Not just Farrah and Bea Arthur

Here are eight film notables who died in 2009 that had just as much right to be listed among last Sunday's Oscar Memorial as did Farrah Fawcett and Bea Arthur, but were likewise omitted.

• Dan O'Bannon (screenwriter, Alien, Dark Star)
  
• Ed McMahon
  
• Gene Barry (War of the Worlds)
• Henry Gibson (Nashville, Blues Brothers, Wedding Crashers, Charlotte's Web, etc)
  
• Patrick McGoohan (The Prisoner, Braveheart, Silver Streak)
  
• James Whitmore (Shawshank Redemption, Oscar nominee, Emmy winner) see comments
  
• Pat Hingle
  
• Harve Presnell (Fargo)

Cassette Continuity

Back in 'the day,' it was common for albums to be released on cassette with the tracks in a different order than the LP. I presume the main reason was for continuity; in the minds of the people in charge of these things, it was better for side A to be longer than side B, so listeners wouldn't have to fast-forward to the end before flipping over to side B.

Usually this would result in the first track of side B being moved to the end of side A, but occasionally song order would be altered. The most dramatic example was the 80's cassette release of the Beatles catalog, with the order completely scrambled. Purists were justifiably appalled.

In some cases, Side A and Side B are swapped. Two examples I can think of are Led Zeppelin I and Jethro Tull's This Was. Led Zep opens with "Your Time Is Gonna Come" instead of "Good Times Bad Times", and This Was opens with "Dharma For One" instead of "My Sunday Feeling".

I bring up these particular examples because the cassette releases were my first introduction to these albums, and I've grown to prefer them to the original running order. The albums make more sense to me with the sides reversed. To these ears, "Dazed And Confused" makes a more epic album closer than "How Many More Times." "Dharma For One" makes for a dynamic opening track with Clive Bunker's hyperactive drum solo, and the comparatively uptempo side B now precedes the contemplative side A. I even changed track numbers on iTunes so that they play in the cassette release order, thus:

Led Zeppelin I

1. Your Time Is Gonna Come
2. Black Mountain Side
3. Communication Breakdown
4. I Can't Quit You Babe
5. How Many More Times
6. Good Times Bad Times
7. Babe I'm Gonna Leave You
8. You Shook Me
9. Dazed And Confused

Jethro Tull - This Was

1. Dharma For One
2. It's Breaking Me Up
3. Cat's Squirrel
4. Song For Jeffrey
5. Round
6. My Sunday Feeling
7. Someday The Sun Won't Shine For You
8. Beggars' Farm
9. Move On Alone
10. Serenade to a Cuckoo

I'm sure there are more albums that have their running order uprooted for cassette release, but these stick out.

John's Time Capsule Playlist

Last time I was home I came across a wonderful relic of my undergrad years: On an early spring morning, I set up my battered boombox (remember those?) in the record storage room next to the studio, and recorded of one of my radio shows onto a pair of 90-minute TDK cassette tapes. I was a DJ on our college radio station, WMEB 91.9 FM, "Radio Free Orono." It was the spring semester of my Sophomore year, and I had what would never be described as the ideal timeslot: Saturday morning, 6-9am.

Despite having to wake up at an ungodly hour, the advantage of that timeslot was the knowledge that virtually nobody was listening (except for Paul, the zany Quebecois who had the 9am show), which freed me up enormously. Although I had to play my required selections from the rotation bin (3 from heavy rotation, 2 from medium, and one from light) plus various promos, PSA's and station ID's, I could play anything I wanted, and could crank up the studio volume as loud as I could. I brought a hotpot and Earl Gray tea, a milk crate full of records (plus dozens that I'd pulled from the racks into my own stash on a particular shelf), and had a blast. My format was free-form, a rather unwieldy clash of progressive, punk and oldies in addition to the rotation items.

