"Some Enchanted Evening" - Ezio Pinza
From Original Cast Album

For about two and a half years I worked at a small, community dinner theatre. It was the type of place where there was never enough help – at the box office, building sets, making costumes, or on the stage. I did a little bit of everything, all the time. Every summer we performed three shows – two big musicals book-ending a much smaller, more intimate comedy or drama. Them were fun, but amazingly busy times.

It never failed that at some point during rehearsals for the big musicals, I would get a call.

"Brewster, how would you like to be an actor?"

There were never enough actors to fill out the chorus, and despite my rather unremarkable singing and acting ability, the director of the theatre needed me for a warm body (or in case of Big River, a cold one, as I played a corpse.) I would always agree, and was then locked into several weeks of nightly rehearsals followed by three or four weekends of performance. At the end of each show, tired of having no semblance of a life but the theatre, I would swear off ever performing again. Yet, inevitably, the next show would come and I would get the call, and I would agree to help.

One summer we produced a performance of the Rogers and Hammerstein classic, South Pacific. It was a special show for many reasons, but even more so for landing a scholarship student from Carnegie Melon to create our set designs. And they were incredibly interesting and beautiful designs, but a pain in the butt to build.

One particular Holy Terror of a piece was the show, built specifically for the scene in which Nellie sings the ever popular "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outta My Hair." Because it was only needed that for one time, it had to be moved on and off stage between scenes. Being a small, community theatre, our stage was not of the best design.

There were no wings to speak of, and so everything not needed on stage at that moment, had to be stored backstage, in a series of small halls. The only way onto the stage from there was through two very small doors. The shower just barely fit.

Every night myself and one other stagehand had to cajole the shower through the door, across a stage littered with tropical plants and other tripping hazards, flip the shower to its proper position and zip back off the stage in about 30 seconds, all in pitch blackness. Did I mention the shower was built mainly of bamboo? Little sharp bamboo that continually jabbed me in the mouth, nose, and eyes.

I hated that blasted shower and joyfully destroyed it once the show was over.

I kind of miss the theatre now though. As exhausting, time consuming and irritating as it was.


“Feelin' Good Again” – Robert Earl Keen
From Walking Distance