The Show Does Go On:

Town Players Celebrate 75 Years Of Work And Play

By Nancy K. Crevier

It may be “little” in name, but the Town Players’ Little Theatre on Orchard Hill Road in Newtown is “big” on its hopes for the future and plans for celebrating the 75th anniversary this year of the community theater. A current of positive energy ran through Town Players’ board members Marge Rogers, Ethyle Power, Ruth Anne Baumgartner, Mary Poile and Chris Bird on Thursday, March 11, as they met to discuss the past and future of the Little Theatre.

“The trend right now is up,” said Mr Bird, who is in charge of maintenance and backstage of the theater, and who has acted in many Little Theatre productions over the last decade. “We had a good season last year and have some active new members on the board, which is great,” he added. Expanding the reach of the board is good for the health of the theater, Mr Bird noted. “It’s a big year for us, and the biggest thing is keeping the awareness up in the community,” he said.

Ms Poile, a 20-year member who is the vice president and recording secretary, and who has directed plays, agreed with Mr Bird.

“I would like for every person in town to know about The Little Theatre,” she said. “It is Newtown’s ‘best kept little secret’ and we’re trying to make it not so secret,” she said.

The Little Theatre draws actors and directors from around the region, some professional, others amateurs, and provides entertainment to appeal to a broad audience, from May through December.

The diamond anniversary celebratory year will begin with a one-night 1930s style cabaret in the Alexandria Room of Edmond Town Hall on Saturday, April 24.

“The very first Town Players performances took place there,” said Ms Rogers, “and then later in the bigger theater downstairs.” The $30 ticket will include dessert and coffee, as well as entertainment by the jazz band The Bob Lasprogato Trio, comic sketches from the 1930s, a performance of scenes from Noel Coward’s Brief Encounters, and a singalong.  Doors will open at 6:30, with the public encouraged to bring dinners to enjoy before the show starts at 7:30 pm.

“I think it will be a lot of fun, and we’re trying to make it reminiscent of the ’30s when the theater started,” Ms Baumgartner said.

Webster Bank, also celebrating 75 years in business, is the sponsor of the Town Players’ diamond anniversary cabaret.

The theater started out as a series of Newtown Congregational Church skits and one-act plays under the direction of the Reverend Paul Cullens in 1935 to raise money for a youth conference, Ms Rogers said. “Then they had enough fun that they decided to form a theater.”

A barn on Orchard Hill Road served as a place to store props, settings and costumes, with all of the gear lugged back and forth to Edmond Town Hall for each of the performances in the early years.

In 1951, the group used its profits from ticket sales and private donations to purchase land on Orchard Hill Road, “for a very small fee,” Ms Rogers said, and began planning the construction of The Little Theatre.

The original theater was a simple, cinder block building, Ms Baumgartner said, with a stage built by Newtown Town Players’ member Christian Sideneus. Padded benches made by Mr Sideneus and his wife provided seating for its patrons for many years. The facility on Orchard Hill opened in 1955 with the production of Mr Roberts.

“The actors dressed outside under an awning, rain or shine,” said Ms Baumgartner, and tickets were sold from a window that also provided access to the stage for the actors.

The theater group was more of a social group early on, said Ms Rogers, with mothers bringing children as they worked on sets and rehearsed, and a larger pool of volunteers to handle the numerous jobs a production requires. Also an actress on and off through the years, Ms Rogers now serves as the Players’ treasurer and house manager, as well.

“Twenty years ago, even,” said Ms Poile, “ a lot more people were able to volunteer time. Our biggest challenge now is keeping the building running. It’s difficult when people involved in the running of the theater have to move on.”

Devoted Volunteers

The theater has been fortunate to have enlisted the skills of a number of devoted volunteers, said Ms Baumgartner, a director and former president. “Any list we could come up with would be partial,” she said, but noted that Mariann Huebenthal, Kit Briner, Geri Gould, Joanne Rochman, and Suzanne and Larry Kinnear were all intensely involved over the years. Christian Sidenius was responsible not only for the original seating, but did the original lighting for The Little Theatre, Ms Baumgartner said.

“Evelyne Thomas was very important in Town Players, for some years,” added Ms Baumgartner.

“She was initially involved in acting roles and as the years progressed she took active roles on the board of directors and directed and produced plays until 2006,” remembered Ms Thomas’ son, Lyndon, a Newtown resident. “For many years, through 2006, she would direct the opening play of the season and insisted that it be a comedy, such as Noises Off or Move Over Mrs Markham.  She would collect props and costumes for her productions and use the props in many different plays,” said Mr Thomas. His mother utilized her personal telephone number for reservations at the plays, too, he said, and also worked as the box office employee at those plays.

Longtime Little Theatre member Gail Paynter, active from the 1960s through the 1990s, also recalled that Ms Thomas’ involvement included directing, as well as acting, in Little Theatre productions.

