Room Service Rehearsal, Day Five

Prior Reports:
Day 1 - Sunday, 29 June: Read-Through and Act One Blocking
Day 2 - Monday, 30 June: Act Two and Act Three Blocking
Day 3 - Tuesday, 1 July: Act Three Blocking, Publicity, and Working Act One
Day 4 - Wednesday, 2 July: Working Act Two and Meet the Cast

Thursday, 3 July: Run-Through and Meet the Cast

Hello again! I'm Eric Silvertree, back with another report on the rehearsals for Room Service, part of Tibbits Summer Theatre's forty-fifth season. Many thanks to my fellow cast member Tiffany Weisend and director Charles Burr for snapping the photos for today's post.

As we get closer to opening the show on July 10, the rehearsal process is gradually shifting from memorizing and working individual sections of the script toward integrating all of our work into a smooth, unified show. We're becoming more confident with our lines, and some of us are starting to put our books down. I'm not ready to do that - not yet. Since I'm also appearing in The Tortoise and The Hare and Other Fables by Aesop, which opens Saturday morning, I've been spending more study time with that script than this one. After the holiday weekend, though, all my focus will be on Room Service.


My time on Thursday was once again split between the two shows. I spent the morning session with Aesop, but in the afternoon I was there for a complete run-through of Room Service. A run-through is just what you'd think: we do the whole show from the beginning to the end, stopping as few times as we can - although we do go back and work on problem spots when they pop up.

Speaking of problems, farces are built on them. There are many different types of comedy, and in a farce, the emphasis is on an ever-increasing level of frenzy as competing characters with opposite goals keep out-maneuvering each other. All the action of Room Service happens in one place: Room 920 at the White Way Hotel in Times Square, New York City. All the characters you met yesterday (except for Christine) are living in this one room, the bill is hopelessly past due, and they're desperately trying to keep one step ahead of the hotel staff. Let's meet the opposing team!

Seated on the bed is Dennis McKeen, who plays Joe Gribble, the hotel manager. The only reason Gordon Miller has been able to put off the bill for feeding and lodging the twenty-two people in his company as long as he has is that Gribble is married to his sister Flossie. We never meet Flossie, but judging from Gribble's nerves, it's a fair bet that she's about the same size, shape, and disposition as her brother.

The perky lass to the right is Tiffany Weisend, in the role of Hilda Manney, Mr. Gribble's secretary. She's got a heart of gold and a taste for chocolate. She'd love to help the theatre troupe any way she can (especially that cute young playwright) but anyone thinking of breaking a promise to her had better think twice.

All the way to the left is John Marsh. He's playing Sasha Smirnoff, a waiter in the hotel and friend of Miss Manney. Sasha's from Russia, where he spent seven years working under Stanislavsky in the Moscow Art Theatre. Here in New York, however, he supports his wife and kids on a waiter's salary - all the while yearning to get back on the stage.

Second from the right is J.R. Colbeck, who plays Doctor Glass, the hotel's staff physician. He's a respectable man, focused on his job, which he performs with (uncomfortable) thoroughness. He does his best to brush off frustrations of his efforts and assaults on his dignity, but the herd of jokers and con-men in Room 920 are going to test the far limits of his patience.

Finally, there in the middle is me - Eric Silvertree. I'm playing Gregory Wagner, supervising director of the firm that owns the White Way Hotel. Wagner's a bully who answers to nobody but the board of directors, and he was sent here personally by Senator Blake, president of the company, to remake this failing flop-house into a money-making operation - and on the very first day, he discovers a twelve-hundred-dollar unpaid bill. Guess who's going to be the theatre company's biggest problem!

But wait - that's not everyone yet. You'll meet the rest of the cast in the report on Day Six. More to come!

Room Service Rehearsal, Day Four

Prior Reports:
Day 1 - Sunday, 29 June: Read-Through and Act One Blocking
Day 2 - Monday, 30 June: Act Two and Act Three Blocking
Day 3 - Tuesday, 1 July: Act Three Blocking, Publicity, and Working Act One

Wednesday, 2 July: Working Act Two and Meet the Cast

Hi there! Time for another report from your behind-the-scenes reporter, Eric Silvertree, as Tibbits Summer Theatre gets ready to present a classic farce about making it big on Broadway, Room Service.

