I.
There never was much money but there was glory, now forgotten or dimmed. In photos always behind the leading actors, you might find them minor players, but they witnessed and created theater history. I must say as a scenic designer, my heart beats faster whenever I glimpse them today. What stories they could have shared, if only we had stopped to notice them more intently.

In the early seventies, at Circle Rep, desperate and poor, no money for scenery, at night we used to borrow a van and go up and down the streets of the Upper West Side, eyes open to anything. Carpenter Bobby, Technical Director Earl, and I  were searching, searching for any thrown away furniture but especially doors. We always needed doors, but …

We hit the mother lode late one night when some goofy guy was stripping out his late mother’s brownstone. Oblivious to history, he was tossing everything to the street . Hundreds of spindles and balusters!!!  Like lucky prospectors in a gold rush movie, we grabbed what treasure we could and Earl, bless him, went inside and talked to the demolition-mad son, still crowbarring away,  to at least make sure they were intentionally in the garbage. Earl’s eyes glowing, he returned to the van and even more spindles appeared.

As we drove back to the Village through the dark night streets of Manhattan,  my emotions as a designer were similar to someone picking up an adorable dog from the ASPCA. Glancing at the SPINDLES, my heart was beating with anticipation for the new life we were going to live together.

Those turnings went on to win three Pulitzer prizes, and a Tony (we don’t even mention nominations). Shining in multiple plays by Lanford Wilson, Beth Henley, Williams, Friel, and more, they had Off-Broadway and Broadway credits that would make an envious actor weep. In all candor, I admit it hurt me to see them whenever I saw them in someone else’s show, which was thankfully rare.

Years going by, they became ever shorter in height from being fitted to so many, many staircases. They were rejuvenated by carpenter Betsy Tanner, thoughtfully splicing new bottoms and tops onto them to stretch their careers to the end of the century. The new generation of more prosperous technicians and designers — always buying new turnings— the remaining few spindles eventually drifted into obscurity. Dusty with layers of chipped paint, they were last viewed in a Manhattan Theater Club storage loft, forgotten stars of the late twentieth century, their thirty years of contribution to the American Theater ignored and forgotten. 


II.
I saw THE STOOL the other day. There is was again. It was gracing a Santo Loquasto set, downstage, newly reupholstered, yet as ever, escaping criticism or termination from the director or the actors. Always appropriate, always downstage, yet often ignored, this is a Broadway stool of which to be in awe. Like an MGM character player, it has appeared in countless major productions, supporting admirably the asses of the world’s most accomplished actors. It has appeared at the Roundabout, Lincoln Center Theater, Manhattan Theater Club, its perfect proportions and chameleon-like versatility made it perfect in period and modern dress productions, readily available for a surprisingly intimate second act monologue. Sturdily built, yet with gracefully turned legs and a good sitting height, its inset criss-cross stretcher artfully avoiding all tripping hazard, its early life was spent in a Mamaroneck used furniture shop, little realizing its estate sale origins would soon land it on Broadway. Its faintly aristocratic background hard to ignore, it has triumphed in Major Barbara, A Delicate Balance, The Royal Family, House and Garden, even in Shakespeare and Molière. Known for its ensemble work, proudly supporting, the stool has survived and prospered, only going in for an auto putty fill job on one or two of its turnings, and a rumored faux-finish walnut approximation of its original color.

In storage, the stool modestly waits. If cast again, it will not be rejected. Deeply admired by the cognoscenti, for its reliability, its graceful modesty and depth of resume are to be celebrated.  I’m planning on casting it again this April.  What a career!

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