Sneak Peek: Frankenstein

On October 11th, TLT will open our production of Frankenstein. This version of the classic adheres very closely to the original novel by Mary Shelley, and is written by Victor Gialanella, and directed and designed by visiting director Joel Daavid.

Joel has an extensive background in theater and film, and brings his unique artistic vision to this production. Recently the Frankenstein team worked together to create a teaser trailer for the production, which we'll soon be posing on our YouTube page. In the meantime, take a look at some of the fantastic photo stills from the trailer shoot.

Frankenstein features Scott Mock as the doomed Dr. Victor Frankenstein, and Summer Hill Seven as The Creature.

Joel has also shared with us a couple of the concept designs for the set for Frankenstein. Over the next few weeks we'll be posting some behind the scenes sneak peeks at the set as it's built and painted. This show promises to be one of the most visually stunning that TLT has ever produced. We can't wait for you to come see it!

 

Frankenstein opens on October 11th and runs through October 28th.

Meet the Cast of "The 39 Steps" - Melissa Findley

Meet Melissa Findley

Melissa plays three different women in TLT's production of The 39 Steps (showing now through September 2): a German spy, a young Scottish milkmaid, and Pamela, the reluctant sidekick/heroine. Unlike the two "clowns" of the show, she gets to spend a bit longer as each character, but her challenges are a different sort.

Meet the woman behind the wigs:

Tell us a little about who you are when you’re not on stage.
When I'm not on stage, I'm usually backstage. I spend a lot of time volunteering at TLT. It's sort of my home away from home. I do a lot of set design (including some elements of this show), stage managing, and scenic painting. When I'm not working at the theater, I'm an illustrator, focusing mainly on fantasy artwork. I've done art for several games, including "A Game of Thrones: The Card Game" and "Lord of the Rings: The Card Game."

How did you first get involved in theater?
I've always loved theater. When I was a kid I would put on little plays with all the neighborhood kids. I first auditioned for a part in high school, and I acted and worked backstage the whole way through college. I took a break from theater for about eight years after college, but when I moved to Tallahassee and saw that there was a community theater only a few blocks from my house, I couldn't resist getting back into it.

What do you love most about acting?
I love telling stories. They've done studies that show that fiction actually influences people more than fact, because we empathize with fictional characters and we can see things from their perspective. Acting does that in a big way--and you can literally feel the audience responding to the story. No other form of art lets you do that the way live theater does. I want to make people laugh and cry and fall in love.

What drew you to The 39 Steps?
A lot of things. I love old movies, including Hitchcock films. I love shows that remind me of old school theater and vaudeville. There are very few modern technological tricks in this show. We do almost everything the way theater has been done for centuries. Most of all I loved the idea of playing these three women, who are all so very different, but so very funny and strong and human in their own ways. The physical comedy aspect, plus the chance to do all these accents made it irresistible.

What has been the most challenging aspect of this show for you?
Physically this is a hugely demanding show. And you can't be self conscious about it--which I sometimes am. Like a lot of women, I have a lot of self-image issues. You have to put that all aside for this show. You have to be willing to be ridiculous and sexy at the same time. And you also have to be willing to get a little bruised. We work really hard to make sure everything is safe, but I still have a fantastic collection of bruises right now, from my death fall to all the handcuff stuff.

What would you say to encourage someone to try acting?
If you have ever sat in an audience and wondered what it would be like to be up there on stage, do it. It's the most rewarding feeling in the world to bring a show to life every night. Is it a little scary? Yes. Absolutely. But it's also exciting and fun, and you will do all kinds of things that you would never get to do in your normal, day-to-day life. You'll never know until you try.

Tickets are selling fast for The 39 Steps.  Book yours today by calling 850-224-8474 or visiting http://tallahasseelittletheatre.org/39Steps .

Bob Myers (left) and Melissa Findley as "Pamela" in The 39 Steps

Meet the Cast of "The 39 Steps" - Derek Nieves

Meet Derek Nieves

Derek plays one of two "clown" characters in TLT's production of The 39 Steps (playing now through September 2). Don't let the word "clown" fool you, however - there's no face paint involved. In just under two hours Derek plays more than twenty different characters, changing between them sometimes with nothing more than the change of a hat or an accent. It's difficult sometimes for an actor to keep just one character straight, but Derek hopscotches between them like he was born to do this.

Meet the man behind all the hats:

How did you first get involved in theater?
I'd been doing school plays and performances since I was a child, but at age 15 I performed in a production of The Sound of Music, and from then on I was hooked.

What do you love most about acting?
I love the storytelling aspect of theater.  In this age of technology it is a truly human interaction.  

What drew you to The 39 Steps?
The 39 Steps is truly "in my wheelhouse" as far as the acting style and content is concerned.  I really cut my teeth on farcical, high speed, comedy and the roles I play in this production definitely fall into this category.

What has been the most challenging aspect of this show for you?
The most challenging aspect of this production for me has been the organizational side.  Unlike a typical production ( if there truly is such a thing), The 39 Steps is such a whirlwind of costumes, props, and characters that I have had to make a concerted effort to keep myself physically and mentally organized throughout this project.

What would you say to encourage someone to try acting?
Just remember that no one brings exactly what you bring to the table.  And while you may not be who a directing was envisioning for a particular role THIS time...doesn't mean you won't be perfect next time.  You can control your preparation, not someone else's opinion.

Derek was recently featured by the Tallahassee Democrat as part of their local artists section. Click here to read more!

Tickets are selling fast for The 39 Steps! Book yours today by calling 850-224-8474 or going to http://tallahasseelittletheatre.org/39Steps

Derek Nieves (left) chases Bob Myers over the top of the "train" in The 39 Steps.

