My Track part 3

Once I’ve trussed myself back into my costume and don my fur coat I go and stand in the wings stage right, ready for Act II. Lindsey is there and we try to decide what my illness of the night is. Sometimes there are many choices and we can’t decide. One of the criteria is that Lindsey has to be able to give clues so that the complaint can be guessed – but I’ll get to that. We are joined by Michael Murray who plays Simon Fernando. He always has highly graphic suggestions. As the music fades and the Dare Patrol enters the stage Stephanie Sexton passes through the scene dock and pauses to find out what’s the matter with Father Martin that evening. When we are in a quandary I’ll present the choices to her and let her decide. Once that very important decision has been made we continue to stand around shooting the shit with whoever passes by. Sydney Mitchell joins us. She is in her second year as Eleanor Dare and when she joins us she is very pregnant and we get to play with her baby bump. Old Tom is out there breaking his heart entertaining the audience with his Arrival monologue.

I am unable to be objective about how other actors portray and perform Old Tom. I was him for six seasons in the 90s. Brian Rooney is our second Old Tom this year and played him in 2007 – 08. He is good and so was Louis Butelli who started out the season.

In a conversation with Brian a few weeks ago he said something that describes my ambivalence about watching other Old Toms. When he came in at midsummer he sat out and watched the show several times and said that his muscle memory kept objecting to how the show had changed and not just about seeing Louis perform it, but the whole thing. But that pretty well describes how I can’t be objective – it should be done THIS way, there is a great bit HERE that’s being missed, if the scene were staged like THIS it would highlight THAT piece of business and WHY do they all have to scream the line “Roanoke, oh Roanoke, thou hast made a man of me?” It should be the quietest most poignant moment of the show.

See? I can’t let it go.

The way I handle this is by absolutely refusing to comment or kibitz on how other actors perform the role. I just offer encouragement.

In a conversation with Louis early in the summer he complained that the director kept telling him to do “something funny” with the sand in the Arrival monologue. He (and Brian) came up with some funny bits. I told Louis that there used to be a whole bible of funny Arrival sand bits that were passed down from generation to generation – but they’ve all been lost and nobody ever asked me.

Anyway…

Eventually the monologue nears its end with some business with Wano (Wally McCown) and Michael and I take our place behind Governor White and we all charge on. I go to the dead body (which is a skeleton now), kneel and mutter a prayer over the bones and get up when the Dare Patrol re-enters down the Queen’s Path. I move up onto the steps and look around. On cue I push the beams blocking the entrance to the chapel with a loud bang. Everyone kneels in the sand and it is finally time for me to speak. “Blah Blah Blah, Amen!” I say and the scene moves on.

I’ve mentioned this before but this scene is a source of major out-of-body déjà vu time traveling for me. I’ve been Governor White and I’ve been Ananias Dare and I’ve been Old Tom and when they speak in Arrival I am them and I’m talking to me as the other characters talking to each other – and they are me also. It’s quite the experience.

I stand in front of the chapel and make appropriate ad libs.

Speaking of muscle memory – I pretty much give the same ad libs that I’ve always done in that and all the other scenes, no matter which character I’m playing. They’re the same ad libs and they just pop out of my mouth with no thought. It’s all I can do to keep myself from doing them in Old Tom’s voice.

On “Mount the guard” John Borden (Brett Bolton) runs up and takes the flag from the Red Soldier standing near me. The soldier is Jamie Schor and we have a few seconds of conversation together, in theory about getting started cleaning up the wreckage but we abandoned that on about the third rehearsal and now talk about food, beer, sex, drugs and frequently blah blah gibberish. It’s a moment.

And we’re on to Transition and Fishnet! I don’t have any duties in Transition so I go into the chapel and pray at the altar for a few seconds while we’re singing “Sir Walter Raleigh’s Ship,” after Korie Blossie and Harrison Grant strike the beams. Then I go to my cabin. Red Soldier Thad Walker has set the desk, put the cross on the wall and unrolled my bedding. Miss Laura Long hands me my bible and we freeze for narrative blah blah.

