Brooksby	UPDATED: Wednesday, December 17, 2008
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Two plays, multiple laughs

Posted on Wednesday, November 26, 2008

By Setarreh Massihzadegan
THE ERICKSON TRIBUNE

From the moment the flustered pianist and music assistant came bounding through the audience, scattering sheets of music as they rushed to begin on time, the show seemed off to a rocky start. But when the pianist began playing the wrong music and the show’s scrubwoman had to be escorted off stage as she attempted to clean up after a performance that hadn’t yet begun, it was clearly doomed.

For the audience at Brooksby, this was all perfectly entertaining. This year’s annual Theatre at the Pond (TAP) show began with The Scheme of the Driftless Shifter, a play within a play set on the opening night of an imperfect performance.

“We got so many laughs,” says Phyllis Toban, director of The Shifter. “We worked very hard, and I thought they were all stars,” she adds of the cast, who began rehearsing for the October performances in July.

This year, TAP, which is run by people who live at Brooksby, delivered two plays, beginning with Carolyn Lane’s Shifter followed by Thomas Hischak’s The Phony Physician. More than 100 people from the community were involved in putting on the plays.

Love and laughs
In The Shifter, audience members laughed their way through the off-kilter story of the wealthy Pompington family, whose oldest daughter, Petunia (Betsey Woolf), wishes to marry the penniless Victor Strongheart (Ted MacDonald). Strongheart proves his valor only after he seemingly rescues the youngest Pompington daughter from her kidnapping by the mysterious Rex Holmes, who turns out to be Strongheart’s father.

The clichéd love story was peppered with flaws as actors forgot their lines and each other’s names, stage manager Alice Gross waved from the wings, and sound effects were delayed and mixed up. The phrase tea for two, uttered by various actors, prompted the chorus to launch into the famous musical number, to the dismay of Mrs. Pompington (Cathryn Rothery).

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Both plays included a musical element, provided by the TAP chorus and led by musical directors Andy and Joanne Smith. Mr. Smith composed four of the plays’ musical numbers. While the second play, The Phony Physician, was not a play within a play, the actors acknowledged the chorus, whose interruptions followed them through every scene.

Real comedy
The Physician is the story of a lazy woodcutter, Skelly Sawyer (Hal Fohlin), whose unhappy wife (Nancy Moore) decides to teach her husband a lesson by offering his services as a skilled doctor, which he most certainly is not. Skelly ends up in the house of the wealthy Mr. Garvey, (Bill Burke), whose daughter is soon to be married against her will and is unable to talk.

Skelly’s unbelievable treatment plan includes a diet of birdseed and daily birdbaths. At the play’s end, his quackery is revealed, but Skelly has cured Garvey’s daughter, who was simply protesting her impending marriage, by encouraging her reunion with her true love.

For audience members, the jabs at the medical profession were especially entertaining.

“I was roaring over there,” says Irving Goldston, who worked as a dentist before moving to Brooksby.

“They laughed when they were supposed to; they giggled when they were supposed to … it was perfect,” says Cynthia Goldston, the play’s director.

New material, familiar faces
For audience members, the joy of watching the plays also came in recognizing the cast members and the hard work that they put into the performances.

“It’s not easy to memorize those lines,” says Joan Overgaard, who lives at Brooksby. “I think they do a great job … very entertaining.”

Adds Violet Georgerian: “It was adorable. It gives you a good feeling inside … we know everybody [on stage].”

The good feelings were mutual for the many people who helped put the show together over the course of the year.

“You don’t mind it if you have the passion for it,” says Dianne Van Nest, who coproduced the plays with Nancy Walsh and chairs TAP’s board of directors.

Says director Phyllis Toban of the experience: “We just had a ball.”