Trodding the Boards

by Paula Gail Benson

Either at year’s end or the first of the new year, my post is about the Christmas musical dinner theatre production held at my church. I’m both the writer and director for this effort--a great responsibility that is accomplished with lots of assistance from many folks, including not just the cast and company, but our great supporters who provide contributions, food, and encouragement throughout the process.

Participating in this operation makes me think I have a little insight into how Shakespeare worked. He knew something of his audience expectations (and, if we can believe Shakespeare in Love, had to deal with the commands of the sovereign). He was very familiar with his company of players, understanding their strengths and what made their performances shine. Having been an actor himself, he also could imagine the performers’ desires for new challenges. All those elements (along with limitations and innovations with staging, props, costumes, and sound effects) factored into the plays he wrote.

It’s an exhilarating, yet complicated process. Warren Bull understands, as you can see from his recent posts about “plotting songs.” (See: his initial and subsequent posts.)  From a writer’s standpoint, you get to see all aspects of your work come alive in great detail, including the characters, the settings, and the descriptions of all that takes place. You view how hand movements and facial expressions convey emotions. And, from a visual perspective, you learn about editing by seeing when something is overplayed or repeated too often.

Jinny Nantz, Asa Arnold, Jim Jarvis, Mark Wade, John Arnold, Olin Jenkins, Janie Fulmer, and the director silhouetted!
Photo by Colleen Fannin Arnold. 

When music is added to the mix, it gives the author and cast another means of exploring the themes of the play. Devotees of musicals and opera know that song can heighten and focus on a particular moment in ways monologue or dialogue are ineffective.

This year, I began planning an original work that would have taken ten or twelve actors. After canvassing the players, I learned that a number of our regular cast members could not participate due to other commitments. I had seven performers, and I knew my initial idea could not be converted for such a small group.

I began looking for adaptable short stories. I thought of O. Henry’s “The Gift of the Magi,” but it’s been done often and probably didn’t need as many as six actors.

Then, I came across an O. Henry short story called “A Cop and an Anthem.” It’s included as one of five O. Henry stories in an anthology film (O. Henry’s Full House) narrated by John Steinbeck. The story is about a homeless man, named Soapy, who tries to get arrested for three months so he has a warm place to stay for the winter. At the end of the story, while listening to a church organ, he’s ready to try a new life. However, that’s the moment he’s apprehended by the law and taken into custody.

Much of the story had to be revised and updated for a modern audience. And, I have to admit opting for a happy ending where our homeless hero, named Buddy, is embraced by the community and saved from a prison sentence. What made the tale special for our congregation is that we recently had our pipe organ restored. I found a company in the neighboring state of Georgia that created a backdrop for us featuring the image of our church and recorded our organist playing from the restored organ.

A view with our backdrop. Photo by Fran Bush.

One of our parishioners enjoyed the production so much he came to both performances! That’s a sure sign you have a hit.

As always, I’m tremendously proud of our actors, our musical director, and our sound and lighting crew. Our producer, John W. Henry, who usually commented on this post, passed away during the summer. This first show without him was bittersweet. But, he would have been proud that we raised over a thousand dollars to benefit a homeless ministry program.

I’m tremendously grateful for the opportunity I have to hear my words, lyrics, and music performed. It’s been an incredible benefit in all aspects of my writing.

Are you a theatre enthusiast? I hope so!

Our Cast with Crew Billy Itter and Dean Long and Music Director Margaret Davis.
 Photo by Heather Coats.

The Game’s Afoot. Again.

by Paula Gail Benson

Asa Arnold, John Arnold, Jinny Davis Nantz, and me waiting for the show to start!

John Arnold as Holmes

For my first WWK message of each New Year, I enjoy sharing the adventures my church’s drama group had with its holiday production. This year, our St. Paul’s Players asked if we could revisit some territory we previously explored: an adaptation of a Sherlock Holmes story.

In 2013, we did a musical version of what I believe is the only Sherlock Holmes Christmas story that Arthur Conan Doyle wrote. “The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle” is a mystery involving a lost hat and Christmas goose. Because the owner is not found, the goose is cooked for a holiday dinner and when it is carved open, a stolen precious jewel is discovered inside. The theme of the story is redemption. After discovering the thief, who admits his crime, Holmes lets him go. Holmes justifies his action by telling Watson, “I suppose that I am commuting a felony, but it is just possible that I am saving a soul. This fellow will not go wrong again; he is too terribly frightened. Send him to jail now, and you make him a jail-bird for life. Besides, it is the season of forgiveness.”