I was one of those dorks with a dog-eared copy of the Rolling Stone Record Guide, so my radio days gave me the opportunity to explore bands and artists that were highly rated in the book but were never played on my Classic Rock radio station back home. This was long before iTunes made virtually any song instantly accessible. Thus it was here that I discovered The Move, The Nice, Phil Ochs, Moby Grape, The Jam, The Fugs, Family, My Bloody Valentine, and a whole lotta college rock I liked that never broke beyond a small cult following: Monsterland (the first time I played them I got a call from an ecstatic co-ed whose brother was in the band), The Loud Family, Lyda Husik, etc.

The tapes are a very cool relic of a bygone era. 1991 was the point just before Nirvana came around and made alternative and grunge explode. I can claim that this was pretty much the zenith of College Rock Radio, when Alternative was a truly under-the-radar genre instead of a marketing tool. This was when we were pissed at REM for going mainstream, when it seemed U2's best days were behind them, when the vast majority of the playlist was on vinyl 7", when the transmitter sent our feeble signal about 10 miles, before streaming internet, before podcasts, before Napster. Contrast with the show I did in grad school in the mid-00's, where I IM'ed with a listener in Reykjavik.

I'm gonna ask my friend Dave if he can digitize this show and stream it, so you can experience it all in its entirety: the scratches and skips, the low quality signal, the Velvet Underground fixation, and me as a fresh-faced 19-yr old, nasal unsupported voice, incoherent rambling and all.

If I recall correctly, my favorite Station ID, featuring Monty Pythonian Graham Chapman shortly before he died, was pulled and deleted some time before this show. I was quite upset; I loved it and played it regularly, and since it's not on the tape it's lost forever. It went something like this:

"Hello, this is Graham Chapman, and whenever I'm in Orono I listen to WMEB, 91.9-FM, Radio Free Orono. Well, sometimes when I'm in Orono. I certainly listened to it once... um, look, quite frankly I've never listened to it, but I'm told that it's awfully good, so do give it a listen if you've got a moment."

The Playlist: April 20, 1991
(FCC-mandated opening when going on the air to start the broadcast day)
The I Love You Song - Blackgirls ... (iTunes)
Flying the Flannel - fIREHOSE ... (iTunes)
I Guess I'm Falling In Love (instrumental version) - Velvet Underground
Senses Working Overtime - XTC
(Station ID - Fred Schneider of the B-52's)
Outside of a Small Circle of Friends - Phil Ochs ... (Lala)
(Promo - Jazz show)
(Me, announcing a Billy Bragg concert over at Bowdoin College, and bemoaning missing two recent opportunites to see Neil Young)
Like A Hurricane - Neil Young
(Station ID - Bruce Watson, guitarist of Big Country)
Decide - The Feelies
The Last Days of Pompei - Nova Mob (featuring Grant Hart of Hüsker Dü)
Drive That Fast - Kitchens of Distinction
Lament (live) - King Crimson
(Station ID - How To Disco)
(Me displaying my ignorance at not knowing who Grant Hart was at the time)
The Trouble With Classicists - Lou Reed & John Cale
Chase - Moe Tucker ... (iTunes)
(Station ID - Not Quite Barbershop)
Love in a Burning Universe - The Darkside ... (iTunes)
Vote Elvis - Popinjays ... (iTunes)
Big Ass On Fire - Happy Family ... (Lala)
Strawman - Lou Reed
(promo, metal show)
(me, pushing a production of Lysistrata that my classmates were in)
Fishy Swa Ska - Fishbone
Farewell to John Denver - Monty Python
My Wife and My Dead Wife - Robyn Hitchcock & the Egyptians
The Gift - Velvet Underground
The Bottom Line - Big Audio Dynamite
(promo, classical music show)
(me, reading hockey scores and mentioning the new REM album I picked up, Out Of Time)
Public Image - Public Image Ltd.
(Station ID - Michael Hedges)
Pictures of Matchstick Men - Camper Van Beethoven
Hey Grandma - The Move
(Station ID - 2001)
Writing Wrongs - The Monkees
(Station ID - Mojo Nixon)
Radio Free Europe - R.E.M.
I've Changed My Address - The Jam
Lonesome Bulldog - Butthole Surfers
Unknown artist - the tape ran out before it finished, I think I went on the air here to do a backsell but it must have happened before I flipped the tape over. Thus I have no idea who this is.
Rock N Roll (live) - Lou Reed
(PSA - Marsha Warfield on getting tested for HIV)
Revolution Come and Gone - Beat Happening
(Station ID - Michael Hedges... again)
Hammerhead - Laughing Academy
(Promo - Radio Mental Health)
(me, rambling)
Sunless Saturday - Fishbone
Starless - King Crimson
Würm (from "Starship Trooper") - Yes (My closing credits)
(Station ID - 2001, then a few extra songs until Paul arrived)
Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds - William Shatner
Hey Mersh - Moe Tucker

