2008 I personally asked NFCT members to reply. Here's their answers. FRIENDLY/THEATRICALLY {!!!}

BY DANNY McCARTHY

What was your first NFCT role and what was special about it??

Kelli Baumann: My first role was Baby June in?Gypsy?way back in 1984 or something like that. It happened to be my favorite role, I think being that it was my first role. I was very excited about venturing past school shows and being a part of a community theatre. I got to sing and dance and that was all that mattered.?

Glenn Friedman: My first show at NFCT was?My Fair Lady?in 2007. It was a big thrill for me to do live theatre for the first time on Long Island in front of family and friends after doing some TV and movie work. The people at NFCT are wonderful. They are a dedicated and talented group of people and I hope to get an opportunity to work with them again.?

Rusty Kransky: I started with the NFCT as Sweeney in?Sweeney Todd?in 1999. What a way to begin! The show included many “firsts” for me — it was my first time working in theater with my friend (and now long-time musical director) Jeff Wentz. And it was the first time I got to die onstage! I loved absolutely every single moment of it. I couldn’t watch them tear that set down afterward — it was so sad! So at the strike, I stayed downstairs cleaning ALL the dressing rooms, so I wouldn’t see the set being removed. And then I cried all the way home! The show did teach me the importance of having duplicate costumes whenever possible — washing the fake blood out of my clothes took hours after each show!?

Ted Lapides: Since arriving from St. Louis to live on Shelter Island as a year-round resident in 1997, I wanted to continue my theater work but did not know where or when this would happen. My wife Rae saw an audition call in one of the local papers at the NFCT. I did audition, for Neil Simon’s?Broadway Bound, and I was fortunate enough to get the role of Ben. It was a wonderful show under the direction of Phoebe Rey and both cast and director were very special. I have since performed in two other NFCT productions,?Dancing at Lughnasa?and?My Fair Lady. In all of these shows I have experienced the fellowship and camaraderie of many wonderful actors, director and staff in an intimate setting that has been very rewarding for me. Fortunately when the run is over and the sadness kicks in and you say goodbye to your theater family, you still have the memories and they are yours forever.?

Jonathan Richmond: Anne and I were active in NFCT from 1967-1983. My first show at the NFCT? — Don’t remember the name, a small musical with Anne on piano and I worked with Art Wilks on set and lights.?

Christopher Scheer: I was already spending time at the NFCT before I was born. My mother had to stop by a dress rehearsal on her way to the hospital while she was in labor with me. Later, I remember playing with the props and costumes in the attic, and waiting at the light board to shine lights in my brother David’s eyes while he was up on a ladder to adjust them.?

Amie (Lieblein) Sponza: My first show was?Little Mary Sunshine?directed by Phoebe Rey, produced by Marilee Scheer. I was in the chorus and had a great summer doing it. Phoebe was always so great to work with. The following year I was in?Once Upon A Mattress?as one of the Ladies in Waiting, with same team directing and producing. Bill Sousa was in both of those shows, too. I made wonderful friends at NFCT during those summers.?

Art Wilks [Member from 1961-1994]:?Damn Yankees?was already in rehearsal when one of the actors was sent to Africa by Plum Island. I was told there was a role open and was asked to try out for it. I knew nothing about the NFCT as I had recently moved into the area. Nonetheless, I called and went down to try out. The entire cast was there rehearsing and they were asked to find seats while I tried out. I was nervous to say the least. The director gave me a choice of a couple of songs to sing and he played while I did my best. When it came time to reading the lines, I thought I was doing OK for doing it cold. He looked up at me and said, “Do you have false teeth?” I said, “No.” He said, “It sounds like you have a mouth full of potatoes.” I looked for some small knothole to climb into and he told me to read it again. Then he informed me he would let me know. I went home thinking I would never hear from him again. About 11:30 that night I got a call informing me that I had the lead, Young Joe Hardy, and that I was expected to be at rehearsal the next night. I must say that he taught me more in six weeks about the basics of acting and stagecraft than I learned from any other director during any other play.?

Did anything ever go wrong in a performance? Did you ever have to replace another actor??

Kelli Baumann: When I played Louisa in?The Sound of Music, in one of the performances during the thunderstorm scene, we all jumped on the bed to be with Maria. Well, the bed collapsed! We were all a bit stunned, but I think we managed to keep going! I did have to step in for someone during?Mame. The girl playing Gloria Upson dropped out, so I was asked to fill in. I was in my early to mid teens and felt a bit uncomfortable playing someone’s girlfriend. But it was funny being a dipsy doodle! I don’t recall how much time I had though to learn the role.?

