Ellen Lynch
I always come back to theater
COVID stopped everything. It even canceled the Tony Awards. But in 2021, my friend Sally Ann Parsons asked if I may be interested in stage managing a play. I had not done that in years. I do not do computer cues or scripts. I made sure that she knew that. She laughed and said that that was OK because everyone involved were old and still did things the old-fashioned way. I was so excited- I was going to do a play. We were going to rehearse for three weeks in New York City, well actually Brooklyn. This was COVID time and all of us were vaccinated and we all wore masks and followed all protocols. The rehearsal space was cleared through Actors’ Equity and also followed all protocols.
The theater history in the room was extraordinary. George Bartenieff & Kathleen Chalfant were the leading actors. Karen Malpede, George’s wife was the author of the play, Blue Valiant. I had come full circle in my career. Among all of us (including our designers) there was hundreds of years of theater experience in New York City. We all had been part of the off and off off-Broadway scene during the 60s and 70s. I was thrilled to be in a rehearsal space, working on a new play.
The play was about a woman who comes by a horse ranch and is enchanted by a horse she sees in the paddock. The owner of the ranch tells her that the horse is disturbed from a previous trauma and cannot be ridden or even really approached. For this production the horse is represented by music. A piano to be exact. The pianist is the character of the horse. Our pianist was also the composer of the piece and our sound designer.
The rehearsals were thrilling, but it was obvious that George was having problems memorizing the script. Still his performance was strong and touching and Kathleen was so strong and supportive that we continued to work. On the last day in the rehearsal room George spoke-up and said that he was not going to be able to memorize the lines and he felt that he was not going to be able to do the play. I had been feeding George his lines for most of the rehearsals and I felt very comfortable with his rhythms and when he was acting and when he really did not know the lines.
(I had worked on a play where the leading lady had problems with lines and we had a person off stage on earphones and she had an earpiece. The person offstage would help with lines as they realized it was needed).
I did not feel comfortable suggesting this but our pianist/designer did. I told them that I was familiar with this and would be happy to jump in as long as we had someone that could call the show. It was decided that we would do this.
We traveled up to the Catskills where we were going to do 2 outdoor performances. We set up a tent and table for me away from the stage and we rehearsed with the ear piece. It was obvious that this was going to work. We teched, in the rain and did two amazingly beautiful performances. I am so proud to have been part of this experience.