Brief Thoughts on the Year in DC Theatre

RIP Journeyman Theatre Ensemble and Catalyst Theatre, well before their time. JTE got a Helen Hayes nom in '06, and Catalyst took Best Ensemble for "Arturo Ui." Several factors, particularly the economy, contributed to their demises. There are likely a few similar small companies that are on life support, many of which have also done solid work in the recent past. Some other companies are resorting to safer choices, known quantities, more musicals, and jobbed-in shows. With some exceptions, innovative productions are more likely to be seen at Cap Fringe.

A few fortunate companies have managed to distinguish themselves even in this climate, most notably Constellation Theatre and Forum Theatre, graduating to the mid-to-upper echelon of the theatre scene and establishing Mr Dove and Ms Stockman as the next generation's Shalwitz and Zimmerman. Kudos also to Landless Theatre, another small company that seems to be making strides in attracting the holy 35-and-under demographic. American Century put together some solid productions this year, particularly "Seascape" which was the best thing I've seen them do.

One hopes to see Washington Stage Guild, in limbo for nearly 2 years preparing for their new home and dealing with the passing of their founder and artistic director, back in action. Similarly, Washington Shakespeare Company is preparing to move to the new space in Rosslyn next fall, although it will require a sustained fundraising effort both to move there and to stay.

Lots of theatre companies are hunkering down in the wake of the economy, focusing on their core company members. Consequently a lot of actors that could count on steady work are suddenly finding themselves rather unemployed, filling their days understudying, doing readings, producing Fringe shows, and seeing other peoples' shows. Or just me.

Best shows I saw this year: Arcadia (Folger), Crazyface (Constellation), Seascape (American Century). I'd probably include a couple Forum shows if I was actually able to see them =)

What I don't particularly like is how the Post and CityPaper, in their theatrical year-in-review articles, listed a "Worst Of" list along with their "Best Of". Really, what is gained by "Worst Of's?" Of course, I speak as a co-director of a play that was included in the Post's "Worst Of" list in '08. Considering what we went thru in getting the show together (as a last-minute replacement for another cancelled show), all the cobbling together, all the compromise, all the crap reviews, tiny audiences, sweltering conditions and the fortune we lost on it, the Worst Of listing was just another kick to the ribs, six months after the corpse had been buried. Maybe this is atypical of the other "Worst Of's", or maybe not. Still, enough already.

In Search of my Great-Great-Great Grandfather - Part Two

On a cold and sodden Saturday I ventured down to Fredericksburg in an attempt to locate the grave of my Great-Great-Great Grandfather Maj. Robert Henry Gray of the 4th Maine Volunteer Regiment, who fell at the Battle of the Wilderness on May 9 1864. Mortally wounded, he died en route to Fredericksburg and is presumed to be buried there.

Included as an appendix to my transcript of Maj. Gray's 1862 diary is a 190x letter to his son from a colleague, Frank Farnham. In this letter, Farnham gives a likely clue as to where Maj. Gray was buried, and may still now lie. I used this letter as a basis for my search.

I marched with my regiment through Fredericksburg a few days after he was shot.

This would be, presumably, about May 11.

We halted outside a city cemetery which is on the right hand side of the road leading out to Spotsylvania (The National Cemeteries are on the left of this road now).