Asa and John Arnold

Jim Jarvis as Watson

During the summer, I began looking over other Holmes’ adventures, searching for one that was no longer protected by copyright and had an appropriate holiday theme. When I came across “The Adventure of the Copper Beeches,” which actually mentions the blue carbuncle, I took that as a sign I found my story.

The Copper Beeches is a stately country home inhabited by a strange family. Mr. Jethro Rucastle, while jovial, has a mean streak and a secret. His wife is stern and complicit. His son has the talent of being able to kill cockroaches with his shoe.

When Miss Violet Hunter is offered the job as governess, for an exorbitant salary, she seeks Sherlock Holmes advice: should she take the job? Holmes agrees that the requirements she cut her hair, wear a particular dress, and sit in a certain chair in the parlor sound ominous, but if she accepts employment, he agrees to investigate if she sends for him. She very quickly does.

Margaret Davis, Olin Jenkins, and Andy Fiffick in rehearsal

Our adaptation was titled Christmas with Holmes and Watson. Our incredible photographer was Colleen Fannin Arnold, who also was a member of our cast, along with her husband John, who played Holmes, and son Asa, who played Young Master Rucastle.



Brenda Byrd and Reggie Hall

For any Holmes aficionados, you know that many of the stories are more talk than action. Analyzing the crime becomes the focus, which is fine for reading while sipping tea or a hot toddy by the fireplace.

However, on the stage, too much talking can be deadly. And not in an entertaining way.

The first thing I needed to do was figure out how to open up the story. I decided to have a “Greek chorus” of sorts that I called “the Baker Street Irregulars.” While a handful of actors had single roles, such as Holmes, Watson, Violet Hunter, and Jethro Rucastle, the majority served as utility players, each taking on several parts. For music, we used traditional English carols with story appropriate lyrics.



LaTynia and Sydnie Taylor

Holmes purists probably would be skeptical about our adaptation, which evolved from the folks playing the roles. Reggie Hall, the laughing, but mysterious Mr. Rucastle, looks exactly like Santa Claus. In fact, he is a proud graduate of a professional Santa Claus School in Michigan. So, throughout our story, we made some illusions to Mr. Rucastle’s Santa-like appearance and by the conclusion, had him dressed in the American traditional red suit with his wife decked out as Mrs. Claus. To match him, Sherlock Holmes took his curtain call dressed as Father Christmas.

I’m so very grateful to our cast and crew who give their time through the fall in rehearsals and spend the first two Friday nights of December performing for a dinner theatre audience. I’m proud to say both performances were full houses. In addition, we collected almost $1,000 for our selected cast project charity, the Palmetto Health Children’s Hospital Foundation.



John Arnold and Reggie Hall

Now, my question for the New Year is, what shall we do next?

Bringing a Little Heaven to Earth

by Paula Gail Benson

Poster by Susan F. Craft

My first WWK message for the New Year is usually a recap of the holiday production I write and direct for my church’s drama ministry, the St. Paul’s Players (SPP). It’s a particularly meaningful post for me in that my initial appearance on stage was in the chorus of SPP’s The Mikado, and now I’ve come full circle by being able to create our plays and help bring them to life. It’s always both a challenge and a true joy.

This year, I received a lot of questions about where the idea for our show, Tales from the Celestial Nursery, originated. There were two sources. One was a production of One Bethlehem Night, a Broadway-style musical written by Jeff Atwood, John Lemonis, and Ed Kee. My producer, John W. Henry, and I had found it on the web and actually spoke with the authors about presenting it. After doing more research, we decided that it was more than we would be able to handle. But, I was thrilled when the drama ministries at Spring Valley Baptist Church in Columbia, S.C., decided to take it on with my good friend Scott Stepp in the lead. It’s a great retelling of the Nativity story from the viewpoint of the innkeeper. The songs are lovely, very reminiscent of music from Fiddler on the Roof. If you ever have the chance to see a performance of One Bethlehem Night, please attend or check out the clips available on the web.

I really liked the thought of telling the story from the innkeeper’s perspective. Marianne Jordan also did that in her novel A Miser, A Manger, A Miracle -- the First Christmas Carol. What Jordan does is recast the innkeeper as an earlier-in-time Scrooge. Her work also debuted as a play she wrote for her church.

