City in Sound; Edgewater Beach Playhouse

This is Jack Angel with City and Sound. These are stories out of Chicago. City of all things. One among them, summer theater. Edgelwater Beach Playhouse. Yes, ma 'am. The Michael Mr. Penny Packer will be here from the 23rd of June to the 5th of July, starring Burgess Meredith. We can give you seats on the first, second, third or fourth of July. Two of them on the first of July. Yes, ma 'am. We can give you seats close down. And if you'll send us a check for $7, we will be glad to send you your seats, Pat. Thank you very much. All right. There has been some recent discussion of Chicago culture. However, deeper shallow its roots, there is a general flowering during the summer when a number of summer theater companies come to town, bringing several big names, lots of local color, and a great deal of creative energy. There is a competition among them. The

Edgelwater Beach Playhouse has entered it with a summer schedule beginning with the remarkable Mr. Penny Packer and with it the name Burgess Meredith. But our story here is not of the star, but of the show and the parts of Chicago that go into it. Well, you're an old Ben who produces this summer theater here and who's your friend. Well, this is Tom Soling, who is the advanced director for the remarkable Mr. Penny Packer. He just got in late last night from Detroit and shows the wear and tear. Of course, if you said it was a bad show, you wouldn't be here, but why do you like it? Oh, well, first of all, because of Burgess Meredith, and it's such a great talent. And of course, the play is such a charming comedy. And we know about people like Burgess Meredith. What about the people you see around the country when you go, well, say children like these, about an acting talent? It's really remarkable. It really is to find such talent in such out of the way of play. You don't expect to find talent

in suburban Detroit, but it's really amazing. Some of the children are quite remarkable. They're indoctrinated to New York too long. I think so. I think so. I quite agree with you. We're very showvinistic here. We don't think Chicago is out of the way at all. We think you're out of the way in New York. Well, how about summer theater? Is it a pretty robust thing? Is it a divisor? Is it an industry? Is it here to stay? Oh, summer theater, I think it's definitely here to stay. Certainly. It serves a great purpose. No, do you produce these theaters for some time now? Tell us a little bit about this summer theater, the Edgewater Beach Playhouse. Well, the Edgewater falls into a strange classification because it's halfway between a summer theater and an actual winter theater. The operation by being in the city of Chicago is by necessity, much larger. I think this, to our knowledge, is the largest single summer operation in the country. The type of show we do and the size

of show, we do also varies. In other words, we're not in the position to do what a theater 200 miles from a legitimate, I mean, from a large city we'll do. We try to do shows that have never been seen here. We try to do tryouts. We also differ from a summer theater in that we are reviewed. Most summer theaters put their ad in the paper and it's a community affair, but we are operating in a city where we would operate the same way if we were bringing a show in directly from New York in the winter. I understand you want to make this a permanent theater. Well, there's been talk about that. We would like things go well to go into a permanent structure, extend our summer season, possibly go into a winter season. Yes, we think there's enough potential here to do that. And we're keeping our fingers crossed to see what happens this year because a lot will depend on that. All right, thank you, gentlemen. Let's take a look at the theater and listen to some of these auditions here.

Okay, thank you. Miss Leona Shapiro. Miss Karen Boulevard. There you go now. Okay. No, I just need the first two. Yes, I put two. Okay. All right. Now, are you more comfortable standing? Would you rather sit? I'd rather stand. You'd rather stand? Okay. Want to move over further in the front of us? Okay. Now, we just, all we're, all we're after, we're just a voice quality. So, no, don't be tense. Just take it very easy. You are, who's the student number one, two, and you're number one. All right. Do you want to leave them? No, no, no. You've got to be a swan like this. I saw you, David. Edward, I saw you. My brothers. Maybe they like dancing. Boys, they like keyholes. Well, I might as well tell you why I moved to my studio very soon to New York City. New York,

that's where the Metropolitan Opera House is. Well, your mother let you go. Father, give me permission. He says that our justice and justice men have careers. He's a very advanced free figure. Are you going to dance the Metropolitan Opera House? Are you? I'm going to be Prima, Valorina. Prima, Valorina. At the Metropolitan Opera House, the symphony orchestra with a thousand pieces, and my toes will be part of the music. Jane, you don't have to stop teaching. I'm going to go to bloom. Do your mother want some potkeys? Yes, I'm Jane. You put too. You put too. Lawsy, look at the time. We're way over on you already. We've accomplished nothing. Oh, that's not so, Miss Laurie. I promise my mother I'd be home early this time. I'll see you next Friday. Okay, thank you now. We have just for you. People. I'm here to go. I'm here to go. It's number two. They own it in yellow. Let me beat that, don't you think? Yes, that'll be the section. I want to...