He presumably is referring to the Town Cemetery on the corner of Washington and Williams; Williams St is the only road he can be referring to. It connects with Rte 3 which is the Old Plank Road running Westbound out of the city. If facing westbound, the City Cemetery is on your right, and the National Cemetary is further down on the left.

I looked through the large gates, set in the stone wall front of the cemetery and saw many tombs and monuments and one new-made grave.

The walls of the cemetery are red brick now. The Fredericksburg Ladies Memorial Association created the Confederate memorial cemetery in the land adjoining the City Cemetery in 1867, and presumably the brick walls surrounding the entire cemetery were built then or soon after.

The cemetery itself is quite fascinating: the Confederate cemetery is arranged in a large rectangle with two diagonal paths (subtly evoking the Stars 'n' Bars) with a memorial statue in the center.

Some of the Confeds are still interred in the City portion of the cemetery. Overall, the graves of the soldiers were in pretty poor condition, covered in moss and eroded by nature and time; some were virtually unreadable.

The large gates and the imposing sandstone archway on Williams St, which I presume are the ones he looked through, appear to be original (1844). The City gate is locked, due to the deteriorating condition of the sandstone, so all enter through the Confederate gate on Washington St.

"Hello" I said "here's a Yankee got in among the FFV's"

(An FFV is a First Family of Virginia. I only know this because I was in a production of '1776' once. )

A few days afterward, I met a member of the 4th Maine, and asked about your father. This man (whose name I never knew) told me that a few days before the regiment was ordered into a hot place, that the other officers got off their horses on account of the danger, but that your father kept his saddle and led the regmt into the fight and as pierced with several bullets that he was placed in an ambulance and died on his way back to Fredericksburg and was buried in the city cemetery as he was one of the first officers to fall in that might, much against the wishes of the rebel proprietors of the cemeteries, and that he was the only Union soldier buried there. So I told that it was your father's grave that I had seen.

He bases his conclusion that the grave he saw was Maj Gray's entirely on the word of that unnamed soldier; not particularly the most watertight case on which to go on, but worth a try.

Alas, I must report that I was unable to find Great-Great-Great-Grampa's grave. There were many possible reasons, even if that was his grave that Mr Farnham had seen.

It's highly unlikely that the Yankees who buried him had a stone marker, so perhaps there was some other identifying marker of a temporary nature (even the Confederate graves initially had wooden markers until the 1880s) which was lost or discarded by the unhappy 'rebel proprietors.' If this is the case, he's still in the City Cemetery, somewhere in view of the sandstone entryway, but unmarked.


The Frederickburg National Cemetery was created in 1867 for the fallen Union soldiers killed in the various battles nearby, Fredericksburg, Spotsylvania, Wilderness, Chancelorsville, etc. Out of the more than 15,000 soldiers there, the identities of 85% of them are unknown... this being the time before soldiers wore dogtags. The register at the National Cemetery does not list Major Gray among the known fallen. So if they did re-inter him there, they likely had no idea of his identity, and he is now one of the many, many unknowns with only a number to mark his remains. (The number on the pictured stone indicates the lot number, 67, and that there are two unknown bodies buried there.) The same appears to be true of his brothers, Madison (fell at Fredericksburg, Dec '62) and Augustus (Cedar Creek, Oct '64). No stone - with their name on it at least - marks where they lie today. That astounds and saddens me.

The site of the battle is well-kept, although suburban encroachment onto the battlefield tended to wreck any sense of the era. The tour guide occasionally pointed out significant events by saying "over there, down that street, around where that blue truck is..." I wonder if the residents know how many dozens of Union soldiers died in their backyards.

Doctor Who Geekery Report - Unreleased

Upcoming Region 1 DVD releases:
3 Nov 09: The War Games (yay!), "The Black Guardian Trilogy" (Mawdryn Undead, Terminus, Enlightenment)
5 Jan 10: The Keys of Marinus, The Twin Dilemma

Forthcoming release announced, date to be determined:
Frontier in Space
Curse of Peladon
Planet of the Daleks
Monster of Peladon
Remembrance of the Daleks (Special Edition)

The 48 remaining releasable Classic Series serials with no scheduled or announced DVD release, in order of Dynamic Rankings (as of 10/12/09).
The Rankings are utilized to suggest, though not to specifically reflect, fan demand.