Wednesday's schedule was a little unusual, because the musical Little Women started the second half of its run with a matinee performance at 2pm. Everybody in the acting company had the morning off to get ready for the afternoon curtain, except for those of us rehearsing the children's show The Tortoise and the Hare and Other Fables by Aesop, which opens on Saturday. And, of course, since the afternoon work period also starts at 2pm, there was no rehearsal then, either.

So, the only part of today's schedule devoted to Room Service was the evening session, which we spent working Act 2. As I described yesterday, working an act is a three-steps-forward, two-steps-back process by which we make our way gradually through the act, repeating small sections of the script over and over again. It sounds slow, but it goes faster than you might think - especially when you have a sharp, experienced director like our Charles Burr, and a focused, dedicated group of actors like my fellow cast members.

Since you know what working a script is like now, this would be a good time to start introducing you to the other actors in Room Service and tell you more about the characters they play in the show. Room Service is a send-up of the trials and tribulations involved in mounting a brand-new play on Broadway in the midst of the Great Depression with no money, no time, and - most importantly - no food!

The handsome gentleman second from the right who shaves the top half of his head instead of the bottom is Brian Sage. Brian is playing Gordon Miller, producer of a long line of low-budget flops, who is absolutely convinced that his next show, Godspeed, will be the hit he's always worked for. Of course, that's what he thought about his last show.

All the way to the left is Steve Moore, who plays Harry Binion, director of Godspeed. Binion and Miller go way back, and when it comes to the art of mounting a production against impossible odds, the two of them are an unstoppable team - which means that anybody who gets within fifty feet of either one of them had better keep his hand on his wallet and his eye on the door.

The man on the right whose shirt proclaims that "Romeo Was A Whiner" is Mark Kelley. He probably got that shirt from his character, Faker Englund. Faker is Miller's general assistant, a streetwise native of the Big Apple who is, if possible, an even more energetic con-man than Miller and Binion put together. He has more bad ideas before 9am than most people have all day.

The lovely lady in the center is Melissa McKim, playing Christine Marlowe. Christine works in the office of a rival Broadway producer. Her boss may be richer and more successful, but her heart belongs to Gordon Miller - and her face and voice belong on the stage, not behind a desk. She's an actress in Miller's shows, and she's certain that he's destined for great things. If only his methods were a little more honest…

And finally, second from the left, is Beau Hutchings. He's playing Leo Davis, the innocent young man from Oswego, New York, who wrote Godspeed, that fantastic play that Miller is eager to produce. Davis is just dying to get out of the small town onto the Great White Way, and he's hopped a train to New York City with a pocketful of change, a head full of dreams, and his mother's picture in a silver frame. What could possibly go wrong?

I'll introduce you to more of our cast of characters tomorrow, after Thursday's rehearsals. See you then!

Room Service Rehearsal, Day Three

Prior Reports:
Day 1 - Sunday, 29 June: Read-Through and Act One Blocking
Day 2 - Monday, 30 June: Act Two and Act Three Blocking

Tuesday, 1 July: Act Three Blocking, Publicity, and Working Act One

Hi again! Eric Silvertree reporting on the third day of rehearsals for Room Service, coming soon to the historic Tibbits Opera House in Coldwater, Michigan.

The director and cast finished blocking the very last scene of the play during the morning rehearsal session, which starts at 10am. My workday began at 8:45, however, because I was booked as a guest on “Delaney in the Morning” at WTVB-AM1590. Publicity work is part of an actor's job, too, from appearances at community events to interviews and articles for newspaper, TV, and radio - and weblogs!

I wasn't actually promoting Room Service, however. Caroline Stewart (Volunteer Coordinator for Tibbits) and I were on to talk to Ken Delaney about The Tortoise and the Hare and Other Fables by Aesop, which is the next production in Tibbits' Popcorn Theatre series for children, now that The House at Pooh Corner has finished its run.