Okay, so how do I bring my own viewpoint to the innkeeper’s story? Have you ever seen the 1940 Twentieth Century Fox film, The Blue Bird? It was based on a 1908 play by Maurice Maeterlinck, and came out the year after The Wizard of Oz, filmed similarly in both black and white and technicolor. It starred Shirley Temple as a young girl searching for happiness.

Shirley Temple in The Blue Bird

Part of the journey in The Blue Bird takes Shirley to the land of unborn souls. In a particularly poignant scene, two children (playing unborn souls) cling to each other because one is being sent to earth and the other will not arrive there until the first has departed.

I have never managed to get that scene out of my head. It became the second inspiration for Tales from the Celestial Nursery.

Angels, Story Tellers, and Unborn Souls (Photo by Carrie Nicholson)

What if the Unborn Souls wait in the celestial nursery until they are born on earth? Two Guardian Angels, Sophia and Serena, could watch over them and the Story Tellers, Alpha and Omega, would tell them the stories of earth . . . until they decided to become human and take part by going to earth themselves. Because the unborn souls are all babies (even though played by youth and adults), they sing in nursery rhymes, so “Old McDonald” becomes “Old King Herod,” and “Three Blind Mice” becomes “Three Wise Kings.” And, of course, there was a version of “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.”

Rap Number (Photo by Carrie Nicholson)

After listening to the Broadway musical Hamilton all summer, I couldn’t resist including a rap number. Here’s a little sample:

“Here we are in the celestial nursery.

Floating on the clouds is the place you wanna be.

Dreaming happy dreams above the distant earth,

Not sure we understand this thing called ‘birth.’

For now, just call us the unborn souls,

And don’t confuse us with thoughts of having human roles.”

Photo by John Henry

Photo by John Henry

We had a terrific cast and crew. These are some shots of us at the cast party. I’m very proud to say that we raised over $1,000 in donations for an organization called Sistercare, which helps victims of domestic abuse.

As always, those of us involved in the production benefited as much as those coming to see it. I must admit I found it especially gratifying to welcome some audience members to both performances.

Have you ever participated in a play or musical? What did you enjoy best about the experience?

Curtain Call (Photo by Carrie Nicholson)

The Fourth Wise Man’s Journey

It’s become my tradition here at Writers Who Kill (either for my first or last message of the year) to give a recap of the December production I direct at my church. I realized the latest was the 19^th program I’ve worked on for the St. Paul’s Players. In the beginning, we paid royalties for recognized musicals. We also have used a public domain script, The Living Last Supper, a “bringing to life” of the Da Vinci painting, which we perform every other year during Holy Week before Easter. In addition, we began writing our own plays and composing original music.

This year, I determined that we would base our play on “The Other Wise Man,” a short story written by Henry Van Dyke, an author and clergyman who is well known for composing the lyrics for “Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee.” We used one original song, but mostly adapted lyrics to traditional hymns or used carols and religious melodies (including “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring,” the tune Van Dyke selected for his words to “Joyful, Joyful”) as our music. It was particularly effective for this production, which we called The Fourth Wise Man, the story of Artaban, a magi seeking the king whose birth is foretold by the star.

Artaban tells his fellow scholars that he has sold all his earthly goods to buy a sapphire, ruby, and pearl to take as gifts to the king. He intends to join the magi, Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar, and invites the other scholars to go with him.

They either scoff at his folly or have excuses for why they cannot accompany him. So, he starts his journey, but is halted when he comes across a dying man in the desert. He sells his sapphire to provide care for the man and to buy supplies to help him catch up with the magi.

 

He arrives in Bethlehem after the magi and Holy Family have departed, on the day of the slaughter of the innocents by Herod’s troops. His ruby goes to spare the life of a child.

Finally, after a life of searching, he arrives in Jerusalem thirty three years later, on the day Jesus has been sentenced to crucifixion. As he heads toward Golgotha, hoping to purchase Jesus’ freedom, he is confronted by a young woman who has been seized as a slave to pay her father’s debts. Artaban gives his pearl to ransom the woman’s life.

Then, he is imprisoned beneath a column of the temple in an earthquake. As he lies dying, he mourns that his life has been meaningless. God’s voice from Heaven tells him, “What you have done for others, you have done for me.”

If you would be interested, please click on this link to read Van Dyke’s story. It has been adapted into many versions, including a one act play and an opera by M. Ryan Taylor.