Top 10

1. The Seeds of Doom
2. Terror of the Zygons
3. The Dæmons (requires new re-colorization)
4. Terror of the Autons (requires new re-colorization)
5. Kinda
6. The Ice Warriors (requires reconstruction of missing eps 2 & 3)
7. The Masque of Mandragora
8. The Tenth Planet (requires reconstruction of missing ep 4)
9. The Crusades (requires reconstruction of missing ep 2 & 4)
10. The Face of Evil

Middle 28
Frontios, Day of the Daleks, The Mind of Evil (requires colorization), Snakedance, The Ambassadors of Death (requires recolorization), Planet of the Spiders, Planet of Fire, The Sunmakers, The Moonbase (requires reconstruction of missing eps 1 & 3), Greatest Show in the Galaxy, The Awakening, Death to the Daleks, , The Reign of Terror (requires reconstruction of missing eps 4 & 5), The Android Invasion, Revenge of the Cybermen, The Ark, Nightmare of Eden, The Happiness Patrol, The Krotons, Colony In Space, Meglos, The Creature from the Pit, The Chase, The Mutants, Planet of Giants, Dragonfire, The King's Demons, The Horns of Nimon

Bottom 10
Invasion of the Dinosaurs (requires colorization of ep 1)
The Gunfighters
The Silver Nemesis
The Sensorites
The Space Museum
Paradise Towers
The Dominators
Underworld
The Time Monster
Time and the Rani

In Search of my Great-Great-Great-Grandfather

My Great^3 Grandfather Robert Henry Gray is buried somewhere in Fredericksburg, VA, and I'm on a mission to find him.

Robert was one of four brothers from the tiny town of Stockton ME (near Belfast), who fought in the Civil War. Of the four, Robert, Clarendon, Madison & Augustus, Clarendon was the only one who returned. Madison fell at the Battle of Fredericksburg (Dec 13 '62) age 18, Robert at the Battle of the Wilderness (5 May '64) age 28, Augustus at the Battle of Cedar Creek (Oct 19 '64), age 16. Clarendon saw virtually every significant battle of the Civil War, from First Bull Run to the surrender at Appomattox.

Robert's Civil War story is actually pretty spectacular. He signed up in '61 with the 4th Maine Volunteer Regiment, Company I, and was quickly made Sergeant. At First Bull Run he was wounded and captured; he escaped back to his lines with only a newspaper map for a guide, floating across the Potomac on a fencepost. He received prompt medical care, and was promoted to 2nd Lt. After Fredericksburg he replaced the slain 1st Lt, and was promoted to Major after Gettysburg. On the first day of the Battle of the Wilderness he was shot from his horse by three Rebel bullets, and died being transported back to Fredericksburg.

Many years ago my father transcribed his 1862 diary (which is kept at the Harvard library), and my uncle and namesake Bob presented the family with an annotated version a few years ago. It's a pretty interesting look into the day-to-day minutae of a soldier's life. A lot of the time he was at Camp Knox in Alexandria, and frequently was downtown, so I may have traced his footsteps over the past three years. Through most of the year he was ill with dysentery. That year marked the birth of his daughter Alice and the death of his brother Madison. While not forthcoming with deep emotional insight, one can read between the lines... typical Yankee terseness. Also, quite a lot of "when will these poor Secech's see the error of their ways" type stuff.

According to a letter written in the first decade of the 1900's by his comrade Frank Farnham to his son, Frank Boynton Gray, Major Gray was hastily buried in the Fredericksburg town cemetery (as was brother Madison 18 months earlier), the only Yankee officer buried there. An email inquiry to the Fredericksburg National Cemetery (a memorial cemetery for the fallen Yankee troops) suggests that they were not re-interred, so they're likely still there. The question is are their graves marked?