As I mentioned yesterday, summer stock companies have multiple shows in the works at the same time. As of this moment, the count stands at three: Little Women is halfway through its performance run, and both Aesop and Room Service are in rehearsal. Come to think of it, both the director and musical director of The Goodbye Girl are doing prep-work already, and I'm sure the design staff are busy sketching and planning for shows further down the line… It gets hectic and confusing for everyone really fast. The person we actors rely on most to keep the confusion to a minimum is the stage manager. That's our stage manager, Justin Carrol, in the photo with the director, Charles Burr.

After I finished at the radio station and 10am rolled around, I still wasn't working on Room Service. I was rehearsing Aesop instead. Practically everyone in the cast of Little Women who's staying on for the rest of the season is in either Room Service or Aesop, but fortunately for everyone's sanity, I'm the only actor in both. Fortunately for my sanity, I'm not in Little Women.

On to the afternoon. Once blocking is completed, rehearsal switches over to work sessions. Working a scene or an act means doing it in tiny one- or two- or three-page sections. The cast does one section at a time over and over, stopping frequently to get feedback from the director, refining it and cementing it in their memories. When the director feels it's time to move on, he'll let the cast keep going past the end of that section, then loop back to repeat another few pages. Every now and then, to keep things from getting too choppy, the director will back up and run the cast through all the sections they've been working in one shot.

This afternoon's rehearsal period was spent working Act 3. Since I wasn't there in the morning for blocking, I got clued in on my movements by Justin. While the cast write down notes about their own blocking in their own scripts, the stage manager writes down blocking notes about everybody. Thus, actors who have to miss a rehearsal automatically have someone taking notes for them. Plus, when we get far enough along to put our scripts down, we have someone to ask if we forget a line or a piece of blocking.

During the evening rehearsal, we worked Act 1. Working an act involves a lot of waiting, because although you may know that there are three pages to go before you enter the scene, you don't know how many times they're going to do those three pages before they go on. We study our scripts on the sidelines, and at the same time we keep an eye on what's happening on stage, ready to jump in when the time comes. By the end of the day, both Act 3 and Act 1 had been completely worked. Guess which act we'll be working tomorrow!

Room Service Rehearsal, Day Two

Prior Reports:
Day 1 - Sunday, 29 June: Read-Through and Act One Blocking

Monday, 30 June: Act Two and Act Three Blocking

Hello! Eric Silvertree again, with the second installment of the day-by-day backstage blog of Room Service, the madcap comedy opening July 10 at the Tibbits Opera House in Coldwater.

Tibbits Summer Theatre is part of the summer stock theatre tradition, which means that the actors, carpenters, electricians, costumers (and so on) don't put on just one show, we put on a whole season: two plays, three musicals, and four children's shows, one right after another. Some actors may not be here for the entire summer - and musicians only work on the musicals, of course - but by and large everybody in a summer stock company is working on more than one show at a time.

This makes it impossible to rehearse an upcoming show on the actual stage, because the set for the current show (in this case, the musical Little Women - three shows left: July 2, 3 & 5 - bring the family!) is already there. Instead, Jefferson Elementary School graciously allows Tibbits to use its gymnasium for rehearsal space.

The walls and doors are laid out on the floor with lines of tape, with the same dimensions the set will have when it's erected on stage, and folding chairs stand in for the furniture. It's not as hard to get used to as you might think - and if there's a serious problem with how the set will work for the show, it can usually be spotted and corrected here, while everything is still being manufactured in the scene shop. For example, one of the doors on the Room Service set that was designed to open into the room will have to be re-designed to open out - but it's much easier to make the change now, before the set is actually installed.

Today we continued blocking, moving forward through the show. We worked on the first half of Act 2 in the morning, the second half in the afternoon, and the first half of Act 3 in the evening. We don't have any props yet, and we're still carrying our scripts as we work - not only because we're all still memorizing our lines, but also because we're jotting down notes to ourselves about where and when we move.

