Pam Hawley
Retriever Editorial Staff
The sky exploded into a shower of light and colors on that warm summer
evening in the little town of Catonsville. All over the neighborhood, people
sighed in appreciation of the brilliant display that lit up the dusk in
celebration of the Fourth of July.
But Dan Garrett wasn't sighing. In fact he was inwardly swearing.
The 24-year-old actor, playing. Falstaff in the 'Shakespeare on Wheels
production of The Merry Wives of Windsor, had just taken the stage to give
one of his most powerful monologues, when across the street the sky burst
into life with the grand finale of annual fireworks display.
Things had been nerve-racking enough wlthout this little setback - this
was the opening weekend for Merry Wives, and the show was being put on
at the cast's home base, UMBC. "The fireworks were intimidating. I
knew the audience could see me watching them," Dan recalls. He went
on bravely, and actually reached the line where Falstaff says "beaten
in to all the colors of the rainbow" when suddenly he was hit with
inspiration. With an exaggerated skyward glance that let the audience know
the show would go on come hell, high water or alternative forms of outdoor
entertainment, Garrett's Falstaff told the audience how he would be "beaten
into all the colors of the fireworks." And suddenly, the sparks in
the sky were a distraction no more but just another part of the magic that
is Shakespeare on Wheels. Garrett's experience may sound like enough to
tie the tongues of actors and actresses whose performances have heen limited
to indoor stages and typical audience/cast relationships. But to those
UMBC thespians, who have spent their summer days on the road and their
summer nights on an outdoor stage as Shakespeare on Wheels rolled the Merry
Wives throughout Maryland and into surrounding states, it's all in
a day's work.
Since the first weekend in July, the company has rollicked through the
area, bringing the laughter and merriment of one of The Bard's most hilarious
comedies to crowds gathered in fields and on hillsides. They have traveled
by day in vans full of sleepy actors; with a stage crew partially composed
of high school students traveling several hours ahead to prepare the set.
They have performed five or six nights in row, sleeping in strange hotels
amd often wondering what day of the week it was. In between it all, they
have attended classes and auditioned for upcoming productions/ A few brave
souls have even held down other jobs. Most importantly, they've had the
summer of their lives.
"James Brown-Orleans (a veteran Shakespeare on Wheels actor and this
year's Frank Ford) said to me at a low point . . . 'Shakespeare on Wheels
will take you to your highest emotional peaks and your lowest emotional
valleys.' He was very right." says first-time cast member T.C. McGowan,
who plays Pistol.
Other cast members' seem to agree with James and T.C. The lengthy run of
the preformance, the rigid production schedule, and the element of chance
Shakespeare on Wheels operates under gives these UMBC students a chance
to test themselves as performers like no other acting experience ever could.
One of the hardest struggles the actors hace is keeping their performances
fresh. "There are some nights and I'll think 'I don't even know what
I'm saying,'" says Sharol Buck, who plays Mistress Ford. Like McGowan,
Buck is a first-time cast member who has found Merry Wives both
exhilarating and exhausting.
Sometimes "we'd be completely dead the whole drive [to the show site],
snoozing against the window," Sharol continues. But during the preshow,
the actors are supposed to "play" with the audience by dancing
through the picnic spreads and blankets, clapping to music and good-naturedly
teasing viewers. "It really wakes you up," grins Buck.
And its certainly not a rude awakening when one considers how many people
the Shakespeare on Wheels performance touches.
"There are towns we go where Shakespeare on Wheels is their summer,"
says McGowan. In these small, ruraL areas in Maryland, people wait all
year for the UMBC production to roll into their locality. "In one
town it rained, and the
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audience stayed and huddled in their blankets. They waited out the
storm with us so that they could see the show"
These people are what inspire the cast to keep the characters alive thirty
or so performances into the Summer. "One guy took a picture and had
it blown up with his own money, and mailed it to me," recalls Garrett.
The note on the back read 'this is for Mr. Falstaff.'"
Everyone in the audience can work this magic on the young performers but
children seem to have the most effect. "I don't remember the site,
or even which day of the week it was," remembers McGowan, "but
this little boy came up with his mother... he only came up to my knee.
He had these really big eyes, and he said 'I really liked you, Mr. Pistol.'
I started to cry right there. And then his mom said she plans to bring
him back every year."
"The minute Shakespeare on Wheels stops engaging little kids, we know
we're in trouble," echoes Buck
Every actor goes into a performance knowing the importance of "connecting"
with the audience, but Shakespeare on Wheels has also shown the cast how
essential their relationship with one another is, as well.
"If everyone isn't clicking, it's just not right," explains Buck.
"I heard that before, and I thought, yeah, right ...you're on crack...
but it's true."
Merry Wives is the perfect production to drill this into the heads
of the cast. The bedroom farce gives everyone a moment in the limelight
--with no one character outshining the others for any length of time --
but the entire cast has to stay in sync to, make the comedy work. This
became paintully clear for the troupe when their rhythm was broken.
"We have a cast of twenty people, and these two were not getting along,"
says Brown-Orleans. "They have no scenes together, but it effects
the whole production. They had this disagreement for a couple of days.
Then one day, they came together and talked things out." Brown-Orleans
goes on to explain that "there's a spirit in the theatre," and
"when these two cast members came together and made amends, the spirit
just came together... it was no longer a spirit with a broken heart. It
was truly magic," he concludes.
The constant togetherness the cast endures is a mixed blessing when it
comes to keeping that spirit intact. The lack of privacy creates tension
at times, but it also enables the cast to see one another at their best
and worst moments.
"It's kind of scary. Sometimes, you just want to go off by yourself
and not let anyone see a certain side of you. You can't do that,"
explains McGowan. "We've shared something no one else has seen."
But in the end, this almost stifling lifestyle makes for better chemistry
between the actors.
"It's much easier for me to go out on stage and do an arguing scene
with Dan, now that I've seen an arguing side of him," McGowan continues.
"He doesn't like to be touched, and so I'll push him. He knows I get
intimidated when he gets up in my face, so he'll do that."
Their constant unity may be constraining as they travel from site to site
in the production's state vans, but when the show begins each night they
are engulfed in the great outdoors, with only a vast evening sky and an
eager audience pulling them together. This open atmosphere' adds an element
of chance to the show that cannot be matched by conventional theatre. What
other show allows actors to sweat profusely in their Elizabethan costumes
one night, and be so chilly the next that they dash through the audience,
stealing blankets from the spectators? What other show allows an intoxicated
audience member to leap into the middle of the performance, yelling "I
am Shayam!?" And what other show allows a little girl to tug an actress'
skirts and tell her what her "husband" is doing?
All of the cast members agree that Shakespeare on Wheels is the learning
experience of their lives - and that it has taught them to view acting
as a way to serve the viewers instead of as an ego-building experience.
James Brown-Orleans sums it up best when he says: "If ever I was blessed
enough to make it big in this business, and I discovered I was becoming
lazy because I was where I wanted to be, I would want to go back to Shakespeare
on Wheels. It grounds you."
But even as it grounds the cast members, it sends their imaginations soaring.
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