My intention this past weekend was to go to the cemetery to see; I was going to an audition in Staunton on Saturday, so I took the back roads back thru to Fredericksburg. After staying in Staunton for lunch with some colleagues, by the time I arrived in F'burg it was after 5pm and the sun was starting to descend, giving me only a good hour of exploring at best; plus I was under strict instruction from Al to find a legendary icecream stand called Carl's (every bit as good as its reputation promised). So my next available weekend (after this coming weekend's Baltimore wedding) will see me back down to F'burg for another look.

On the drive from Staunton to Fredericksburg, I did stumble across the Wilderness battlefield site, which I stopped at for about 20 minutes. My research afterwards that evening showed that I wasn't on the part of the field where he fell, so I may go back there as well.

Why am I so interested in finding and communing with my Great-Great-Great Grandfather? After all, I'm a pacifist. I think there's something about the Gray brothers' story that I find inspiring. Not the killing and dying, but I just wonder how I'd react in the circumstances they were in. Would I have the wherewithall to react like he did? Would I find such courage under fire? Do I carry some of that in me, being his descendant? Who knows.

More reports to follow after I go back and attempt another search.

RIP Traip Academy?

According to this article in the Portsmouth Herald, serious discussion is happening about the closing of my beloved high school, plucky little Traip Academy.

This is particularly troublesome to me, given that I just went to my 20th reunion this summer. Traip also underwent a major renovation in the 90's in which the original "Main" building was torn down and a new structure built to connect the two other buildings, and it seems a waste to close a building that recently had so much money poured into it.

The kids would be sent to Marshwood High School in the neighboring town of Eliot, which has the capacity to accommodate Traip's entire student body (currently numbering a fairly paltry 280).

Kittery is falling victim to the State of Maine's plan to consolidate the various school districts, as well as the downsizing of the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard whose 'navy brats' comprised a sizeable chunk of the students. Kittery's school system is overbudgeted and underpopulated, and it's a legitimate argument that the consolidation plan makes sound financial sense.

Except that many Traip teachers would likely lose their jobs, likely including some that were teaching back when I was there. That's a more pressing concern to me than any sentimental attachment I have to my old alma mater.

But still, those sentiments still matter to me. Traip's drama club shaped my artistic aesthetic, which is why prefer serious drama over musicals. Traip was where working backstage on a one-act cutting of Agnes of God as a freshman forged the direction of my life. Traip was where we learned to make do with meager resources, ancient equipment, occasionally indifferent teachers, and cramped facilities, because it taught us how to deal with adversity and how to transcend it.

Before the renovation, we had to eat lunch in the gym because we didn't have a cafeteria. We had the smallest gym in the state, we didn't have an auditorium (just a stage in the gym), we frequently had to walk outside between buildings in the dead of winter, our athletic fields were halfway across town, etc. The memories of teachers who died too young linger with me: Ms March, Ms Ryder, Mr Whitten, etc. still wander the halls in my mind.

Still, sentiment for times long past aren't enough to justify keeping the place open. Alas for Traip Academy, which soon might join the other shuttered Kittery schools that I went to: Wentworth-Dennett (grades 2 & 3) and Frisbee (grades 4-8).

I hope that if they do close it, they at least keep the building in use. Traip could be the long-delayed new community center, an adult-ed center, a performing arts center, or, hell, all three.

John's Five Our Towns

In February 2010 I'll start rehearsals for the fifth production of Our Town that I've done in my career. I won't pretend that Our Town is the greatest play ever written (or even the best play Thorton Wilder wrote), but I think it's a charming and special piece, and many of the productions marked tangible upticks in my slow & steady growth as a professional actor. I more-or-less fondly remember all of them.

OT #1 - University of Maine, Orono ME, 1991: Constable Warren

Not that happy a memory. The production was kinda by-the-numbers and uninspired. The actor playing Doc Gibbs, from NYC, found the play uninteresting and the characters boring, so he took it on himself to shamelessly mug out of a compulsion to inject some life into it. I played the Constable, and spent a hour applying very unconvincing old age makeup to accompany my unconvincing performance. Yawn.