The quality of the acting is not our top priority during blocking. That comes during the later rehearsals. We're definitely thinking about the acting, though - figuring out what our characters feel at a given moment, trying out different ways of delivering tricky lines - like the line drawing an artist will sketch on the canvas before he actually starts to paint.

Creating the blocking for a show is one of the director's hardest jobs. He or she has to make sure the movement makes sense and doesn't result in traffic jams. Charles Burr, our director in Room Service (on the right in the photo) has a well-deserved reputation for the quality of his blocking, with well-balanced, interesting arrangements of the actors in the performance space, connected by engaging movement that springs naturally from the characters.

Tomorrow, on day three, we'll finish blocking the second half of the third act. Then we'll go back to the beginning and start working our way through the show again to reinforce what we've already done and start building on it. See you then!

Room Service Rehearsal, Day One

Sunday, 29 June: Read-Through and Act One Blocking

Hello! I'm Eric Silvertree, a member of the Tibbits Summer Theatre acting company. As part of your backstage pass to professional theatre at the Tibbits Opera House, I'll be giving you an actor's-eye-view of the rehearsals for Room Service, from the first cast meeting through the last performance.

You might be surprised to know that the rehearsal period for a main-stage show at Tibbits is only about ten days. Compared to (for example) a community theater production, which may have a six-week rehearsal schedule, that may not seem like very much time.

However, community theaters usually rehearse only four or five nights a week, for about three hours a night. At Tibbits, we rehearse all seven days a week, with three three-hour sessions a day: morning, afternoon, and evening - except Sunday, when we take the morning off. Doing the math, it actually works out to almost exactly the same number of hours spent in rehearsal.

This Sunday, the 29th of June, we began rehearsing Room Service for a 10 July opening. This show is a farce, first produced on Broadway in 1937, and released as a Marx Brothers film in 1938. Unlike most of the Marx Brothers catalog, for Room Service they worked themselves into a pre-existing script instead of building an original story around the Marx characters - which probably explains why the show was a big hit on Broadway (over 500 performances, in an era when 125 performances was a solid run) but one of the Marx Brothers' less-successful films.

The first session began with a read-through. A read-through is just what it sounds like. The cast all sit with their scripts in front of them and read the show out loud from beginning to end. Besides giving the performers a chance to listen to each other's voices and get a feel for the rhythm and texture of the language, it's also an opportunity to ask about the pronunciation of unusual words, or get an explanation of unfamiliar cultural references in the script.

The read-though is also where the actors start to make choices about technique. Technique, in this case, refers to things like vocal volume, speed of delivery, and any special character voices or accents. For instance, during this afternoon's read-through, I had a scene with an argument with another character. Back-and-forth arguments have to build in volume - each line louder than the last - or they sound flat and unrealistic on stage. I started off with a little too much volume, which meant that by the end of the argument, I was shouting much too hard. Now I have a mental note for that scene: start off lower, so I have room to build without risking damage to my voice.

Farces move fast - very fast. The read-though only took up ninety minutes of the first three-hour rehearsal session. The other ninety minutes were spent getting a head start on blocking the first act. Blocking is the process of mapping out the actors' pattern of movement on stage. Comedies, farces in particular, benefit from lots of quick, energetic movement - almost as complex as dance. In fact, the only real difference between blocking and choreography is whether or not the movement is timed to music.

After dinner break, we returned for the evening rehearsal session, and by the time the workday ended at 10pm, we had the entire first act blocked. That's twenty-four pages of movement and dialogue. Tomorrow morning at 10am, we'll start the second act. See you after tomorrow's rehearsal!

How to Build a Hundred Acre Wood

Here is Popcorn Theatre Designer Christopher Otwell's white model for The House at Pooh Corner. The play, adapted by Bobb James, travels to many places in the Hundred Acre Wood. This is the model Chris brought to the first production meeting to show the director, Trinity Bird, how the set might work. This is a composite of all the pieces used in the show. They don't play on stage at the same time. Those who saw the show will notice that this rough idea for Eeyore's house changed.

The map, taken from the fly leaf of the book, is the connecting link for all the locales. Here is the muslin stretched and ready to paint.

Here the color is just beginning to be added.