Meet the Director of "The 39 Steps": Ben Taylor

Our first show of the season, The 39 Steps, is a hilarious mixture of film noir, suspense, mystery, romance, adventure, and farcical comedy. Patrick Barlow's script draws heavily from the Alfred Hitchcock film of the same title, which itself is heavily adapted from the novel by John Buchan.

In The 39 Steps a bored man meets a mysterious woman with a thick accent. When he takes her home, she tells him a fantastic story of spies and espionage secrets before she is suddenly murdered. Soon he's on the run from the police and villains alike, meeting a whole host of oddball characters, all while trying to stop an important military secret from getting out of the country and, of course, falling in love.

An epic story like this is made even more epic on stage, with all of the characters portrayed by only four actors: a leading man, one actress who plays three women, and two other men who play everyone--and everything!--else. 

Director Ben Taylor is a veteran TLT performer and volunteer. You may have seen him before in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Rumors, and Black Coffee. He brings with him a lifelong love of performing and a wealth of theater experience.



First, tell us a little about yourself and what you do when you're not involved at TLT?
I am a native Floridian who was born and raised in Gotha, Florida, just west of Orlando. I had a wonderful introduction to theater at the Civic Theatre of Central Florida, which I will always consider my theatrical "home," even though that company no longer exists. I graduated from FSU's School of Theatre in 1983 and worked in theaters in Connecticut, Georgia and Orlando, mostly as a stage manager. I love musical theater and have enjoyed singing and acting in some really wonderful productions. But as the realities of a steady paycheck became necessary, I started working in the "corporate entertainment industry," better known as theme parks. For 17 years I worked at all of the major theme parks in Orlando as both a performer and technician/stage manager, but I found myself doing less and less stage work, my real love, because of the schedule required at the parks. My brother, who lives here in Tallahassee, offered me an opportunity to start working "bankers hours" if I came to Tallahassee, so I took a chance on a new career and location. I am now the accounts receivables manager for Auto DataDirect, Inc., a company which I co-founded with my brother in 1999, shortly after moving back to Tallahassee.

When did you first get involved at TLT?

I don't remember which came first... stepping in two weeks before opening as a Muleteer in Man of LaMancha, or working with Millie Seckel on a fund-raising show called CineMagic... both were in 1999, I believe.

What was the last show you directed and where? 

I directed a play by William Mastrosimone (author of Extremities and The Woolgatherer) called Cat's Paw back in 1986, in a black-box theater of the Civic Theatre of Central Florida, which was very similar to our Coffeehouse space. It was a play that was a bit ahead of its time, as it dealt with an eco-terrorism group who kidnap a television news reporter so that they can tell their side of the story. About the only similarity that it has with The 39 Steps is that both shows only have four performers... 

What drew you to directing The 39 Steps? 

 I love unique theatrical "experiences" and I had read the reviews for this show in the winter of 2008, when it opened in New York, with many raves about its creative staging and energetic comedy style. It sounded like my kind of show! My partner and I took my niece to New York City as a high-school graduation gift that June and the first night we were in town, we dropped her and her best friend off at Spring Awakening and we walked two blocks down to see The 39 Steps.

It was such a great evening of comedy, creativity and truly theatrical fun. The story is all there, but the elements of a Carol Burnett or Monty Python comedic sketches made it an even more delightful evening. I immediately felt that it would be a great show for Tallahassee audiences and I hoped that TLT would be able to be the first to present it here, which we are!

Patrick Campbell, our lighting designer for The 39 Steps, was the first to point out to me how this play is structured more like a musical than a typical comedy. My background and experience is much more heavily inclined toward musical theatre, so it made sense to me that it would be another reason why I was drawn to the show.

What would you say is your biggest challenge on this show?   

Having been onstage more than behind the scenes in the past 15 years, I had forgotten things about directing that aren't as obvious when you are a performer... for an example, my actors haven't lived with this script for six months like I have! During pre-production, before casting, a director reads and re-reads and dissects and hears line readings in his or her head. Once I cast the show and started rehearsals, I had to repeatedly remind myself that the actors are reading this for maybe the second or third time. I need to give them the latitude to find the characters and discover how their character would say something. It is my job to steer them in the direction I am wanting it to go, especially in a show like The 39 Steps, that is quite stylized and somewhat dependent on precise characterizations. But I have 6 weeks to get them there... it doesn't have to be there the first week.

And there are a LOT of questions to answer and issues to resolve besides just staging and characterizations! It is tough to have a full-time job and keep up with everything that needs to happen to make the show work. (I know, that's two challenges, but I couldn't decide which is bigger.)

How has TLT changed your life?  

It has provided me the creative opportunities that I may not have been privy to in Orlando or larger cities. The work we do here is terrific and the people are dedicated, which I did not expect when I moved to Tallahassee almost 14 years ago. It has been my theatrical home-away-from-home. As I prepare to leave Tallahassee at the end of 2012 (my partner has been reassigned to St. Petersburg, so we will be moving there later this year), I will certainly miss this group of people and the fun we have had in crafting good, fun theatre! I hope I don't wait 26 years before I put my foot into the directing pool again!

Why should people come to see The 39 Steps?  

It is fantabulously funny, ferociously frenetic and full of fearless fun! Audiences who enjoy fast-paced comedy, espionage mysteries, Alfred Hitchcock movies, and the "theatrics" of live theatre will all love this show. For ages 9 to 99, it is the type of show that doesn't work on a movie screen... it is what makes live theatre such a true delight!

The 39 Steps opens August 16th and runs through Sept. 2nd. Tickets go on sale to the general public on August 6th. Season ticket holders get their seats sooner.  The cost for season tickets is $80 for adults, $60 for seniors and government employees, and $40 for students.

You can purchase your season tickets today by calling 850-224-8474.