Nancy Deegan: I was Musical Director for?My Fair Lady. My glasses broke during the show — I can’t read a note without them!. I had to rush to see Carol Kirby who was doing refreshments — she works for an optical company and fixed my glasses during intermission.?

Glenn Friedman: My wife had planned an anniversary cruise for us and I had to miss a few?My Fair Lady?rehearsals. When I got back I learned we had lost one of our leads (Doolittle) because of personal problems and that one of the actors [Bob Beodeker] who was in my quartet had jumped into the role of Doolittle with a few short weeks remaining until show time. Well, he did a phenomenal job and my quartet became a trio, and we did fine as well.?

Rusty Kransky: In?Deathtrap, my character Clifford had to get trapped in handcuffs so that another character, Sidney, could strangle him. We had sturdy handcuffs in rehearsals and always made sure we had the key nearby. On opening night, the handcuffs broke! Luckily, Art Lamia (playing Sidney) thought quickly and grabbed another pair of handcuffs off the wall and snapped them on me. He saved the scene — but then we couldn’t find a key for the second set of handcuffs! We had to break them off. When we did?She Loves Me?in 2000, an actor playing the waiter in a restaurant scene (with a very important song) couldn’t make one performance. As my character Georg did nothing much but sit there in that scene, I had the “brilliant” idea that I could slip off stage and re-enter in glasses and a wig, sing the waiter’s song, exit, and come back as Georg. Luckily, wiser heads prevailed and my idea was vetoed. My friend Lenny came in from NYC and played the show with 10 minutes of rehearsal! Most people preferred Lenny’s version of the song and character.?

Joanna Paulsen: In the late 1970s or early 1980s, the NFCT produced a comedy,?Three for Gin, written by a local optometrist, Ed Caufield. Priscilla Sprague was to make her directorial debut with my husband, Jed Clauss producing. The lead was unable to continue in the role so Priscilla stepped leaving Jed to direct. The premise was simple, two elderly sisters and their brother living in Brewster, NY spend their days playing and drinking gin. Because their father and now their brother were members of the temperance society, they kept their gin in a water cooler. People came to visit — family and others. Peg Roache was the prop lady?extraordinaire?who managed to get a whole watermelon for each performance in January — it had to be cut on stage. Phoebe Rey, Maureen Moffat and I worked make-up. We had to be at the theatre at 5 p.m. for an 8 p.m. curtain. It took three people three hours to age five people for curtain, the rest of the cast followed when the curtain when up. Everyone played at least 20 years older than they were — Priscilla Sprague, Laurie Roberts, and Bob Ackroyd were the siblings; Art Wilks and Janet Freeman were the other brother and his wife. Because it was the January production, the theatre was cold. We had space heaters in the make-up room (we took over the women’s dressing room) and had to defrost the make-up each evening, and because of the early call we set up a soup kitchen — someone brought soup each performance (and boy, were they good). We taught the actors to do the aging lines on their hands themselves. One night, Priscilla wanted a pizza so she ran over to Skip’s (Coach Stop or Half-Shell, now 4 Doors Down), placed the order and came back. When she wasn’t back to pick it up, one of the guys at the bar saw her hands and said, “Hey, it hasn’t been that long.” Obviously we taught her well. It was a one-joke show but the actors pulled it off — most of the time. If the audience wasn’t responding, Bob would fall asleep and then start to snore in Act I. It always brought a laugh. Although it wasn’t one of our?great?shows, everyone that was involved remembers it as one of their best experiences at the NFCT.?

The Spring 1979 musical was Gilbert & Sullivan’s?Pirates of Penzance. My husband volunteered us as co-producers. After a number of problems, including firing the director, Jed became the director, and I continued as producer. It was a very large and ambitious production with many actors new to the NFCT (and never seen again). Many of the women’s costumes were sewn by Janet Freeman and then donated to Theatre Development Fund for a rather substantial credit. The skirts were beautiful — different colors and patterns. One woman, the second lead, told us that she couldn’t sing in plaid. But wear plaid, she did.?

Jonathan Richmond: Once, while I was directing?Carnival, the actor (Bill Price) playing Dr. Wilhelm Glass called in sick an hour before performance — lots of fun! In a second production of Jack Moffatt’s?Peanut Butter Prince, the actor playing the dragon failed to appear for a mid-week performance. Ann Detrick danced the role while Hal Young sung the song from off stage. An interesting aside — a very talented high school fellow (cannot recall his name) created the hand puppets for our production of?Carnival?— and they were subsequently used in?Carnival?productions at Greenport High School, at the Potomac Community Theatre, and most recently at the Brunswick Little Theatre (directed by Jen Iapalucci with her husband Adrian as Jacquot, sister Katie Deese in the role of Lili and sister Elie Erickson as Rosalie, and Anne on piano, and you-know-who designing/building sets).?

