Here's an update on musical theater goings-on in Sacramento. It's been a busy couple of months.
The folks at Davis Musical Theater Company (DMTC) closed "The Secret Garden" on Sunday, Sept. 29. I was the Stage Manager for the show, the first time I've ever done such a thing. Stage Manager is much different than being an actor. An actor is trying to make just as big an impression as they can on the audience, but the Stage Manager instead tries to become utterly invisible. Only when you've reached the absolute nadir of obscurity, when no one knows you are there, and when the show clicks along like a well-oiled machine, have you succeeded at being Stage Manager. In general, it's hard stage-managing at the Varsity Theater in Davis, because the wings are so shallow, and furniture and set pieces must be moved immediately if they are no longer of use. "The Secret Garden" was a relatively easy show to manage - a good starter show - but still, I was totally paranoid every second that the thing would spin apart.
In other news, the 20th annual Elly Awards were held at the Crest Theater in Sacramento, also on Sunday evening, Sept. 29. It's always a fun get-together, seeing all the other theater folks in one place - usually they are so busy, they often lose contact with one another. As always, the nominations were inscrutable game of roulette - excellent shows like DMTC's "Sweeney Todd" were largely overlooked, whereas other shows, maybe less-deserving, won favor. For some reason, two of the local area's three different versions of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" this season were nominated (one done by DMTC, the other by Natomas Charter School). I don't know why "Joseph..." won such favor, except that it is youthful energetic fun, and just about everybody likes it (even if Andrew Lloyd Webber's music is often derivative and pitched at the lowest common denominator).
This year, as last year, Solano Community College near Fairfield swept the awards with "Jekyll and Hyde". As one knowledgeable observer said: "It's hard for local community theater groups to compete against an institution with a budget ten times as large, where Equity (i.e., professional) actors can take big roles, where the San Francisco Symphony is sometimes utilized to play taped music, and where numerous skilled students are assigned to build sets" (do I hear sour grapes?). One of DMTC's young performers (Jocelyn Price) won for young performer's theater best supporting actor (child, female) for 'Anne of Green Gables', and Lori Jones from DMTC won best choreographer for "Joseph...", which was great, but I wish the DMTC trophy total had been greater. Towards the end of the evening, those of us still remaining in town from the cast of "Joseph..." (which closed 5 months ago) danced the 'Go, Go, Go, Joseph!' dance number on the Crest Theater's big, dark stage.
As we waited to go on-stage for 'Go, Go, Go, Joseph!', the head of Woodland Opera House (WOH) came up to me and started conversing in a somewhat arch and skeptical way. "So, it's an interesting time to be on the Board of DMTC! (I'm now treasurer) You'll have to raise a lot of money to build your new theater, and Davis has been sucked dry!" (the $61 million Mondavi Theater just opened at UC Davis, and he was referring to the ensuing poverty of the local deep-pocketed contributors). I assured him we had the services of a good volunteer fundraiser, and we were drawing from a different pool of people (besides, our new theater wouldn't be nearly so costly - maybe $1 million at most). The WOH director then stated that after all this time, DMTC deserved a new theater, but I'm sure he's worried about whether DMTC will gain an edge and pull away his audience too. Life in the theater trenches - opportunity in crisis and crisis in opportunity!
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