Do you want to sit down in just a minute? Let me have your... Let me have both scripts. Give the next two. I want to try a... Just a little exercise. Do you want to sit down for just a minute? No, you stay here. Now, do you want to sit down? This is a very simple. I want to give you a situation. You know, let's say that you want to run into this. You've been out in the street. And you see a circus pass. You see a whole circus through a train. And you rush into the house. And you start telling whichever in the house about it. You can tell them whatever you want to tell them. You know, that the wagon was big. That the wagon was small. That there were lines and tigers. But instead of using words, I want you to use numbers. Like one, two, three, four, five, six, seven.

In other words, I just want the emotion. Do you understand? In other words, you run in. Whatever you're going to say, translate into numbers. Just one, two, three, four, five, six. Do you understand that? Yeah, I understand. And movements. You can get up. You can run around. I want to think about it a minute. And then I want you to tell me a story in numbers. You can tell me what you like. What you didn't like. What frightened you. What you didn't find. But you have to tell it to me in numbers. Okay. Tell me first if you saw a line. Which is a line? Oh, nice. Well, here, do these two things. Tell me first that you saw a line which frightened you and second you saw monkeys which made you laugh. In numbers. See if you can do it. Should I start now? Anytime you want. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen. Good.

Okay, very good. You're the mother of one of these little girls trying out, aren't you? Yes, I am. What was your name? Mrs. Waxman, Mrs. A. Waxman. And that's Sharon over there. That's right. Do you have aspirations for Sharon on the stage as at the idea? Whatever Sharon wants to do, that's what I'll go along with. Right now Sharon wants to be an actress, is it right? Well, not necessarily. I just feel that it's good training. If she wants to do that later on, she's just finishing grammar school and going into high school. So her plans really aren't definite. How old is she? Sharon is just thirteen. Did you ever do any acting when you were a woman or a Waxman? No. Do you have a dramatic background in the family? No. This is just a phase that... It's a phase that Sharon has had since she's been four and a half. She's always loved it and been at it ever since. Well, she's quite a young lady with quite a large life ahead of her. I hope so. God willing. It's interesting to see how they do work out. That's right. It says here that you're Bob Eckert, the treasurer, and I

find you in the box office. I dare say you kind of double or perhaps your main function is to take care of this box office. Well, I try the best that I can to take care of the people that want some seats for this show. How many performances, how many plays I should say are you having? Well, it's summer. Well, we're going to have five plays. And the first one, as you know, is the remarkable Mr. Penny Packer with Burgess Meredith. And we followed that one up with Walter Slesak and the Little Hut, followed by Melvin Douglas and Strange Partners, which is a new play. And then we have Anne Sheridan and Kine Sir. And Uncle Willie, it will be played by Minesha Skolnik. Yeah. How in the world is it ever possible to know how many tickets you've sold and how many you have it and where they are and where you pick them out of this tremendous box here with all the little cubby holes? Well, to find out how many we've sold, normally we try and keep a pretty correct amount of ticket sold over the window.

