beach

A piece of good advice: Anytime you are on Martha's Vineyard, have a bathing suit and a towel close at hand because you never know when you will be headed to a beach. The island has many of them, of course, and there's no telling when you may be called to visit one. For example, you could head off to work a matinee show on a brilliant Saturday afternoon, only to find the matinee has been canceled and you now have a few hours unexpectedly free -- with an invitation to go to the beach.
That was my situation Saturday. I had spent the morning doing the usual handouts of This Week to ferry passengers in Oak Bluffs, a duty I often complain about but one which sometimes offers some amusement. On this particular morning, I was wondering if Martha's Vineyard is some sort of Elephants' Graveyard for troubled marriages since I kept bumping into couples that were clearly headed for the rocks. There was the prickly pair who were obviously looking for an excuse to argue as they walked along Circuit Avenue.
She: What are you looking at?
He: Don't you want lunch?
She: Why are you stopping?
He: I was looking at the menu.
She: At what?
He (pointing to a menu displayed in a restaurant window): The menu. They've got a menu! I was trying to read it. God -- anything?!
She: What's that supposed to mean?!
It was like "Revolutionary Road" with sunblock.
Then there was the French family getting ready to board the ferry. They had a deluxe bike towing one of those little tents-on-wheels for their toddler. But Daddy had the bright idea of loading a couple of heavy backpacks on top of the little tent, which caused it to topple over on its side, prompting a tantrum from Maman (thankfully, the baby was not in the tent at the time). To make matters worse, the accident happened in plain view of at least a dozen other would-be passengers and Maman was so busy scolding Dad that she stepped away from her son, who, perhaps to distance himself from the shouting, started to walk into the crosswalk.
"Regarde le bebe!" Daddy shouted in alarm, as a pedestrian reached down to stop the baby from fleeing the scene. Maman, who had been busy screaming choice insults such as "cochon!" (pig!) at Daddy, whipped around and grabbed the kid. Then it was Daddy's turn to do the name-calling. I would be happy to translate the rest of the confrontation, but unfortunately they started bickering so quickly I couldn't keep up; suffice to say, the ferry trip was not going to be smooth sailing.
Anyhow, a few hours later I was back at Oak Bluffs for a few pleasant hours on the sand and in the water, which is now warm enough for comfortable swimming. Heather, one of the four "Volcano" stars, wanted to get some sun before the evening performance and we had a very pleasant break on the beach.
Well, mostly pleasant. Every so often, we noticed this awful smell on the breeze, sort of like rotting garbage. It didn't seem to linger for long, so we didn't pay too much attention to it, but it popped up often enough to make us wonder what it was. Unfortunately, we found out. As we were gathering up our towels and beach bags to head back to the theater, we realized we had stationed ourselves within a few feet of a seagull that had apparently perished on the sand and was slowly decomposing atop a pile of sea rocks; the bird's dried-out corpse blended in so perfectly with the stones we hadn't noticed it at all.
Another piece of good advice: If you make a spur-of-the-moment trip to the beach, look twice before you set down your towel.