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Page 10 University Daily Kansan, August 19, 1982
Community theater in spotlight
By NEAL McCHRISTY Staff Renorter
An apprehensive actor arrives at the Lawrence Arts Center.
The set is checked to see whether the necessary items are in place. Props on the prop tables are checked. Costumes are readied, makeup is applied and a pop talk from the director precedes the performance for the Lawrence Community Theater.
"There is always apprehension and nervousness before you go out on the stage," said Wayne Deryx, specialist at KU facilities planning and a board member and actor in the theater. "Opening night is always the worst."
Opening night is always LIGHTS GO OUT, doors sometimes don't open, and performers forget lines. It is during these moments that actors and actresses improise, Dexx said. "The trick is the audience will only know that there is a mistake if you let them know there is," he said.
During one performance, a wine glass on a table, which was to be used later in the scene, had been broken. The actress working with Deryx said she broke the glass by brushing it with her dress. Deryx said she gave him the cue for lines later on in the scene. In that way, she helped keep the audience unaware of the awkward situation, he said.
At the theater, improvisation is part of the director's job. Performances are given at the center, which can seat about 150 people. Audiences sit very close to the stage because the theater is small, he said.
THEY ARE NO curtains at the center, and amber lights are signaled by the stage light.
Set changes in musicals are sometimes done by the actors themselves.
The advantages of acting in a small theater are that speech carries better and eye contact with the audience is easier, he said.
"I think, in a sense, audiences tend to like the intimacy of a small theater." He
Musicals are difficult to perform at the center because of space limitations, be said, although audiences like musicals.
"We'd like to do musicals, but we've used up all the small-scale musicals we are going to learn."
BECAUSE ALL performances are on a stage, audiences know that what is happening is not reality, but actors and performers get the audience involved, he said.
"The essence of theater is to suspend its disbelief." Derx said.
Characters develop life-like traits during a performance, or in real life. Deryx said,
Shows scheduled for the coming year include "Waiting for the Parade," Sept. 30-Oct. 3, which will have a set designed to mimic the game. A play will be in late August, he said.
"The performers reach a point where they are no longer acting," he said.
NELI SIMON'S "Gingerbread Lady"
is scheduled for Nov. 18-21. "Gingerbread Lady" is also known by the movie title "Only When I Laugh."
Two plays about Emily Dickinson,
"The Belle of Amherst" and "Come Slowly, Eden," will be performed April 7-30.
"Gazeboo," a comedy-mystery, is scheduled for Jan. 27-30.
The theater tries to schedule a combination of general appeal shows and special events.
"Without a review, it's easiest to get people to come to squash names," he said. "I'll never square." he said.
SHOWS WRITTEN by local playwrights have been performed, including a play by John W. Clifford, "Wabash Winning Streak," and a play by Paul Steven Lim, English lecturer, called "Flash, Flash and Frank Hard."
The theater faces inflationary pressures the cost of revenue is the source of money.
"Our goal on the ticket issue is to break even for the season," he said.
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