I interact with Dame Coleman a bit as she looks for Old Tom and the water and we exchange a bit of disease-of-the-night small talk. When she goes down in the sand for the scene I cross to the other side of the stage and stand chatting with some guys in front of Eleanor’s cabin.

Again – a major time traveling moment for me. I’ve been in that group of men as two other characters and I keep seeing Eric Green as Fat Mat and Ethan Oulton and others. The group this year is T.J. Pass, Korie Blossey, Will Sanborn and Ben Panther Skaski. Maddie Arthur is there as well washing something in a bucket. We have a moment when we all laugh and point at someone. Sometimes it’s Maddie, sometimes it is Ananias, who is having his portrait done by Governor White, sometimes we’ll point and laugh at the sound booth – we’ve pointed and laughed at everyone and everything as the summer has gone on. It’s a moment.

Then it is back to my cabin where I peer at my bible and faithfully run the Christening prayer lines twice.

After Old Tom announces the baby I step center and intone “Oh Lord save this woman blah blah” and exit to behind the cabin where costumer Jessica Daniels quick changes me into my full priest robes.

I recall in the days when Jimmy Darmo played Father Martin the entire onstage Colonists would crowd in to the chapel and Jimmy would put on the white cassock concealed by the crowd. The cassock was stashed in a hollow bible and in fact that bible still exists and is on the altar – but the costume design has changed and I have to get most of my costume off and Jessica has both the black and the white cassocks bunched up for me to put my arms through and over my head. She ties and snaps the huge ruff while I adjust my microphone. The cast is singing “Once long ago blah.” There are two verses. Sometimes the quick change goes swiftly, sometimes not. I get tangled up or can’t find the arm holes or some damn thing. Sometimes I make it back on to the stage for the whole second verse, sometimes barely in time for “Amen.” But Jessie and I haven’t missed the cue yet!

I go out there to christen the baby. Father Martin has a little alter boy (stop that snickering) who stands by me holding the bowl of water. Monday – Wednesday it is Noah Gross. Thursday – Saturday it is Eli Nissley. One performance this summer I was speaking and heard a clang, saw the Colonists (who are seated with their backs to the audience) all crack up and knew that Eli had dropped the bowl. But he picked it up and we just went forward. Another night the AT who pre-sets the bowl was out sick so there was no bowl. Eli freaked out. There was nothing to do but go out and christen the baby with no water. Of course that was the night that Lindsey’s husband Steve, who is a real priest, watched the show and I got no end of grief from him about it. What was I supposed to have done? Spit on the baby? Steve said yes I should have.

As soon as I have done that I go back behind the cabin to loose the white cassock and Jessica snaps and ties the black one and I go back out for Christening Dance. Most of the Company joins in but I don’t. I stand with Chris Tedrow who is the Tin Man meaning he is wearing some armor and will shortly be brutally killed. He and I laugh and clap and he points out that it is a Blessed Day and I absolutely agree with him.

I stand with him and the Dame during Governor’s Farewell and I say the same ad libs I’ve been saying for nine seasons.

When he leaves it is time for Small Skirmish (which used to be called Little Battle). I stand in front of the chapel with Tin Man and AT Amanda Forstrom. We freeze for Historian blah blah and then the Indians attack. I get the wooden pitchfork from the chapel and bravely wave it around. Three Indians kill poor Tin Man and I run to the front of Father Martin’s Cabin and poke the pitchfork at evil Indian Axle Burtness. AT Kristin Shoffner joins the fray. I fall back onto my bed, feeble old guy that I am, while they tussle. Sometimes he stabs her, sometimes he doesn’t. I flail around on the bed.

What I really am doing on the bed is arranging the bedding, which consists of a very thin mattress and two more layers of fur and blanket. When it gets unrolled during transition it is always a mess. Later in the second act I have to lie on it for ten minutes and if it isn’t arranged right it is very uncomfortable. So I have a few seconds during the skirmish to start to arrange it. I complete my arrangement during Big Battle. So – yes – that’s what I’m really doing during Small Skirmish and Big Battle. I’m trying to arrange the hodgepodge bedding so I’ll be comfortable later.