The completed map still at the scene shop. Chris estimates that the map alone took about 15 hours to paint.

The completed map in place, with one of the the small bush pieces. The House at Pooh Corner plays thorough the 28th of June.

Grace and Glorie fan Mail

My Husband and I saw the show Grace and Glorie last Friday night and we enjoyed the show immensely! Although I had to persuade my husband to come to the show he was so impressed and glad he went!

It was charming and witty! O we loved it! He laughed and he cried.

What a wonderful show it is, we want to thank you all for making it possible. I look forward to the season it looks like a wonderful summer filled with fabulous shows, I'll see you for "Little Women" can't wait.

Your Humble Fans!
Nancy and Jim Grubb
Angola, Indiana

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And we thank you, Nancy and Jim. Folks like you are the reason we do theatre......

Grace and Glorie closes with a Talkback

The short but sweet run of Grace and Glorie closed last Saturday with a moving performance by Donna Schulte and Gloria Logan in the two title roles. This performance also included the first of the talkbacks of the summer.

Talkbacks are held immediately after the final curtain on the first Saturday of each production's run. After I introduce the actors, designers and crew members, I open the floor for any questions the audience might have. There are the usual "Where are you from?" and "How long have you been acting?" type questions. But many of the sessions dig a little deeper. This comedy definitely has an emotional core that is very real which sparks further comment.

We were fortunate to have the production sponsored by CHC Hospice. We could not have had a more appropriate sponsor for this show about a citified, novice care giver arriving to help an old mountain woman die. At the Talkback, Debbie Reeg of Hospice spoke quite eloquently about how well the play caught the dynamics of hospice care that they see every day. I asked her if she would mind writing it up to share on the blog. Here is her letter:

Charles,

I wanted to share my feelings from the recent production. The performances were superb!!!! The way the actresses captured what we see and do every day caring for our Hospice patients was so realistic. It was very moving. Having been part of Hospice for 25 years. I was emotionally touched .

Our initial visit to the patients home is often very similar to the production. A lot of resistance and questioning why we are there, and what is Hospice. Quite a few of our families carry with them a lot of the dysfunction as you portrayed in the production.

Soon our patients, family/caregiver become so dependent and attached to the Hospice teams visits that the staff soon become part of the family.

Thank you so much for allowing us to assist by sponsoring this production and further educating the community about Hospice and the special gift it gives to the patient and family.

Debbie Reeg,
Director, Community Health Center Home Health,
Hospice and Maternal Infant Health Program
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We were also very pleased that Eleanor Shaw, the artist for the Grace and Glorie poster, came to see the show that night. She praised the show--and the actors praised her drawing of the "granny cottage," where the show is set. Reproductions of all the posters that our local artists created are available in the gift shop on the lower level of Tibbits.

Immediately after the talkback, the set crew attacked the set. All the props were put away, costumes hung up or in laundry piles, the pump that had pumped real water was disassembled and the walls came down. All was accomplished in less than an hour so as to make way for the set and light hang of Little Women.

Biography of Tom Ziegler--

Here is a brief bio for Tom Ziegler, author of Grace and Gloire

Tom Ziegler’s Grace and Glorie (first presented in workshop at The Shenandoah Valley Playwrights Retreat as Apple Dreams in 1990) went on to a successful Broadway run starring Estelle Parsons and Lucie Arnez. Hallmark Hall of Fame filmed it for television with Gena Rowlands as Grace and Diane Lane as Glorie. The play has had numerous productions nationally and internationally, including a sold-out run in Vienna. Mr. Ziegler has written a new translation adaptation of Carlo Goldoni’s Servant of Two Masters, which was produced at Washington and Lee University Theatre in Virginia. Other works include the musical Glory Bound, Home Games, and The Ninth Step. A native Chicagoan and a product of Chicago’s famous Second City, Mr. Ziegler migrated to the warmer climate of western Virginia where he teaches playwrighting and scene design at Washington and Lee University in Lexington. Thirty years later he’s following his love for education and is glad he took what he calls the best advise he was ever given….”take the job”. He claims, “that’s the main thing I do. I never say I’m a writer. I think of myself as a teacher who writes.” And aren’t the best teachers all storytellers at heart?

