It used to be that you'd hear whispers and maybe see reviews about a new play opening in London, then moving to New York to run on Broadway; a year or so later, the touring company would come to Pittsburgh's Cultural District. Then, ages later, you might see it produced at a local theater, perhaps even after it was a movie.
But the Mountain Playhouse in Jennerstown is presenting through Aug. 21 the newest work by top farce author Ray Cooney -- before its London premiere.
It's not the first "first" for the Mountain Playhouse, or the only thing that makes the Playhouse unique.
It is one of only 12 -- yes, just a dozen -- remaining professional stock theaters in the entire country. It was the pioneer theater of the Alleghenies, preceding Apple Hill and the now-lost White Barn theaters.
When the first show opened June 24, 1939, it was quite an event. And when you think about it, each show still is.
"What you see at the Mountain Playhouse," says producer Teresa Stoughton Marafino, daughter of the theater's founders, "is truly professional theater: performers are members of the Actors' Equity Association."
To assemble a cast each year, producers and directors hold auditions in Jennerstown, attracting actors from a 60-mile radius and even Washington, D.C. They also travel to New York City, watching 125 people each day for two days in three-minute auditions, as arranged by the actors' union and mandated by contract, with callbacks to private auditions for the lucky few who catch their eye as perhaps right for plays planned for that season.
Actors chosen for the season live at the theater all summer. And, "in the grand tradition of summer stock," says Marafino, the theater brings in a core company, and performers and designers work together, "the same people rehearsing in the daytime for the next play, and performing the current play at night. 'Stock' means just that -- a theater that has a stock of actors, costumes and scenery, which are reused, repainted, remanipulated" to produce a series of shows.
It's "an extraordinary opportunity for actors," she says.
So much money is at stake in Broadway shows that a single glitch can lose millions, so casting and performance are very tightly structured, no risks taken. Mountain Playhouse and its 11 "sister theaters" in CORST, the Council of Resident Stock Theaters, offer "the chance for concentrated serious work in a safe environment," and also "actors are not typecast, so they can stretch," doing a number of widely varied characters in the course of a season.
This type of theater is a different experience for the audience as well as actors.
"The joy of live theater," says Marafino, "is that it's not exactly the same every time. You as an audience member are affecting the show; there's some difference each night because of that. The actors interact with the audience by playing to them, to their responses. It's not passive -- the audience can't be."
For today's television generations, especially, there is a vast difference: "a ripple of laughter comes from the audience, it doesn't start or come from a laugh track," Marafino said.
Every year, the audience includes people who've never before been at live theater. And the cast includes actors who've never been to Western Pennsylvania or the countryside before. Some actors like it so much they return year after year; David Garwood, who's acted at the theater for 27 years, even bought a home nearby.
The theater's made a difference to the people of the surrounding area in other ways, too. It's broadened horizons for the community, as the sometimes-exotic actors from New York City live there summer after summer. And they, as well as the audiences brought by the theater, eat at area eateries besides the theater's associated restaurant, Green Gables, and discover the shops and other attractions of the area.
And, of course, there are the ducks and geese of the region, which may glide by the window as you dine at Green Gables before a show, and are fed by audience members at intermission.
"They fly in, they just seem to land like they know about it," says Marafino. "They usually appear about an hour before a show begins, and gain weight as the season progresses -- with a hit show, they end up really waddling."
It can be quite an experience for city people, having a duck or goose make eye contact, make a comment, and interact, within touching distance.
Back to that upcoming show you can see before that sophisticated London audience -- it's "Tom, Dick and Harry" by Ray Cooney, a farce by the master of the genre, the first in cooperation with his son, Michael.
"The theater world has been turned upside down by modern communication," says Marafino, who was e-mailed the script by Ray Cooney's agent; getting a script so early used to be unheard of.
The show was done briefly in a small English theater, in Windsor; a sister theater in CORST, the Log Theatre in Minneapolis, did it this past winter; and another CORST theater, the Peninsula Players in Wisconsin, is doing the play at the same time as Mountain Playhouse.
"'Farce'", explains Marafino, "is premier theater, 'forced comedy,' which asks that you suspend disbelief, accepting situations that are really far too much."
Although the show is fun for the audience, it's actually quite challenging for the cast. As one actor on his deathbed told a commiserating friend, "Dying is easy, comedy is hard."
It "looks easy, since it's rehearsed -- and so very carefully planned to make it as funny as possible," says Marafino. But it's a favorite of hers, and for audiences over the years.
There's an element of farce, too, in stories treasured for years at the theater, most of them from farce performances.
There were the bats, trailing long cobweb veils, that swooped across the stage during "Inspecting Carol," prompting clever ad-libs from dodging performers (audiences needn't worry, the bats prefer stagelight).
There also were the days of 23 shows in 23 weeks, when actors were so caught on a treadmill of learn-rehearse-perform that they'd "go up" -- get confused and not remember which play they were in, or what came next.
"Once," said Marafino, "two actors got so 'lost' during a performance that they went to hide behind an on-stage bar to consult."
Before new seats and rearrangements in 1999, actors had to go through a downstairs area, using a confusing set of twisting staircases, to change sides for their next entrance. Everyone was used to hearing pathetic voices echoing from the depths during rehearsals, announcing, "I'm coming, once I figure out how."
Old hands now take visiting former actors to the new easy crossover, just to start a flood of reminiscences on mix-ups.
The love of comedy at Mountain Playhouse definitely shows in its schedule -- and the biannual international comedy playwriting contest the Playhouse sponsors. The top three plays of about 100 submitted for this year's competition will be read for audiences as part of the theater's Sunday Evening Play Reading Series, giving attendees a chance to know about a future Broadway hit well before it hits the big time.
For any aspiring playwrights, the deadline for submissions for the 2007 contest is Dec. 31, 2006, and rules are posted on the Green Gables-Mountain Playhouse Web site.
Any time you see a play there, you might see a future Broadway star, or the next Ruth Buzzi (who played Agnes Gooch in "Auntie Mame" at Mountain Playhouse right before "Laugh-In") or movie leading man (the groom in the original "Father of the Bride," Don Taylor, trod the Playhouse boards, too).
A visit to the Mountain Playhouse gives theater aficionados the chance to see great actors in a unique situation, stretching their boundaries in different roles in an intimate setting that allows concert between players and audience.
And it's an enjoyable experience for anyone -- live theater in comfort in a uniquely beautiful setting, an 1805 gristmill set on a mountaintop amid exquisite gardens dotted with statues by French sculptor Crenier from Charles Schwab's storied estate, rimmed by waterways sailed by native waterfowl.
For a truly historic theater experience, Marafino cites "something Pennsylvania can be truly proud of -- three of those 12 resident stock theaters." Besides the Mountain Playhouse, there's another on the Lincoln Highway, the Totem Pole Playhouse in Caledonia State Park, in the eastern part of the state, plus the Allenberry Playhouse in Boiling Springs, Cumberland County.