There is a blackout after the skirmish. I grab my fur coat and exit left into that little area with the steps that lead up to the parapet. I retrieve the knee pads which I stashed there at intermission and sit on the steps to put them on and get myself all arranged and brow mopped while Eleanor and the ladies sing the Lullaby.

When poor old Father Martin re-enters for Yule he is noticeably feeble. Choir member Liz (who is not in the program) sits him on a bench and wishes him a Peaceful Yule. We have a moment generally about taking some shots behind the cabin later.

Back in the 90s the Yule log was much bigger and daughter Alice rode on it for several years. Now it is smaller. They place it center stage. I get a torch from T.J. and light it. Yes – they let me play with fire! It is pre-loaded with kerosene-soaked stuff so I never have any trouble lighting it although one windy night it was a close thing.

When Father Martin starts “Sing Oh Heavens and Be Joyful Oh Earth” he falls face first into the sand center stage (knee pads). A couple of the boys pick me up by my arms and carry me to my cabin and lay me on the bed. One of them is Panther and – shame on me – I have no idea who the other one is. This is where the Dame gives a clue to Panther as to the nature of my distress. He almost always figures it out and I hear him pass the word to others while Eleanor is going on about “Zion” and “Her waste places” (which I think is a bit offensive).

Big Battle starts with Ananias (Sam Kinsman) getting the arrow in the chest. It has almost always been done that way. In fact I may be the only Ananias who didn’t get the arrow in the chest. When I played him in 1999 I was very active in the Battle, shooting off guns and running around and fighting Indians. Near the end evil Wanchese picked up a shotgun from a fallen Colonist and aimed it at John Borden. I bravely stepped in front of Borden and took the shot in my guts, then staggered all the way down stage, gurgling “Blah!” and keeled over in the sand. At the end of the Battle John Borden (who was played by Brandon Smiley that year) carried me off in his arms. Sniff.

When the Battle starts this year Tshombe Selby runs into the cabin and tells me to get up, the Indians are here. Tshombe is a local guy who graduated from Manteo High the same year Alice did. He is a power tenor and leads most of the songs.

Then Panther staggers into the cabin with an arrow in his leg and collapses by the wall. T.J. Pass runs in, tells me to lie down and goes to help Panther. Hillary Wright and Liz bring injured Ross Neal into the cabin and put him on the bed. The cabin (back of the stage left prop cabin) blows up. There are flames and smoke! Gary Gatling jumps out of the window and Hillary puts him on the bed, too. He keeps going on about us needing to save his wife but we remind him that he doesn’t have a wife. There are gunshots and Ross and Gary run out of the cabin. Hillary consoles Panther while I stagger around (arranging the bedding). I collapse on the left wall until Hillary comes to save me, and here it is folks – the longest moment I have in the show this year with another person. I’ve been going on in this recitation about my nightly track about the dozens of moments we all have in the show. Most of them are very brief. My longest moment this year is during Big Battle with Hillary.

Hillary Wright turned 19 this summer. She and her family have been involved with the show in one way or another for a long time. Hillary’s sister Kelsey is in the show too as a child. Hillary started as a child when she was eight years old and has been in the show every year except one since then. She spent the last three years as an intern and this is her first year as a full fledged AT. She (and her family) is all that is good and enduring about The Lost Colony. When I go on and on about my family’s history with the show in the past I can point at the Wrights and say “It lives.”

So Hillary and I scream and yell “Blah!” while the Battle rages. Lately we’ve been throwing up on each other. We chat, make rude comments, and she holds me up when my feebleness overcomes me. We think the Battle is way too long, but that’s just because we have to stand there and watch it every night. Sometimes we are on Manteo’s side, sometimes we root for Wanchese.

Eventually it ends. Hillary goes off to help the fallen in the sand. I stagger towards center, pausing to throw up or pass my disease of the night to Panther. Poor Farmer in the Dell Travis Clark is lying dead in front of the chapel and Old Tom and I kneel over him and make lewd and rude comments before I stagger off stage.

I've been writing this since 2 o'clock this afternoon and haven't even made it through the second act. And now its time to go do the thing. I'll try to finish up tomorrow.