The first day of Little Women!

Sunday 15th

After an exciting meeting of who’s who, and Charles’ famous Tibbits schpeal, it was time to get the Little Women ball rolling! We circled-up our chairs in the gym and did a read through of the script. Since the music is so tremendous in this show, we listened to the original cast recording when it was time for a song. Usually, when a show is familiar it’s not hard to sing a long with the piano during the initial read though, but with such a new and demanding score, it would have been quite difficult and not as enjoyable. We also got a chance to focus on the lyrics and their implication to the story.

The most exciting thing about a read through is experiencing the magic of what began as words on a page, come to life. Everyone had such a great sense of character, which is as refreshing as necessary when you only have 10 days to perfect a show! Also, most of us have never worked together before. We’re all coming from Anywhere, America and relationships have to be created almost instantly. Fortunately, this is an amazing group, and think it’s going to transfer beautifully into a truthful and wildly adventurous Little Women!

And to top off our first day— a lovely and delicious picnic only made more thrilling by a surprise thunderstorm! Talk about instant bonding!

{by Katie Lemos who plays Jo in Little Women.}

Grace and Glorie

Gloria Logan and Donna Schulte in the 2001 production of Grace and Glorie.



We started work on Grace and Glorie last Monday--just a week ago. The ladies arrived already knowing large segments of the script. I am very glad they didn't wait until rehearsal started; with only the two characters, there are massive amounts of lines to learn.

After our production here at Tibbits in January of 2001, Gloria and Donna did the show again, produced by Duo Damas Productions (which is Gloria and Joanne Winkleman Hulce---yes, the mother of Amadeus actor, Tom Hulce.) The physical production of Grace and Glorie is from that production.


One of the things we all love about this play is that each time we revisit it, we find it richer than the time before. I love the fact that a number of times in the script, the playwright, Tom Ziegler, did not take the easy way out- the typical movie of the week scenario--NOBODY dies. And for all the talk about death--it's not a show about dying, it's a show about living. And it's funny. I know people hear that it is a show about a dying woman (sponsored by Hospice, no less) and they don't give it a chance. They need to trust us. Why would we pick a bad play when we get to do so few scripts in our lives? If you liked Steel Magnolias, you will love this show.


So for the past week we have been in Diane Godfrey's dance studio rehearsing like mad, while The House At Pooh Corner is in the theatre. And on Monday, we had three shows in rehearsal, for the Little Women cast began to learn their music at one of the local Elementary schools.

We have now moved on stage. Since the set was built to travel, it was put up very fast. We have had the first tech rehearsal--where it's more about getting the phone to ring properly and other sound and light issues than it is about acting the show. Yesterday was the first dress rehearsal. It never ceases to amaze me how putting on costumes affects the show (and how actors act)more than anything else. It's something about looking in the mirror and seeing that "different" person that helps so many actors get a clearer vision of the role they are creating. It was a very good rehearsal. We will do it twice today---and then it's Magic Time.

We all hope to see you at the Tibbits for the great little show that is Grace and Glorie.

How Summer Theatre Comes Together, Part 2

I start to find the Design/Technical side for the summer at the same time in February as the acting auditions. There is something like a jobs fair at each audition I attend. Designers arrive at the Tibbits table with portfolios of their work--pictures, prompt books, technical drawings, renderings--hoping to impress the theatre representative. (Sometimes this is me, sometimes the Technical Director, if I have one in place that early in the season.) I also do a tremendous amount of our technical hiring from backstagejobs.com where countless behind the scenes jobs are listed for theatres across the country.

This year we have a very high return rate on the technical side. I think this speaks well for what we do here. It is an exhausting, sometimes thankless job. But we had a great team last summer and have only built on our strengths for this one. Lex vanBlommstein and Em Rossi, both in the process of getting their Master's degree with the Hillberry, are back with us. I know they were instrumental in talking up the Tibbits there, so we have three others from that program working here this summer.

