The Bill Raiten Blog

“Laughter On The 23rd Floor” opened last Saturday night (4/4/09) with a great show played to a great audience.  While not overwhelming, there were 50 -60 folks out there who laughed and enjoyed themselves immensely.  There’s nothing more gratifying for an actor to hear than people laughing out loud at all the right places!  This is a perfect audience for our theater space.

Plays like this *need* an audience.  Neil Simon’s writing is so clever - it gets better and better as people start to understand some of the relationships between different characters.  If you do it right (I think that we do) the audience slowly becomes more and more involved.  At one point on Saturday, we heard someone in the audience say “oh no - not him again!” as one of the characters (written as being pretty annoying, but funny) made another entrance.

It always takes more work than people realize to put on a show and it can be very frustrating for those working hard as opening night gets closer and closer.  It’s all worth it though when the house lights dim and the play starts.  We hope you get a chance to watch.

Every theater group goes through this: last week before you open, there’s ALWAYS something else on the set that can be improved, painted differently or whatever, and all the actors are worried about dropping a line somewhere and messing things up.  A couple of last-minute rehearsals to “fine tune”, dress rehearsal (to make sure *all* the little things work out the way they’re supposed to) then you’re on.  Finally!

That’s the beauty of live theater though: things can go wrong (and often do); it’s not like a movie where you can keep doing takes until you get the perfect shot.  If something goes awry the actors have to recover on their own and if they’re good (or lucky, or both) no one in the audience even notices.

NST has taken on a lot so far this year.  We’ve performed “On Golden Pond” in Blue Hill, moved it to the Grand then stored the set until the reprise (last weekend in June at the Reach Performing Arts Center BTW.)  We’ve performed “Lettice & Lovage” in Blue Hill, moved it to the Grand then reused a lot of the set components to construct the set for “Laughter On The 23rd Floor.”  “Laughter” will also move to the Grand and the plan is to move the set back to the Town Hall for a summer reprise some time.  All this work wouldn’t be possible without the selfless help of a lot of dedicated volunteers.  Thanks everyone!

There’s always a lot of details that go undone until the last minute and that’s what this week is all about.  It’s pretty stressful but all worth it when opening night arrives.

Well we haven’t been very good at keeping this blog up-to-date, so I guess it’s my turn to add something.  NST has been very busy the last few months, producing “On Golden Pond”, “Lettice and Lovage” and now, Neil Simon’s classic “Laughter On The 23rd Floor.”

Neil Simon is so clever!  When you read his stuff it’s easy to laugh out loud but then you have to look around quickly to see if anyone noticed you.  Of course, that’s what this play is all about.  Early in his career Simon wrote for Sid Caesar’s “Your Show Of Shows” which was a weekly 90-minute comedy show performed live in the early ’50’s.  I can’t imagine how difficult (and fun) that must have been.  “Laughter” is about the “writer’s room” where people were constantly writing jokes, trying to outdo one another (you know, looking around to see if anyone noticed you.)

Rehearsing is fun, especially when everyone knows their lines and the director (Bill in this case) can start to see ways to better convey the playwright’s intentions to the audience.  We experienced this last weekend when one of the actor’s changed his energy level in a particular scene in a particular way: this carried over to everyone else and the whole thing really came to life.  It was “good” before - now it was “great”!

Sid Caesar’s writers were first class, top of the line professionals, who evidently were all a bunch of real lunatics.  The characters in “Laughter” were based on the real-life writers, like Neil Simon, Mel Brooks, Larry Gelbart, Carl Reiner, etc.  It can be argued that these writers defined modern American comedy.

Only one more weekend of rehearsals, tech week is coming up (to set lights and any other effects) then Dress Rehearsal, then we open.  Hope to see you there!

My wife decided to get laying hens and turkeys and I’ve been building and “potsying” around to make everything ready for them just as I’m getting the NST school ready. It’s amazing how the chickens remind me of what it is like trying to do too many things. They run about at weird unprovoked moments from the sound of a truck passing by just as I do when the phone rings when I’m in the middle of something; They sit quietly on the roost, fluffed up and comfortable just as I do settling into my plush chair with the N Y Times Arts and Leisure section; They come running as I call out “tseep, tseep, tseep and throw veggies and grass into their enclosure just as I come running when I see new email about the school on my monitor. Crazy isn’t it? Well Registration for the school will close this Saturday Sept. 6th at Noon and I hope we get enough responses to fill all of the classes. Acting, Scene Study and Musical Theatre Vocal are the most popular by far and look as if they will be a lot of fun……. Just like the chickens……..

WOW! What excitement. Since the article in the Weekly Packet five students have signed up for classes. Two are taking two courses and three are taking one course. It will be amazing if we get the 45 students we need to get this school off the ground. DANCING, SINGING, ACTING, MAKE-UP, STAGE COMBAT, SCENE STUDY……. What I wouldn’t have given for an opportunity like this when I started in the 1950’s. Lee Strasberg knew I could not pass the auditions for the Actor’s Studio and helped me audit at H B Studios and when Marcel De’tien DeCroux (I have no idea how to spell his name) Marcel Marceu’s teacher, came to teach in America at that time, they would not even let me audition to work with him because I wanted to use his lessons for comedy. Our School will work so differently. The joy of finding the talent within ourselves is the goal and what a joy that is. Well, I’ll keep you all posted as the list of students grows……. See ya’

Ross, who started my blog with the post “Hello World” had no idea that William B. Williams used to get on WNEW radio in N Y and announce: Good Evening World to start off his broadcast. He was the greatest and coined “Chairman of the Board” as Frank Sinatra’s nickname. His voice was the mellowest and sexiest on the radio………. But when I saw him in person I could not believe he belonged to that voice and that is why I love rehearsing plays in the beginning as if we are on the radio. The voice can take you anywhere and the listener imagines the appearance and the place……. Then we take it to the next level, the stage. Oh well ……. just some thoughts.

Hi All, 

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