Mark Sisson: I was the producer of?The Desperate Hours, a hostage drama that can be pretty wrenching. Late one evening, or early one morning, nearing the end of our rehearsal schedule, I got a call from the president, I think, Bob Ackroyd. He says, “Just to let you know, the theatre is on fire.” Ah geez, I left the coffeepot on all night, says me. The building, although not totally consumed, was unfit for production. After tearing out vast quantities of hair, we were able to mount our production on the stage of the Mattituck High School. We removed out set, repainted it, and rebuilt it on the MHS stage in a matter of days. It was a complicated two-level set, as well. Past member-carpenters Randy Plimpton and Dick Romeo went way above the cello duty. Chris Conforti, the director, was able to get wonderful performances from all the cast, (Michael Conforti, Robert Sior, David Guida, Kevin Hughes, Robert Kreiling, Gladys Flurry, Cynthia Tuleja, Bob Ackroyd, me and maybe one or two others, it?has?been so long!) perhaps drawing on all the tension our situation entailed. And the crew, which had to relearn practically everything for the new venue; lights, entrances, seating, all the stuff we can take for granted at the NFCT building, did an outstanding job. Wow! The show went off spectacularly well. I do remember that that show was over, a strange feeling it is a bittersweet emotion at the end of a show’s run.

Amie Sponza: On closing night [of?Crimes of the Heart] I was supposed to be laughing and crying with Anne Motto about Granddaddy’s stroke/death. I really started crying and had trouble collecting myself for a few moments. I guess I just hated to think of it ending. Good thing there was a box of tissues on the set.?

Art Wilks: There was the time I was doing work on one of the sets and got there early on a Saturday evening. I was on stage and wanted to go down the steps to the dressing rooms, but when I opened the door to the outside steps, I found a lot of furniture. I figured that it was a donation to the theater props, and thought nothing of it. Later I went to the lumber yard and just happened to mention that someone had donated a lot of set pieces to the theater.?One of the local police officers overheard me and became very interested in our “donations.” It seems as if there was a break-in nearby and the furniture was stolen and the thieves used our building as a depository of stolen property. I don’t know how many people remember that early on there was no fly space over the stage, just enough room to hang some lights. Hal Young and Jack Moffat rounded a couple of us up in no time at all and the ceiling was down, the catwalk was up, and you have the space you have today. The original light board was a massive, maybe 500 to 600 pound monster made of huge porcelain rheostats controlled by individual handles. It would sometimes get so hot the porcelain would start to melt. It was stationed stage left and took up a lot of room needed for actors, props, etc. The decision was made to move the light booth up to the balcony. Since it would have been almost impossible to break the light board down, move it up in pieces and put it back together, a ramp was built from the stage to the present light booth and the board was moved up by block and tackle. At that time there was no sheet rock or insulation on the second floor, so needless to say, there were times when the light men/women worked in heavy coats. The room was enclosed shortly after that, but it was still rather cold.?

In?My Three Angels, I played a minor angel. We were to wear neckerchiefs because the setting was in a hot area. During one of the dress rehearsals, we were all there in our prison uniforms and neckerchiefs when suddenly the “lead” angel went flying off the stage and down to the dressing room just steaming mad. It turns out that I had decided to wear a RED bandanna for my neck covering, and that caused the furor. It seems that only the star should wear red. I apologized, explained it was all I had at home, found a blue one, and the show went on.?

During the run of?Damn Yankees, one night Jack Moffatt, who was director and pianist for the show, fainted about 30 minutes before opening. He was rushed across the street to a doctor and was taken care of so that the show went on. I mean he was the show, and without him, it probably would not have happened.?

During a performance of?Harvey, there were three of us on stage. It seems that Elwood P. Dowd’s sister (I am sorry but I cannot remember the character’s name) had been mistakenly inadvertently put into the asylum overnight. Well, she was released, and two of us were to ask her what happened and she was to go into this long explanation of what had taken place. I said, “And what happened?” and she looked up at us with the blankest expression on her face and said, “I DON’T KNOW,” and she didn’t, so the two of us fed her the lines and we got through. Everything was great and we laughed about it afterward. Wouldn’t you know, same time, same place, at the next performance, we got the same reply: “I don’t know.” Well at least we were prepared the second time and again got through it smoothly. I doubt the audience ever had a clue as to what happened.

