The stuff of dreams : behind the scenes of an American community theater / Leah Hager Cohen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Cohen, Leah Hager.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Arlington Friends of the Drama (Arlington, Mass.).

Theater--Massachusetts--Arlington--History--20th century.

Theater.

History.

Massachusetts--Arlington.

Physical Description:

xix, 234 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Viking, 2001.

Summary:

As a Child, Leah Hager Cohen entered the world of community theater, where she was fascinated by the magical pageantry and complex camaraderie she found among its small-town adult participants. Looking back on that experience, she writes that it was the first time she had "seen the stuff of dreams come seriously to life."

Twenty years later, Cohen found her way to a community theater near Boston, Massachusetts, one of the many thousands like it in America, and set out to chronicle what would be an extraordinary year. Arlington Friends of the Drama had just celebrated its seventy-fifth anniversary, was embroiled in disputes over structural changes proposed to help it adapt to changing times, and was about to hold auditions for its most controversial production to date, M. Butterfly.

As members of the theater immerse themselves in the production, we witness Celia, the brilliant, hard-driving director, and her struggles with the stars of the play -- Patrick, a shy newcomer to the group who plays Song, and Jimmy, an old hand who finds the part of Gallimard the most difficult of his acting career. Backstage, we watch as the sets are designed, the costumes are created, and the lighting is orchestrated. And as opening night looms, we wonder whether Patrick and Jimmy will finally achieve the rapport to make their onstage relationship believable, if the blood effect in the final scene will ever work, if the choreography will really coalesce into smooth movement on the stage, and, most of all, if their daring selection of this play will mean that the cast will be performing it to an empty house.

As Cohen writes, "This time around, I had come to community theater not in order to insinuate myself into its culture but to try to understand what the culture comprised, and to answer what it is about amateur theater that makes people not just desire but need it." With graceful prose and startling insight, The Stuff of Dreams is a poignant portrait of community theater in America, and of the strengths and frailties that shape every community, every human interaction.

Contents:

Prologue: Gutter and Stars xi

1 Auditions 1

2 Lonelyhearts 32

3 Preproduction 45

4 First Rehearsal 61

5 Arena of the Street 70

6 Stage Business 84

7 Behind the Scenes 109

8 The Guard in the Poet's Tree 136

9 Cue to Cue 151

10 A Theater Primeval 179

11 Tech Week 189

12 Places 218.

ISBN:

067089981X

OCLC:

45506034