When I first began writing the script for our production, I found it difficult to tell people the story without crying, it resonated that deeply with me. The production itself became a true labor of love. I asked a group of players who have participated in several of our programs to be in the cast. We all were good friends and worked well together. Because we had only seven in the cast, everyone except the actor who played Artaban had to play multiple parts. Our performers also had to accomplish all the scene changes with the help of one excellent stage manager (Pat Jarvis, the wife of Jim Jarvis who played Artaban).

Each of the actors brought unique talents to the production. At the beginning, Valerie Ward played a haunting rendition of “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” on the flute. Mark Wade, a former sports broadcaster, dressed in Laurence of Arabia style garb, served as our storyteller, helping the audience navigate the different places and time periods. Our scholars included John Arnold, Olin Jenkins, and Randy Nolff, whose camaraderie from The Living Last Supper was apparent. John, Olin, and Randy also took turns as Roman soldiers. Brenda Byrd started as Artaban’s housekeeper, then played the young woman facing slavery in a later scene. Jim Jarvis, who often has excelled in more comic roles, took on Artaban, and I can’t imagine anyone else giving a more poignant performance. I told him at our cast party that I will always see his face as Artaban when I reread the story.

We were privileged to receive a generous gift from a couple who had been in some of our productions, Matthew and Tracy Davis Davenport, which enabled us to purchase body microphones for each of our actors. It truly made a marvelous difference in the sound quality. Several people commented that they were so pleased to be able to sit anywhere in our auditorium, without having to worry that they might not be able to hear.

Dean Long served as our lighting and sound master, ably assisted by Billy Itter, our spot light operator. Melanie Shull, an extraordinary musician, accompanied our cast and provided inspiring background music. Gary West sang two solos for our dinner theatre performance. John Henry, our wonderful producer and promoter, did extra duty assisting with the lights while Dean worked our new audio system.

Midway through rehearsals, one of the actors privately confided questioning how we would manage all the emotion and special effects required by the story. In the end, our cast, crew, and audiences were well pleased with the collaborative effort that brought everything together. And, I must admit that I took great pride in what we achieved.

Have you been involved in a theatrical production? What are your favorite memories?

 

 

One More Glimpse of Scrooge

Photo by Rob Sprankle

Since 2009, I have collaborated with others to write original musicals to present at my church. We work with church and community members as actors and production staff. We strive for community theatre quality, but welcome anyone who wants to take part in the production. We’ve seen incredible things come from the experience.

Poster by John W. Henry and Susan F. Craft

My collaborators and I stretched ourselves by writing the book, lyrics, and music for each production. Twice, we based our work on a local author’s short stories. Last year, we took the historical tale handed down through generations of members about how our church received its stained glass windows during World War I, adding a bit of whimsy with a mouse accompanying the windows on their voyage across the ocean.

This year, we did our version of A Christmas Carol because one of our long time participants and supporters wanted the opportunity to play Scrooge. He did a fabulous job.

In some ways, adapting Dickens was easier than using short stories or original material. Everyone knows the story of Scrooge. The trick was to make it our own telling, and to do it with the people who came forward to be part of the production.

"A Toast to Scrooge"
Rehearsal Photo by Paula Gail Benson

We were extremely lucky to have some very talented individuals try out. One was such a gifted musician that we wrote an additional song for her. That’s a luxury and gift you have when you write your own musical.

Another element of good fortune was that we tried to simplify. The only character with many lines was Ebenezer Scrooge. The others could relax and have more fun.

We had to keep the piece moving. The audience would know what came next, so we couldn’t let it bog down. We used many different styles of music, from funny to funky to waltz to show tune to wistful lullaby. Our lyrics were simple, but heartfelt. Scrooge was a man in need who in the end found the “something more” or “something extra” about life that he was seeking.

All the old familiar lines came alive in new readings. We danced our way from one scene to another. Our cast and crew ranged in age from almost five to early seventies. We got to know and love each other and spend a holiday season together that we won’t forget.

Don’t discount all those 1930s movies with Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney getting a group together in a barn to put on a show. It’s not easy, but definitely doable and always worth it.

Have you worked with a production? I hope you’ll have a chance to experience the thrill of the greasepaint and roar of the crowd without too many “Bah humbugs!”

Publicity Photo by John W. Henry of Actor C. Joseph Roof

God bless us, everyone.