‘Carol’ production brings talents together for community gift

December 21, 2007 03:18 am

— LONG PRAIRIE — The youngest actor was 5 years old. The oldest was ... well, actors and actresses do have their vanity. But the Prairie Players second annual production of The Royal Shakespeare Co.’s version of Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” wasn’t about vanity.
According the actors, actresses, carpenters and the dozens of others who brought the play to the Long Prairie-Grey Eagle High School auditorium for three performances on the Saturday and Sunday after Thanksgiving it was about the spirit of giving.
“This is our Christmas gift to the community,” said the actor who portrayed one of the “Portly Gentlemen” who ask the penny-pinching Scrooge for a charitable donation. “For most people now days, life is all about me, me, me but when we do this it’s all about we, we, we. Being in this production allows us to present a marvelous piece of art to the community. We wouldn’t be able to do that if Lee Pittman hadn’t come to town to build the theater company and if Ann Finch didn’t work so hard as the producer.”
Pittman, artistic director of the Prairie Players, is a professional theatrical director whose path took him from Miami to Long Prairie in 1998. He has trained the amateur actors and directed more than 30 musical and dramatic productions since then. Finch, the theater company’s managing director, is a local business woman and educator who was inspired by Pittman’s enthusiasm and bitten by the theater bug.
She’s been the producer of each of those productions. They, along with well over a hundred volunteers, have brought many well-received gifts to the people of Long Prairie and the surrounding community.
Each person brings their own talents in preparation of the gift’s presentation. A dedicated and talented group of seamstresses have made and collected beautiful costumes for “A Christmas Carol” and the other plays. Another group has created, painted and erected the often intricate sets that have made audiences marvel.
“Volunteerism in the community is really important,” said John King, a carpenter and school teacher who has worked on most of the sets. “Volunteerism is one of the lubricants that keep a community going.”
Volunteers don’t just give though. They receive.
Eli King came home from college to run the smoke machine for “A Christmas Carol.”
That was the giving. While King was in high school, Pittman mentored him. He taught him his acting skills. Now King is studying theater in college. The Prairie Players gave King a sense of direction.
You’d expect Loren Miller to say, “Bah Humbug” to all of this silly giving-and-getting nonsense. After all, he’s been Scrooge in both productions of “A Christmas Carol.” But Miller, like Scrooge, has been transformed. He’s been in numerous plays.
“At first it was about me,” said Miller, who farms by day. “It was about who I could meet, what I could learn, how much fun I could have. It’s still all that. It’s a lot of fun and I’ve gotten to know wonderful people. But now it’s more about what I can give. It’s got to be because you couldn’t pay anybody for the amount of anxiety you go through when you do this. Scrooge is the hardest part I’ve ever done. I almost never get to leave the stage.”
Anxiety is of course part of the giving-and-getting formula for community theater. On any one night of play practice Pittman can be seen in the front row of the auditorium alternately running his hands through his hair, pacing back and forth, giving directions to actors, and repeatedly grumbling that all the actors are not present for the night’s rehearsal.
Finch sits next to Pittman. She reads lines for absent actors and, it seems, calms Pittman with an occasional diplomatic word or two. But it appears this mish-mash could never come together as a play.
Then comes dress rehearsal. It’s the night before Scrooge meets Marley in front of an audience of hundreds. Everyone is in costume. Lights up. Actors appear. Lines began to be artfully said. And Pittman is in full throttle. He’s everywhere on stage. At times he disappears in King’s billowing smoke clouds but his booming voice can be heard from within it. Finally he stops the production and gives directions to Scrooge and the Ghost of Christmas Past who are high up on a balcony. It seems that “A Christmas Carol” will be just a mish-mash in costume with pretty lights.
Following the first production David Anderson, who has been in a number of productions and whose son and daughter are in “A Christmas Carol,” is asked how it went. He does not pause, “It went well.”
There must be a sort of mad magic to community theater productions. How, one wonders, did all those diverse but ordinary people come together to give a coherent work of art to the community. It is a mystery and yet most often the community receives this remarkable gift by rising to their feet and applauding with long and loud enthusiasm. That appreciative applause is as important to Anderson and his family as anything. But they get an extra special bonus for being involved in Prairie Players productions.
“It’s been a great family builder,” Anderson said. “When we’re in a play together we have this common interest. My two kids, who are 13 and 14, and I have made friends in the community we wouldn’t have known otherwise.”
You can learn more about the Prairie Players, as well as find out about their upcoming productions, by visiting their website at www.prairieplayersonstage.com.

Photos

Numerous actors and actresses make up the cast of the Prairie Players "A Christmas Carol," including these chorus girls. Submitted

A concerted effort brings the holiday classic to life on many stages across Minnesota each year. This was the second year in a row the Prairie Players have performed the classic. Submitted

The waiting is the hardest part. Young actors take it easy before taking the stage for the Prairie Players "A Christmas Carol." Submitted