Finlayson Brothers Share A Hunger For Live Theatre

By Shannon Hicks

In the theater, timing is everything. Actors need to be ready for entrances, line delivery, and exits. The crew needs to be on time with curtains, lighting, props, even costume changes.

Sometimes timing also plays a role when it comes to actors working together. For brothers Travis and Keegan Finlayson of Newtown, the timing was right for only the second occasion in their lives recently for both actors to appear in the same production. Travis, 20, is playing an officer who goes to the household of Orgon, played by Keegan, 23, in the production of Tartuffe currently approaching its final performances at The Little Theatre in Newtown.

Audiences have to wait for the final scene of Molière’s scathing comedy to see the two Finlayson brothers onstage together, but it’s a moment the brothers have enjoyed during rehearsals and now the performances.

“It’s different,” Travis said recently of working with his brother for the first time in six years.

“But it’s definitely a lot of fun,” added Keegan.

Tartuffe is the story of a man (the title character) who wheedles his way into the midst of a happy family headed by the husband and father, Orgon, and proceeds to trick them out of everything they have including the son’s inheritance and the daughter’s heart. He nearly seduces Orgon’s wife, and very nearly steals the family home and honor.

When it was written in 1664, this play got Molière in so much trouble that he had to rewrite it three times in order to come up with a version that made it clear that he was attacking hypocrisy, not the established order, and it is only this particular variation — in which the wise, good and sensible king rectifies things at the last possible moment, finished nearly five years later — that was finally deemed acceptable.

Newtown’s community theater company, Town Players, has received positive reviews for its performances since the show opened at the beginning of the month.

Rob Pawlikowski has been playing the title role for Town Players, and the production has been directed by Ruth Anne Baumgartner, who returns annually to work with a Newtown cast on a classic theater piece. Mr Pawlikowski and Ms Baumgartner were the co-directors of the first play the Finlaysons were in together, The Madwoman of Chaillot, an autumn production at Newtown High School in 1998. Travis was a freshman and Keegan a senior that year.

“I’ve only had one other director help me as much as she has,” Keegan said last weekend of Ms Baumgartner’s directorial skills. “She really helps you develop a character. It was a departure from anything else I had done at that point.”

“I find she’s very good at understanding the history of a show, and what goes into it,” agreed Travis. “She’s just amazing.”

Keegan was the first to enter the theater fray, taking a chance when he was in sixth grade.

The Finlayson family was living in Fairport, N.Y., then (Brian and Karen moved their family into Newtown in 1996, after Keegan finished his first year of high school).

He wanted to do crew work, he recalled, but was talked into auditioning for a role onstage. From there Keegan steadily landed roles in middle and high school productions, and then in community theater after he graduated from Newtown High School in 1998. He has appeared in at least two previous Town Players productions directed by Ms Baumgartner: All’s Well That Ends Well, in July 2003, and A Comedy of Errors, July 2001. He was also featured in The Revenge Tragedy, an original play written by Ms Baumgartner that she directed for Town Players in June 2000.

After high school Keegan headed to the University of Connecticut. He graduated from UConn in 2002, having earned a bachelor’s of science degree in math and a bachelor’s of art in comparative religious studies. He then pursued his master’s in education. He recently moved to Derby and is teaching math at Trumbull High School.

Meanwhile, Travis was bit by the acting bug after watching his brother for a few years.

“My first experience was seeing Keegan onstage. He had just moved up to high school and I wanted to do what he was doing,” said Travis, whose first experience was participating in Ten Little Indians when he was in seventh grade at Newtown Middle School, the first year he was living in Newtown.

Since then Travis has made his own mark in the theater, appearing in just about every high school production during his school years. He has also worked in community theater, including his own stint under Ms Baumgartner when she produced The Country Wife in June 2002.

He has additionally contributed time to Summer Theatre Connections, a nonprofit regional theatre program that has been based at Newtown High School for six years. In years past Travis has acted in Peter Pan (2001) and The Wiz (2002), and this year he is serving as a director for Cinderella.

Last summer Travis was among the group of NHS alumni to present the musical Blood Brothers to procure funds in support of the Newtown Arts Foundation, an organization established to promote the arts in the regional community. He is hoping to pull together Godspell this summer for the same purpose.

After graduating from NHS in 2001 Travis headed off to Ithaca College, where he is majoring in acting. He will be entering his senior year this fall.

“I’m trying to make a career of acting,” he said. “I would love to act professionally.

“I always try to see myself as anything else, and I always come back to acting.”

There are also two more Finlaysons who are making their own marks in the theater: Amber, who will be a senior at Newtown High School this fall, has appeared in a few of the high school musicals including the most recent, Les Miserables; and Sheena, 12, was one of two girls to play the child Cosette in the same production.

Chances are there will be more sightings of a Finlayson family member or two on a stage nearby, although it may be a few more years before the Finlayson brothers appear together again. Keegan is applying to the Peace Corps, and is hoping to be accepted for a two-year term that will start either in the fall or January.

In the meantime, they’ll always have Molière.

(Remaining performances of Tartuffe are Friday and Saturday, July 23-24, at 8 pm. Tickets are $15.

The Little Theatre is on Orchard Hill Road, off Main Street South/Route 25. Call 270-9144 for details.)