And also we keep a track of what tickets are sold through the mail. There are, there are probably, we know what we have been doing. Do you ever get oversold? Oversold? No, that, that could never happen. Undersold, but never oversold. Have you ever heard it said that box office attendance are kind of surly and solemn here in Chicago? Very, very much so, in fact, I've had it said to myself. But if anybody wants to stay through at a box office through the course of a day and they listen to the type of questions and things that are put to a box office man in the course of a day, if he doesn't blow off once, it's lucky. Well, thank you, Bob. I hope you have a lot of money to count. I hope so too. Okay. Thank you very much. All right, this is Vern Schwartz, whose stage manager and a stage manager of course is the man behind the scenes and so dramatically important to the scene here in the theater. Vern, are you a native

of Chicago, first of all? Yes, I am. So there is quite a Chicago element to this show too, wouldn't it? Well, it's, most of the people at work backstage in this area are Chicago people. The stage hands are Chicago people, maybe. You speak like an actor, how do they get you behind scene here? Well, I've found that acting doesn't particularly pay too well unless you're well -known. And this is far more a study type job and in a way rewarding. I enjoy it very much. If they make it a permanent theater, it'll be pretty permanent for you or not necessarily. In this business, it's a touch and go. You never know which end is up. Well, what kind of a stage do you have here? This is a proscenium stage. It's not the usual most stock companies around Chicago operate in the round, which is called an arena stage. But this is a proscenium stage and it's enclosed finally this year with cement blocks.

And a proscenium stage translated from the Greek name to the regular stage. Just a plain ordinary common garden variety stage. And the seats are out in front under a tent here. How many of your seats? We see about 744. Of course, I know you're going to have more full. Oh, yes. We're doing very well in the box office. And I understand we're fairly well sold out. Well, how does this differ from what we've come to know in summer's stock where the cast gets together and it barns somewhere and builds the thing up props and everything else? Well, this is a much bigger operation. It involves a great deal of time. And the people that operate backstage are union men. It's a union house where you utilize apprentices a little bit here and there for jobs like painting the dressing rooms, cleaning up stuff like that. But the building is done by the stage hands, which are union. Well, you've certainly remade the back of the edgewater beach here. Oh, yes. If it isn't permanent, why you'll have quite a time taking it down. Well, what they eventually want to do is to enclose this entire

state of the house where the audience will sit with a permanent structure, possibly like tent house. This will operate still during the summer's, of course. Surely. Well, now, how many men behind the scenes do you have here in the staging crews? Well, we have three union stage hands. We have a master electrician, master carpenter, a master prop man. And, of course, they do the procuring of props, picking up and building the scenery, et cetera, et cetera. We have a union designer who is over there right now as union scenes painting the scenery with Mr. Penny Packer. It gives us a little idea of the size of the show. Well, the show itself has a cast of, I guess, about 23 something like it. It's a fairly large show. It's about the largest cast show we'll do all of a sudden. You have just about as many people back here as they have. Oh, yeah. Well, it's really funny. The public seldom realizes the amount of time it takes to set up a theater so that the actors can come in and work. I mean, the actors will rehearse for a few days or a week. They're rehearsing in New York now from what I understand. They'll come in

with a show already to go, but it took us almost a month to get to the point where we are right now. It's a fantastic operation to get a theater ready to open. How long does it take to get the feel of a show so that you know when to drop the right scenes and move in with the right sets? It depends upon the qualifications of the people running it. The boys back here are excellent. They know a show business inside out and won't take them long. They bring in shows as a package. Yeah, these shows are ready to go. And you have to pretty well be alerted about staging and scenery requirements before they cover it. Oh, yes. And you can move fast. We'll be set up very easily, very quickly. It'll take about one run through and we'll have all the cues and lights set. Wonderful, very nice to see you. Okay, thank you very much. All right, you're Jim Moronic and you're the head scene designer here. Is that much of a problem in a summer theater like this? It's quite a bit of a problem, yes. You have

to make some much scenery. That's right, and it comes up so fast every two weeks. I've always wondered, Jim, what you do with scenery when the play closes? Well, we repaint it and put it right back into the next production. Use the same materials and just to type another coat of paint over it and redo it. That's right. Is there really very much involved in making scenery for a show on a circuit of this type? Is it semi -permanent or permanent? No, it only lasts the length of the show and then it's completely rebuilt from scratch again for another production. When the producer comes to you and says, make me some scenery for this production, does he get pretty specific or does he? Yes, especially on our schedule here where we haven't time to discuss it in any great detail. The producer usually decides what he wants and we go right into action. Well, a lot of stage settings you see have a kind of a symbolism and caricature, cartoons, or the cut -out method of scenery, and yet a lot of times you find stark realism

