{"id":9704,"date":"2013-06-09T22:00:23","date_gmt":"2013-06-10T02:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/?p=9704"},"modified":"2024-12-04T17:53:14","modified_gmt":"2024-12-04T22:53:14","slug":"red-white-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/?p=9704","title":{"rendered":"Red, White And Act"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"09<\/a>Linda Burton posting from Topeka, Kansas <\/i>\u2013 \u201cActing is standing up naked and turning around very slowly.\u201d That statement is attributed to Rosalind Russell; I found it on page 34 of my Sunday theater playbill. The actors I saw today were anything but naked \u2013 two men playing nineteen different roles with complete costume changes every few minutes. But it was \u201cno holds barred\u201d on the acting front as they switched back and forth between being old men and young, spiteful women and loving; women totin\u2019 guns and men wearing tiaras; adding sagging breasts or bulging bellies or curly wigs and or ten-gallon hats as the role required. Was it a laugh-a-minute as Amber Windchime and Star Birdfeather paraded around? Did the audience roar when Arles Struvie or Thurston Wheelis took the stage? I was sharing a table; three lovely ladies who had season tickets were missing their \"09<\/a>fourth friend today, so I sat with Madelyn and Joy and Betty as we enjoyed cheese-scrambled eggs and apricot-topped sweet rolls before the house lights went down. Our seats were grand; the third tier up and pretty much centered; the house was packed. The two men who carried the production onstage were Dan Decker, acting in his 11th<\/sup> show, and Thomas Hughes Jr, who has been performing here for \"09<\/a>the last 17 years. Backstage, the costume crew of eight stood on point, ready for the split-second costume changes; the sound and lighting and stage crew were on their toes; all volunteers. The play was Red, White & Tuna<\/i>; the setting was the 4th of July in Tuna, Texas; and the reality was the Sunday brunch matinee at the oldest community dinner theater in the country. Its proper name is Topeka Civic Theatre & Academy, and its mission statement begins \u201cBringing our diverse community together\u2026\u201d <\/p>\n

Patrons, donors, and volunteers are the key to the success of any community endeavor, and at TCTA all three come through in magnificent abundance. The appeal, I\u2019d say, is the true diversity of offerings; besides the mainstage plays in the spacious Sheffel Theatre; there is the Helen Hocker Theater and the Oldfather Theater, with lineups that appeal to the widest of tastes. Les Mis\u00e9rables<\/i> is next on schedule at the Sheffel, where Red, White & Tuna<\/i> is playing \"09<\/a>now; Laugh Lines<\/i> comes up after that. Laugh Lines<\/i> (with the warning that its humor is not suitable for all audiences) is improvisational comedy that includes audience participation games; it tends to pack the theatre with every show.<\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s the Senior Class, an offshoot improv group of \u201cmature\u201d comedians \u2013 all actors are over 55. But the youth are not forgot; TCTA\u2019s newest improv group is the Freshman Class. Its comic sketches and games are based on audience suggestions, performed by youth, with humor that appeals to kids and adults alike. Oldies but goodies like Fibber McGee and Molly<\/i> and the Lone Ranger<\/i> (Hi Ho Tonto!) are radio plays, and all sound effects are created live on stage by very expressive actors.<\/p>\n

The Helen Hocker Theater workshops are geared up for summer to give even the very youngest their first taste of Life Onstage. Ages 5-8 can enroll in Broadway Bound and First Steps to Broadway; by the ripe old age of 9 Production Workshops are offered for horizon-\"09<\/a>expanding training in music, dance, acting, improvisation, stage-combat performance, and technical production. Participants also learn how to create a script and perform it as the sessions end.<\/p>\n

\u201cAcademy Kids put the A in TCTA\u201d is the heading for Summer Camps; the list of possibilities for summertime learning and fun are mind-boggling. And clever! For instance, 5-6-year-olds can go to \u201cIceland\u201d for a week and learn How the Ladies Stopped the Wind<\/i>. Why aren\u2019t there any trees in Iceland? How do the ladies and the chickens stop the wind? How did the hungry sheep try to change their plans?<\/p>\n

The Peanut Butter Players (2nd<\/sup> and 3rd<\/sup> graders) play Annie\u2019s Kids<\/i>, the 1930\u2019s in New York; Daddy Warbucks and FDR; Sandy the lovable dog and the not-so-lovable Miss Hannigan. The After School Players (3rd<\/sup> and 4th<\/sup> graders) hang out with Snew White in Wychwood, and with dwarves Snippy, Sloppy, Spiffy, Twitchy, Nosey, Sticky and Brad the Surfer Dwarf while the Magic Mirror convinces the Evil Queen to go into therapy with Sigmund Freud.<\/p>\n

\"09<\/a>Older students like the Buskin Players and the Act One Players play around with Bird Brains<\/i> (how to deal with a bully bird) and Goldilocks on Trial<\/i> (she was arrested for breaking and entering.) The Take Two Players learn how to write a play (can they do it in time?) and the Prime Time Players (all the way to 8th<\/sup> grade now) tackle Questionable<\/i>, when the National Institute of Testing While Involving Theater, or NITWIT, conducts a hilarious test-taking experience for the audience to determine: Are we really ready for high school?<\/p>\n

Behind it all, the Technical Theatre Camp for ages 12+ brings students into the \u201cdark\u201d side of theatre to create scenic, lighting, and prop designs for six summer camp productions. There\u2019s no reason for boredom in Topeka this summer; great fun and readying for the 2013-2014 season, where at the Helen Hocker Theater the lineup includes Shrek the Musical, Nora\u2019s Ark, Unnecessary Farce<\/i>, and Rapunzel, a Very Hairy Fairy Tale<\/i>.<\/p>\n

\"09<\/a>Meanwhile, back on the Main Stage, the next season promises a variety that ranges from Young Frankenstein<\/i> to The Tempest<\/i>. I say buy your season tickets now, or join the cast and crew. Look at Dan and Thomas, who entertained us this afternoon with all those costume changes and crazy roles. Dan and his son Teddy recently appeared together in a show here; Dan also coaches his son\u2019s baseball and football games and has a full-time job. Thomas has been a volunteer at TCTA since 1996 and was chosen as Volunteer of the Year last year. He has been in 39 productions and played almost a hundred different characters.<\/p>\n

All of which leads me to believe, acting must be a lot more fun than Rosalind tried to make it.<\/p>\n

Note: Jim Ogle, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of TCTA, wrote a piece for the Playbill about the many ways community theater brings a diverse community together. For example, when producing last season\u2019s drama dealing with mental illness, Next to Normal, TCTA teamed with professionals from the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) to hold discussions with the cast and interested audience members after each performance. Speakers affected by various mental illnesses shared their stories, along with the professionals who treated them; the cast addressed the challenges of telling such stories in the context of the production; the audience added insight and perspective. <\/i><\/p>\n

About TCTA, http:\/\/www.topekacivictheatre.com\/<\/a>\u00a0 Be sure to click on the video Harold the Stagehand.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Linda Burton posting from Topeka, Kansas \u2013 \u201cActing is standing up naked and turning around very slowly.\u201d That statement is attributed to Rosalind Russell; I found it on page 34 of my Sunday theater playbill. The actors I saw today were anything but naked \u2013 two men playing nineteen different roles with complete costume changes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4587,1723],"tags":[2370,2373,2376,2342,2375,2372,2374,2371,3087,2369],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9704"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9704"}],"version-history":[{"count":33,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9704\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15158,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9704\/revisions\/15158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}