OT #2 - The Players' Ring, Portsmouth NH, 1993: George Gibbs

The first play I did upon returning home after graduation, and the first show I did at the Players' Ring, my virtual second home for about eight years, and my first time working with its founder Gary Newton, the closest to a theatrical mentor I ever had. My first show with Theatre on the Rocks, a community/semi-pro group I'd go on to work closely with for many years, and my first time working with several cherished friends and colleages including Bruce Allen (father of Susan, who was Mrs Gibbs in OT #1), Anne Rehner, Tina Cunningham, Mike Pomp and Bill Beaman. A few of the cast are no longer with us: Fred Bresette, Frank Frisbee, and if memory serves, Barbara Randall.

My turn as George Gibbs pretty much marked the beginning and end of my career as a male ingenue. I got the role in what was pretty much the standard fashion at the Ring at the time: I was the first age-appropriate male to show up at the audition (luckily I was also the only one). No disrespect intended, but the role of Emily should've gone to the girl who walked in second.

The Ring was a nice place to do Our Town. The theatre was an intimate thrust stage with red brick walls, timber posts & beams, etc., which did much to create the turn-of-the-century atmosphere. Theatre on the Rocks was a community group at the time, and it kinda had the earmarks of a community theatre production in terms of acting, and I was hardly an exception. What I remember most was the two boys (Wally Webb and one of the Crowells) constantly busting up during rehearsals; when Rebecca and George wax philosophical over the full moon, they'd stand in the open loft over the stage area and drop trou.

OT #3 - Centennial Hall benefit, North Hampton NH, 1999: Simon Stimson

This was intended as a benefit production for the renovation of Centennial Hall into a performing arts space; it had stood virtually empty for decades. The upstairs hall had no working lights or any sprinkler system, and both deficiencies bore bitter fruit. After a tech rehearsal, Bruce Allen (playing the Stage Mgr) fell down the dark back stairs and broke three ribs. Then on the day before the first show, we were shut down by the town Fire Marshall. Some last-minute scrambling led to our moving to the nearby middle school, and our first run-thru was our opening performance. Bruce, who has endured more physical ailments than most mortals could, performed admirably, all but propped against the proscenium arch since he could barely move.

I'd heard that many of my colleagues were doing an Our Town, and I was a little pride-wounded about not being asked or approached. I got the director's number and called her - pretty uncharacteristically bold for me - the role of Simon Stimson was still open, and she cast me over the phone. The cast was a mixture of amateurs (George was the shopping-cart collector at BJ's... I can't even remember who played Emily) and semi-pros, and some of the latter behaved better than others. The director, though never to be mistaken for Elia Kazan, had to brave more than a few instances of diva fits and actors feeling obliged to direct the play for her. Meanwhile I stayed quiet, giving more than my share of piggyback rides to the young'uns.

I loved playing Simon. I played him rather dark and over-the-top, and it was a nice character stretch for me, going out of my typically squishy comfort zone.

As far as I know, the renovation of Centennial Hall is still ongoing, ten years later.

OT #4 - Peterborough Players, Peterborough NH, 2000: Man in Audience, ensemble of the dead, understudy for the Stage Manager, Mr Webb and Doc Gibbs

This was my first professional summer stock season. At the time, I was mourning the passing of Gary Newton, and had been accepted into the Actors Studio MFA Program at the New School in NYC, facing a future watching James Lipton ask Sylvester Stallone what he'd want to hear God say... I deferred enrollment a year, and eventually declined altogether, though I would move to NYC the next summer. Gary had written recommendation letters for both Peterborough and the Actors Studio shortly before passing.

This was a very special production. Thornton Wilder was staying at the McDowell Colony in Peterborough when he wrote the play, and he used P'boro as his inspiration for Grovers Corners. He also oversaw its first post-Broadway production at the Players' grand old barn. I'd taken a day-trip up to the town a few months before, and was struck by just how beautiful the town was, and still had the same character as it did when it was written and was set. I discovered one of the town's old cemeteries, which I am sure had to be the one Wilder had in his mind when he wrote Act III.