and how do you choose between them? Well, that of course depends on the script and normally in summer stock we stick to lighter comedies. And this again usually takes a certain kind of setting, a brighter, lighter realistic kind of set. Well Jim, it's been explained to us that some of these shows will come in here as a package and will have done the same thing in Detroit and New York and other places. How about the scenery in those cases? Will it be the same as they've had in New York and Detroit? Well, we stick to the floor plan of the production that the package has rehearsed on. But as far as the appearance of the set goes, there's some freedom there, still from theater to theater. You see, but the props will look familiar. They'll be familiar to the actors who have rehearsed for a specific setup. There's a slight variation from here and there. Have you trained in an artistic way for this job, Jim? I'm about it. Getting my master's degree this month at the Goodman Theater here in Chicago.

In scenic design. In scenic design, yes. Well, we're certainly looking forward to seeing your handy work here, Jim. And I thank you for talking to us. Thank you. Bob Kamlott is General Manager of the Edgewater Beach Playhouse. And Bob, what kind of an operation is this? Well, it's a summer theater, but it's an unusual summer theater. Because of its scope, because of the problems involved, we're in a very large metropolitan city. Most summer theaters are not. They're usually in a resort area. And it's kind of informal thing. We seat more people than the average summer theater. And we use what we like to call as superstars. Sure. It's a much larger and much bigger operation than most of the summer theaters. Throughout the country. What's the principal object to make money? No, that isn't the principal object. I think you have to break it down into a couple of areas. Naturally, we'd like to make money. But I think

the people that are behind this are local Chicago people. And for years and years, people have said Chicago is not getting the kind of theater that it deserves. And they are, I think, most of them are businessmen. Some of them are fairly well known on the area. Louisanne, Arthur Morse, a very prominent lawyer. Ken Russ, Sam Berkey. They have formed a corporation with the hope of bringing good theater, good entertainment to Chicago. Tangentially, they'd like to make money. Well, that's understandable. And they've hired you and your company to come in here with these package productions. Well, here's the way it works. The men that I've just mentioned are all very, very successful businessmen. And have a smattering knowledge of theater. But they have chosen to go out and get professional people. Mr. Noel Benton, who has a theater in New York, who's produced a number of shows in New York and myself. I've worked with him as General Manager for about six years now. And they've gotten all of us

to try to run the theater for them on a professional basis. Now, we do this in two ways. We either book a package, so to speak, which comes to us relatively complete, or we produce our own show. In the case of our second show, Walter Slasak and the Little Hut. That is our own show. We are producing that ourselves. In the case of the Remarkable Mr. Penny Packer, it's a package. It doesn't mean that we get it, and it's here. There's still a tremendous amount of work to be done. Well, there's quite a little discussion in Chicago now about our cultural status. You being from the East and having worked a long Broadway, both on and off Broadway. How do you feel about this? Well, I don't know too much about Chicago. I have heard the cry we want good theater out here for a long, long time. The other night I heard Mr. Morse on a radio program, and he said, let's get the people of Chicago away from their television set and get them out to the theater. And I think that

partially the Chicagoans themselves are to blame, because they don't support good theater when it does get here. Now, I'm not sure of these facts, but I understand a good production of separate tables came here recently. Got very good reviews. It had a name player in it, and people didn't support it. Now, partially, that's their fault. Partially, they are not getting the kind of quality. They're getting to a certain extent second companies instead of the original companies. But we're trying to change that. With, for instance, we are doing a new play with Melvin Douglas, that has never been done anywhere before. Chicago will be the first city to see it. It's our third show. It's called Strange Partners, and it's a theater guild production. And it will open here in Chicago. This will be the world premiere. So in that sense, we are trying to help to take away the stigma of road companies and second companies. We have been at the Edgewater Beach Playhouse. One of the bright things about summer in the city. But it would be

good to widen the stage for the rest of the year as well. The city which makes the most steel and fashion the first nuclear explosion and moves dynamically as transporter and producer to the whole world is surely ready for a little more of its arts and stage. Not the least good function of the summer theater is to remind us that it's been a long winner. This is Jack Angel with George Wilson, an engineer, whose recordings here have imprinted city and sound.