"Let's put on a show!"
Once upon a time, in the Hollywood of old, that was a standard trope: Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney or their equivalents out to save the orphanage or the school or the holiday lodge by throwing an amateur musical-comedy production, usually in a barn.
Ingenuity was the watchword. And flexibility. And making do with little more than shoe leather and scrap lumber for resources.
Well, Caltech isn't that close to the edge, but its theatrical troupe EXPLiCIT (which stands for EXtracurricular PLayers at CIT, the i being imaginary) measures high on the scale of inventiveness under pressure both spatial and temporal, with past examples including The Comedie of Errors and I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change.
Self-described as "a student- and community-run organization dedicated to promoting theater at Caltech, providing ancillary support to TACIT [Theater Arts at Caltech], and producing independent performances," EXPLiCIT is putting on a whopping bacchanal of a show the first weekend of May.
With music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and based on the plays of the Roman farceur Plautus, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum is coming to Ramo Auditorium on the Caltech campus. Winner of the 1963 Tony Award for Best Musical, the show weaves a tangled slapstick web of mistaken identities, star-crossed lovers, conniving servants, and frantic, door-slamming chases, all in celebration of the opening song, "Comedy Tonight," and all ending happily for nearly everyone roped into the pandemonium.
Enthusiasm for theater runs deep at Caltech, and putting on a show is its own reward. Still, this one requires a stage setting of three houses, a 16-piece orchestra, and a cast of 18, all of whom dance and most of whom sing. As always, members of the Caltech community, from students and postdocs to staff and alumni, pitched in to make it work. As chemistry grad student Crystal Dilworth, the show's choreographer, had occasion to remark, "It's kind of amazing what Caltech can do when it puts its mind to it."
Dilworth, in fact, studied dance at the Ailey School in New York City after earning her bachelor's degree in biochemistry. Having resigned herself to giving up dance and theater by coming to Caltech, she's been delighted to find that's not the case at all. She categorizes most of the choreography for this production as traditional Broadway theatrical dance plus some burlesque. "Everybody," she emphasizes, "at some point dances."
Everybody includes the Proteans, a small "chorus" of cast members who shift from role to role throughout the play. Says Ashley Stroupe, who hails from JPL and drives Mars rovers for a living, "We move around from one character to another—servants, soldiers, you name it."
Another element that shifts from character to character is the collection of available microphones. Mark Lucas, who is a lead system administrator in IMSS as well as sound director for A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, hands out the microphones at the beginning of each performance. Thereafter, he says, "the actors handle the transfers."
Indeed, pretty nearly everyone involved is doing double duty: performing and crewing and even constructing. The three houses around which the frenetic action revolves are wood flats built and braced sturdily enough to withstand the requisite slamming doors, rooftop scenes, and characters emerging from windows. They were carpentered by JPL mission-planning supervisor Dave Seal, who also stars in the production as the crafty servant Pseudolus; Meg Rosenburg, a grad student in planetary science who is effectively the musical's producer and organizing genius; Mark Lucas, who, as already noted, is the show's sound director; alumnus Stephen Kellogg, class of 1978, who plays Erronius, tirelessly jogging around the seven hills of Rome; Eric Brustad, a postdoc in chemical engineering who pitched in as a friend of EXPLiCIT; plus a number of other cast members as and when they found the time.
Rosenburg designed the sets after doing some research on Roman houses. She wanted them "flat and theatrical and easy to break down" so that they could be easily moved on and off the stage. With a shoestring budget so tight that hiring a truck from the campus motor pool proved beyond the production's means, the EXPLiCIT cast/crew banded together to hand-carry the flats across Caltech from TACIT House on Hill Avenue at the Institute's eastern boundary to Ramo Auditorium in the middle of campus.
Competition for use of the auditorium is intense. Once the sets had arrived on Friday, April 29, they had to be set up for that night's rehearsal and then, after a weekend of rehearsals, broken down and moved off stage Sunday night. They were again set up for a full dress rehearsal the following Wednesday and taken back down immediately afterward, and will go up once more for the performances May 6 and 7, only to be broken down for good right after the final performance. Whew!
In what truly is a community effort, other participants of note are Miranda Stewart, who is directing the play—and who so fell in love with theater that she ended up transferring from Caltech to Occidental to major in theater—and chemistry grad student Pam Tadross, who has found the time while writing her doctoral thesis to take on the task of music director and orchestra conductor. The orchestra comprises mostly members of the Caltech Concert and Jazz Bands.
Will Pseudolus gain his freedom? Will young Hero, Pseudolus's charge, and the beautiful courtesan Philia live happily ever after? Will Captain Miles Gloriosus receive the bride he demands? The theme is "comedy tonight," and the means are split-second timing and relentless pacing on the part of a troupe dedicated to the joy of performance for its own sake.
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum will be performed Friday, May 6, at 8:00 p.m. and Saturday, May 7, at 2:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m., and then it will be gone as if it had never been.
Ticket prices at the door will be $5 for students and $10 otherwise. Tickets can be purchased in advance through the Caltech Ticket Office in person (332 S. Michigan Ave) or over the phone: (626-395-4652) or 1-888-2-CALTECH.
Written by Michael Farquhar