Venerable actor James Whitmore played the Stage Manager (I have to confess I didn't know who he was when I first heard his name), but I was most excited about working with Mary Beth Hurt as Mrs Webb - she was Robin Williams' wife in The World According To Garp, one of my favorite movies. Jayne Houdyshell, who has since gone on to a Tony nomination and several Broadway roles, played Mrs Gibbs.

George and Emily were played by Peterborough's principal set of ingenues, Kraig Swartz and Savanne Martin, who at the time were past 30 years old. To their credit, they were more than able to convincingly play teens (for a counterexample, see William Holden and Martha Scott in the 1940 film, who look practically middle-aged). Director Gus Kaikkonen threw in a few shout-outs to Peterborough; the hymn sang in the wedding was written by a turn-of-the-century resident. The set looked like a bare stage, but it was illusory; the designer built walls that evoked and extended the rough-hewn wood of the ancient barn onto the stage.

James Whitmore (dubbed Jimmy-B, for "Jimmy Bigtime", by the interns) had his own dressing table made up specially for him offstage, rather than in the dressing room with us. Fair enough, venerable old actor's prerogative. I've got a nice pic of all the male castmembers (save Jimmy B) on Facebook somewhere. Meanwhile, we interns were reflecting on how cool our lives were as we sat at a cast party - along with the big names in the cast, Mary Beth's husband Paul Schrader (screenwriter of "Taxi Driver," among others) was there, and we felt like rock stars.

As one of the Act III dead, a curious tendency of mine came to the fore. It also occasionally happened in OT #3 as Simon as well. Sitting perfectly still and staring straight ahead, narcolepsy would kick in and I would regularly fall asleep; every rehearsal, every performance (except the one where a spider crawled up my neck). As far as I know I never snored, and I never missed a cue. It also spilled over into my offstage world one night, as I briefly nodded off while driving. A similar situation, sitting still facing straight forward into bright approaching lights. Luckily I didn't crash.

Jimmy B would return regularly to Peterborough in following years, including a recent reprise of Our Town, before he passed away last year.

OT #5 - Everyman Theatre, Baltimore MD, 2010: Howie Newsome, Sam Craig, Man In Audience

I'm really looking forward to this production, though not necessarily the commute. This is the first time I've earned EMC points for actually being onstage in a featured role (as opposed to ensemble and/or understudy), and the pay is quite decent. The option's (narrowly) open for me to do dialect coaching - I did a research project on the Northern New England dialect in grad school, and put it to use a few yrs back in Desire Under The Elms. I'm also going to be assigned one of the young'uns in the cast to mentor. Lord help the wee lad.

So counting OT #5, I'll now have played or understudied every adult male role, except Prof. Willard and Joe Stoddard. Maybe I can check them off for OT #6, if the trend continues, on Broadway in about 5-10 years.

How Howdy Doody inspired Doctor Who: A Geekery Report

In 1954, the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Company) got the rights to create their own version of Howdy Doody, with their own characters and copies of the original puppets. The original emcee, a faux-Mountie named Timber Tom, was played James Doohan (Scotty from Star Trek), and an occasional guest host was Ranger Bob, played by one William Shatner. The Canadian Howdy Doody also featured the TV debut of Robert Goulet as Trapper Pierre.

Among the puppet characters was a "Mr. X," voiced by Claude Rae, who zipped through time and space in a machine called a "Whatsis Box," teaching children about history. Mr X's tenure on the program was short-lived when numerous parents complained that he was too scary.

The CBC's Supervisor of Drama Production at the time was one Sydney Newman, who would later move to England to head the Drama departments of ABC-TV and eventually the BBC, where he very likely had Mr X and his Whatsis Box in mind when he formulated the concept of Doctor Who.

UPDATE
from the IMDB entry on James Doohan:
"James Doohan was originally cast as Timber Tom but wanted more money than the CBC was prepared to pay and so was replaced by Mews, who couldn't appear for the first week of the show and was temporarily replaced as host by William Shatner as Ranger Bob."