The Design/Tech staff has all been here a week. The set is already being built. The Technical Director feels they are a couple of days ahead of schedule for Little Women and it has been given to the Scenic Artist to paint. The Costume Department is deep in research and showing renderings of the various ideas to be approved by the Director. The Properties Department is making massive lists and doing their own research of the Civil War era. Lighting is reconditioning lights and hanging them in a rep plot-- that is where the basic hang will be used all summer with variations for each show.

We have also been rehearsing Grace and Glorie and The House and Pooh Corner. By the end of the day we will be rehearsing three shows in three spaces around town. I will post this now, for it's time to greet the vast majority of actors who are arriving for Little Women. By the end of this week the first two productions will be open. That fact can still amaze me.

Thank You

I can't pretend that business went on as usual after Bobb's death. He was such a huge part of this season. He was going to appear in four of the mainstage shows, direct his adaptation of The House at Pooh Corner, be assistant Musical Director for The Bop She Bops and write, with me, the adaptation of The Tortoise and the Hare. I think it's says everything about his versatility that it took 5 people to replace him for this summer.

I was tremendously touched by the outpouring of both the Coldwater and the Theatre community. I heard from people that I have not seen in years. I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who sent a card, contributed to the Restoration Fund in his honor, planned and/or performed as part of the Celebration of Bobb's Life or anyone who had a memory of Bobb they wanted to share. So---Thank You.

Summer is almost here. Company members arrive in just a few days.

And the show will go on.

Bobb wouldn't want it any other way....

A tribute to Bobb James, actor

Bobb James in The Sunshine Boys, TST 1999

One of the most beloved actors in the history of Tibbits Summer Theatre, Bobb James, will not be appearing this summer. Since the fall of 2005, Bobb was fighting liver disease. I drove him home from Florida, where he was about to go into rehearsal, to let him end his days in Coldwater. Instead, with the help of some of his best friends, he fought back. He stopped drinking and there was enough liver left to produce a near miraculous recovery. The Bobb I knew best returned, and we did some of our best work together. He was back onstage, writing, and feeling great. But by the beginning of 2008, it was a different story. And on Saturday morning, May 3, just days shy of his 56th birthday, Bobb died peacefully at U of M hospital in Ann Arbor.


Where to begin?


That voice. Bobb had one of the best instruments I knew. A leading man’s voice in a character actor’s body. But he finally found the roles: Juan Peron in Evita, The Governor in Best Little Whorehouse, Michael in I Do I Do, Honore in Gigi. He excelled at anything that could show off his felicity with words and bring out the native born Brit: Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady, Andrew Wyke in Sleuth, Charles Condomine in Blithe Spirit. He delighted in (and was delightful) in farce: …Forum, Charley’s Aunt, Footlight Frenzy, Lucky Stiff and Lend Me a Tenor. Or on the flip side which we didn’t see nearly enough: Mass Appeal. It threatens to become just a list-- with 22 seasons at the Tibbits--- playing over 70 roles. And there were countless roles in Nashville, Dayton, Birmingham and in Florida.


It was no secret that I directed him in many of his best parts. He was such an instinctual actor. He made it look easy. But I knew the tricks--I rarely let him get away with the easy choice. We could speak in shorthand--while the rest of the company wondered what the hell we were talking about--but the performance emerged richer and more layered.


We didn’t do it often in later years, but we enjoyed being on stage together. Harvey springs to mind. The Gershwin brothers. And mention must be made of Once Upon a Mattress where few can forget Bobb as King Sextimus teaching me, as a very slow Prince Dauntless, the birds and the bees in mime….


Then there’s the writing, over 20 plays, the best of them written together---my spare style meeting his effuse one, creating a better whole. Sort of like our life together…


One last thought: Several year’s ago, a season subscriber was at the ticket window. She was listening to the rundown of what shows we were doing. The patron cut the box office manager off. “Just tell me if that Bobb James is gonna be here. That always means a good show.”


Not this year, ma’am.

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A Celebration of Bobb's Life will be held onstage at the Tibbits, May 15, 2008 at 7:00pm.

Please no flowers. All memorials will go the Tibbits Restoration Fund.