The Little Theatre That Could
Fall River's Little Theatre has endured amid a leaky roof, almost no room to move, costume challenges and law enforcement's questioning of a four-legged cast member.
01:00 AM EDT on Thursday, October 21, 2004
FALL RIVER -- The show has gone on for 70 years
Time was when a Little Theatre of Fall River actor making an exit stage right would find himself above Walnut Street -- on a fire escape. That was in 1935 when The Little Theatre of Fall River was producing is shows at the city's Women's Club Hall at Rock and Walnut streets.
The Little Theatre has come a long way since those early days. This year, the company celebrates its 70th season. It is one of the oldest continuous community theaters in New England.
Unlike today, when full-length plays and musicals are the main fare, in those Women's Club debut days, two one-act plays, Rosalind and The Valiant, were the norm. And the audience was by invitation only.
The stage was incredibly cramped, recalled Leo Strickman, a Little Theatre member since 1945, Speaking by phone, he recalled: "It had no cross-overs, wing space was nonexistent and stage right existed right onto a fire escape."
If the stage was claustrophobic, so was the rehearsal hall. "Most of the time we rehearsed in the back room of a Chinese laundry on Rock Street," Strickman said.
Recently, a current group of theater members gathered at the city's Firebarn -- sort of the troupe's off-Broadway house -- to talk about their experiences over the years.
Included (along with the year they joined up) were Cindy Loria (1979), Peggy Deston (1984), John B. Cummings (1958) Barbara Gerraughty (1982), Richard Pelletier (1965), Janice Farrell (1963) Ethel Winokoor (1956), and Kathy Castro (1988).
Back in 1935, As cramped as the Women's Club Hall was, such scenically forbidding plays as Elizabeth the Queen and Pride and Prejudice were done there. If there was a long wait between scenes, too bad. The audience simply waited.
The Little Theatre mounts three major productions a year -- shows such as Life with Father, Mr. Roberts, Inherit the Wind and The Women. The three-a-season tradition was broken only during World War II. One female-heavy show was the ticket then.
After the War, the theater was bivouacked in the Herrick House on Pine Street. One of the shows done there was Teahouse of the August Moon. There's a goat in the play and, thankfully, member Barbara Wellington lived on a farm with goats.
So, nightly, Wellington would transport a goat to Herrick House in her car.
And return the goat to the farm in the same way -- the animal traveling in the passenger seat, no less.
One night a police officer stopped Wellington to ask what a goat was doing in her car.
"He's appeared in a play," she solemnly responded.
The nonplused cop waved Wellington and her passenger on.
In 1965, the company transferred to Ziskind Auditorium.
It was no Radio City Music Hall.
For one thing, the roof was apt to leak.
"Janice MacDonald and I were doing a scene from Mary, Mary," said John J. Cummings. "We were sitting on a couch. All of a sudden, a stream of rainwater came down on us."
Remembered Janice Farrell: "We had to put a bucket on stage for the rest of the play."
Not all members want to strut their stuff onstage. One such is Barbara Gerraughty. "I'm a techie," she said. "I enjoy working on set. It was a case of realizing where Little Theatre needed me most -- and that was backstage."
There was a time when Little Theatre initiates had to put in a season of backstage labor before getting to audition for a role.
Cindy Loria fell into that category. She remembered that she got into Little Theatre because she wanted to act. As she put it: "Acting was in my blood. But, in her first show, she found myself backstage with a drill in her hand. I thought, 'If only my friends and family could see me now!' "
The theater is now housed in the spiffy Margaret L. Jackson Performing Arts Center at Bristol Community College. And today the musical West Side Story has a four-day run to open the 2004-05 season. Tonight's show is at 7:30 p.m. The performances on Friday and Saturday will be at 8 p.m. and the Sunday matinee will be at 2 p.m.
One of last plays done at Ziskind Auditorium was Moliere's Tartuffe.
And it almost didn't go on.
"On the day we were to open, the costumes hadn't arrived," recalled Richard Pelletier, an actor in the farce.
"On opening day, my wife and the director, Bob Soares, left Fall River at 7 a.m. and drove to Eaves Costumes in New York. When they got there, our costumes were on the shipping platform. They loaded them in the car and drove back to Fall River, getting here just before opening. We just threw the costumes at the actors. Those that fit, fit. Those that didn't, didn't.
"We somehow managed," he recalled. "The show must go on."
And at Little Theatre of Fall River, the show, for 70 years, always has.
Tickets for West Side Story are $15 with various discounts available. For more information, call (508) 675-1852.