“She acted in several British farces that I directed,” said Ms Paynter, who also remembered Fred Cordial as a founding member, and Marni and Harry Wood as involved members for many years. “Harry built fabulous sets for me, and Marni was in the first show I did at the Little Theatre, Suds In Your Eye. It took place in a junkyard. The set was filled with old bathtubs, and we constructed a wall made of beer cans,” she laughed.

The Little Theatre was a family affair for the Paynter family. It was Ms Paynter’s late husband, David, who helped build the 1970s addition to the theater, and her son, Dan, built sets for Ms Thomas and acted in many plays.

“It was lots of fun. Newtown was small and it was kind of an intimate group,” she said.

“People are busy,” said Mr Bird. “It’s the nature of where we are in society and it’s hard to find people who can take time to help make a show come together,” he pointed out.

Nonetheless, a very dedicated group of Town Players continues to work together to present a series of plays, drawing on the talents of knowledgeable volunteers for set design and installation, lighting, and sound.

A Boon And A Burden

In 1965, a two-story addition to the building provided much-needed storage space, a dressing room, and a green room for actors. It also deepened the stage space.

Much to the delight of performers and audience alike, said Ms Rogers, was the 1977 addition of indoor restrooms. A foyer added on at that time has allowed the Town Players and other organizations to host small pre-theater parties there. In the late 1990s, bench seating was replaced with upholstered seats, a donation from the Wooster School by way of TheaterWorks New Milford. The newer seats provide comfortable seating for 73 audience members, and one remaining removable bench at the very front of the house provides additional seating and access to the lumber and equipment stored beneath the stage.

While lingering in the small foyer with a glass of wine or hors d’oeuvre at an opening event, playgoers can browse postings on the bulletin board — once the original ticket window. Local clubs, churches, and organizations support the theater by buying out the house for an evening at a discounted price, said Ms Baumgartner, then reselling the tickets to raise money. Not only does it benefit the organization, but the theater as well.

“When done early on in the production, it provides us with word of mouth advertising for the remaining nights of the performance,” she said.

Technology has been both a boon and a burden to community theater, said the five board members. On one hand, new lighting and the computerization of sound has meant an improved experience for performers and audience.

“But a lot of current plays are written for a professional stage. It’s hard for a community theater of this scale to keep up with that. We don’t have the space or the budget or the people to handle them,” said Ms Baumgartner. Special effects using high-end technology keep good plays out of the realm of possibility for a small theater.

Looking Back, Planning Ahead

Good plays have been the hallmark of the small theater for 75 years, though, and will continue to be, said the board members. Reprisals of favorite plays, such as this year’s opening production Move Over Mrs Markham and the 2010 final production A Child’s Christmas in Wales, join the lineup of over 100 plays performed on stage on Orchard Hill Road that include Barefoot in the Park, A Thurber Carnival, Pygmalion, Alice in Wonderland and The Devil and Daniel Webster. It was only during the war years of 1944 and 1945 that Town Players did not produce a series of plays.

Mr Bird fondly remembered An Ideal Husband as his favorite play.

“I’d been away from theater for years, and it felt great to get back,” he said of the play that marked his return to acting. For Ms Baumgartner, The Night of the Burning Pestle and The Weir stand out for her. The Weir played in the fall of 2001, and despite the tragedy of 9/11, she said, they continued to fill the house.

“It’s a play about how people depend on each other. It’s an intimate play and the audience responded very well to it. People said it was what they needed,” she said.

Fuddy Meers was “an absolutely zany play” that remains a favorite for Ms Poile, as does The Universal Language, a series of one-act plays that required actors to learn a “new’ language. Ms Rogers recalled two plays by Roxbury playwright A.R. Gurney, The Dining Room and Love Letters, as those among her top picks.

Nor could any forget Bartholomew Fair, which boasts the largest cast ever to date at The Little Theatre.

“There were 23 adults, seven children, and eight puppets,” said Ms Baumgartner, “with a puppet show within the show, and elaborate 16th Century costuming. That was in 1997.”

Other productions for the 2010 season will be the Oscar Wilde play The Importance of Being Earnest; Murderers, a dark comedy; and Whodunit.

“There’s balance in having an interesting season for the actors and things people want to see when planning,” said Mr Bird about the selections for the upcoming season.

Board members hope to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Town Players with a special cast party this fall for as many of the people who have been involved with The Little Theatre over the years as possible. Anyone who has been connected with the Players is asked to leave a message at 203-270-9144, or e-mail townplayers@yahoo.com.

Theatergoers can also take advantage of special 75th anniversary ticket packages. The first is a membership package for $25 that includes a ticket to any one show and a $5 discount on other shows during the 2010 season. The second ticket special is a $75 flex pass for a group of five tickets that can be used in any combination for any of the shows.

“The theater fluctuates,” said Ethyle Power, “but we always survive.”

The Little Theater is located on the Orchard Hill Road branch of Huntingtown Road, off of Route 25, 2.5 miles south of the flagpole. Parking is available in a small lot below the theater, and also around the corner.

For information on membership, tickets and special programs, call the theater box office at 203-270-9144 or visit danbury.org/TownPlayers.