Oh yes, my pet peeve. There used to be two dressing rooms. One for the women and, yes, one for the men. The men had the long one at the end of the hall. I don’t know how or when it happened, but bit by bit the men were relegated to the furnace room while the ladies not only took over the men’s dressing room but other areas were set aside solely for them. I complained so much that part of the furnace room was tagged the ‘Art Wilks memorial dressing room.’ I am not sure if things have changed, but men, hang onto whatever room you have, or you might be dressing among the tombstones.?

What was your favorite role??

Kelli Baumann: Baby June in?Gypsy???

Carolyn Feldschuh: As director, producer and author! Back in August 2004, the board decided to allow me and my co-writer to produce our own show,?Mirth, on the NFCT stage. I treasure this experience of seeing my hard work come to life. Thank you, NFCT. How wonderful it is to have a neighborhood theater that consistently brings good shows to the community, performed and produced by members of the community.

Mike Hipp: It would have to be the show where I met Kimet Speed, who is now my wife!

Rusty Kransky: Sweeney in?Sweeney Todd. I loved singing that spectacular music. I’d love to play the role again (hint hint!) I loved playing Don Quixote in?Man of La Mancha, too.

Jonathan Richmond: Shep Henderson in?Bell, Book and Candle. I tried out for Nicky, the warlock, but Jack Moffat thought I could play Shep — my first role since college and first time on the NFCT stage.?

Christopher Scheer: My favorite role at the NFCT has been, without a doubt, Tevye, in the 2006 Youth on Stage Production of?Fiddler on the Roof. I’m thrilled to be acting professionally now, but I miss the NFCT more than anything — where my career and (almost) life began.

Amie Sponza: My favorite role was last year as Lenny in?Crimes of the Heart?directed by Tracy Abeles, who did a spectacular job. We had a great cast that was really like a family. I have new sisters and a new cousin from that show. The set was amazing, as if we really lived in that kitchen. And the cake at the end was yummy every night.?

Art Wilks: My favorite part was Bronny in?The Peanut Butter Prince. When Jack [Moffatt] wrote it he did so with the people he had on hand in mind, so I feel the part was written for me. When the show opened I would come running up from stage left with a tray of bread, trip, do a flip, and end up sprawled on the stage at the feet of “The King.” It went fine until one night the tray bounded up and caught me on the bridge of the nose and I ended up with blood pouring down my face. Luckily, Maureen Moffatt was back stage and she got it stopped before my next entrance. My other favorite play other than that was?A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. That show was a pure delight/ Trying to pass me off as a beautiful young maiden really took a suspension of disbelief.

What was the funniest joke you played on fellow actors, or had played on you??

Rusty Kransky:?She Loves Me?was set in a perfume shop in the ’30s. I clearly had too much free time at work and every day instead of working, I made a new beauty product for the store. There was a full line of creams — face cream, skin cream, nose cream, ice cream, sour cream, cream of tartar, cream of wheat. Kimet Speed’s character told someone to “Go to Hell!” so I made Go to Hell Vanishing Powder for her. My personal favorite was the Sweeney?Todd Hair Tonic. It became a game — every night the cast played “Find the New Beauty Product on the Shelves.” The?Deathtrap?set included a wall of books. I made all new book covers and invented new titles. All the titles related to the play and some were quite rude. Some of the books are still in the theater and occasionally someone new finds one in the prop room and says, “What the …?” We had quite a few practical jokers in the?Deathtrap?cast. Art Lamia’s character Sidney gave a box of candles to Helga, played by Diana Finegold. Helga opened the box, took out two candles, and gave back the box. Well one day, Art added a … let’s just call it a ‘martial aid’ … to the box. Diana opened the box and pulled it out. She screamed and dropped it. When we all saw what it was we were on the floor laughing hysterically. Of course, Art pulled this prank in a rehearsal, not a performance, but after that, Diana was afraid to open the box!?

Do you have any “dream roles” you’d love to play in the future??

Kelli Baumann: I just dream about being on the stage again … in any show!

Bob Beodeker: Sky Masterson in?Guys and Dolls.?

Glenn Friedman: Personally, my dream role would be Tony in?West Side Story, but unless they do it in a nursing home, I’ll never get to play it. Hey — that might be an idea for another show!?

Mike Hipp: Just about any role in?Guys and Dolls.?

?Rusty Kransky: I would love to play Sweeney and Don Quixote again. I also played Tevye in?Fiddler on the Roof?in high school and would love to do that … and there’s always Max in?The Producers?and about a hundred other roles!?

Jonathan Richmond: They are all tenor roles — and everyone knows the only way I can carry a tune is to schlep the score across the stage.?