Still having fun after all these years

A wide-hipped cow bell clangs. Children, ranging in age from five to 12, pack up their plastic lunch containers and gobble the last thin wisps of stringed cheese.

“Time for vocal warm-ups!” Artistic director of Priscilla Beach Theatre Geronimo Sands calls out.

The new acting company for The Priscilla Beach Theatre’s production of The Little Rascals walks into the temperature-controlled black box theatre with a professional gait. This is their first day of rehearsal, July 11, and their final performances will be July 22, 23, 29, and 30 at 10:30 a.m. There are no slumping shoulders, just utter poise and a precocious sense that they have found a life calling.

PBT Managing director Andrew Neilson primes the actors. Marnie DeMarsh, a PBT 1981-82 alumnus, leads the vocal warm-up. Gina Montagna, also a prolific alum with a long résumé, handles makeup, choreography, and stage management.

“We want plain, old simple fun,” Neilson says from the stage, a neon pink and blue splatter design at his feet, sunlight and bird song entering through the opened door. “We don’t want the audience to think of Dostoevsky. This is fun!”

The children smile, cheek-to-cheek.

“OK, really dull, everybody say, ‘Bye’,” Neilson says.

“B-y-y-y-e,” they say, their enthusiasm popped and gone.

“Parting is such sweet sorrow,” Jake DiClemente, 12, offers, in a genteel, mock, British accent.

PBT history

The 2011 summer season marks the 75th anniversary for the theatre, the 50th for Geronimo, and 25th for Neilson. Sands feels there is something highly significant about these big milestones coinciding.

“There are five weekends in July too,” he said with a laugh. “We’re in the stars it seems.”

Back in 1962, on a cold wintry day, with snow several feet high, Sands, then named James Lonigro, before his yoga instructor Monica Lind Hathaway renamed him “Geronimo” and told him to add “Sands” to make the name sound more believable, came to PBT to view the barn. Agnes and A. Franklin were retiring and selling the barn theatre they had started in 1936. That October 1936, they had walked the grounds, then known as “The Old Taylor Estate” – a whiskey farm on Rocky Hill Road in Manomet. There were several residential buildings for sale and one hulking barn. Within five minutes of looking at the verdant lot, A. Franklin had known he wanted to buy and make it a place where actors could not only learn, but “do” and get the chance to act on stage. It was much the same for Sands. In an interview in 1996, Sands recalled:

“Dr. Trask got out a secret key and led me in. There was no electricity, it was pitch dark inside. We stood on the stage with a flashlight he pointed to the wing area and the loft, on up into the fly area. He scanned the old seats, black everywhere except for the eerie, moving light. I was thrilled by the very idea that it could be mine, and almost without thinking I said, I’ll take it.’”

In 1936, the Trasks paid $12,500 for the entire estate.  In 1962, Sands bought just the barn for $17,500.

Under the direction of the Trasks, the PBT taught hundreds of actors, including the likes of Paul Newman, Pat Carroll, and Robert MacNeil, and welcomed guest stars, like Gloria Swanson.

Under Sands, the PBT has taught and directed then 18-years-old Rob Reiner and Academy Award nominee Al Brooks, Best Actress of Cannes Film Festival and babysitter in The Exorcist Kitty Winn, star of over 50 films Jennifer Coolidge, Cory Currier who went on to act in Indiana Jones, Andre Bishop, the present artistic director of the Lincoln Center in New York, and President of Sony Records Andrew Lack. He has also directed and appeared with Veronica Lake.

The future: searching for a champion

For the past six summers, there have been no performances in the barn.  The Town ordered the building to be converted to current code, and PBT has been unable to afford the needed changes. Sands said in an email that the building is sound, but has operated under a grandfather clause during its history, during which time many laws were passed about what commercial buildings must include – ramps and washrooms for the disabled, etc. Instead of holding shows in the barn, which holds 200, performances have gone on in the black box theatre, which holds 50, or outdoors. Neilson estimates it will cost around $2.4 million to update the barn, clear the rambling brush and poison ivy from the edges of the property and landscape it, and also create a gallery and gift shop in the former living quarters from back when PBT had actors in residency.

As Neilson cleared the withering jungle behind the barn, he said PBT is searching for a champion – someone who shares the creative vision of the theatre and is able to make a generous donation to help breathe new life into it. They also would love help from volunteer landscapers, grant writers, and anyone who could assist with increasing curb appeal.

 “My wish is for this to continue,” Sands said. “I’ve lived through many generations and have seen how live communication is life-changing for children. The glue of this is the human capital. It’s nothing material. It’s sacred property. To me of course, live communication, which theater is all about, is so important. There is a great need for this. TV and technology have killed curiosity. But everyone receives a role here and gets on stage. They learn by doing. Really, kids are starving for this”

For more information about upcoming summer performances, registration for future workshops, especially the upcoming CSI: Snow White & the Seven Dwarves, and how to make donations, go to the Priscilla Beach Theatre Web site: http://www.priscillabeachtheater.org.