The Great Gatsby (the radio play) - a photo essay

The big event of last year was participating in the LOST (Lawyers on Stage Theatre) production of "The Great Gatsby"    Our Great Gatsby was a 1.5 hour radio play version adapted by Joe Landry.  We started work in September, headed towards a 4 show run in December.   Yes, it is done as a fundraising event (We pulled together about $13,000 for our two charities).  Below are a bunch of photos of cast and crew, taken by Megan Krauss (a professional photographer who volunteered her services for the show).

While I didn't enjoy the novel when I first read it as a teen, it totally grew on me over time.  I have seen two of the three film versions, and Arta and I saw an amazing staged version in London in 2011 called "Gatz", which took a full day (as they read the whole novel outloud, with characters taking on the parts of the novel with dialogue) 

Here is the cast list, from the Program notes:

The big roles in this story (despite the importance of Daisy, Myrtle and Jordan) are really for the men.

Liam, Jake and Benson (as Nick, Tom, and Gatsby)

Or rather, they have lots of heavy lifting to do.  Liam in particular (as Nick Caraway, the narrator of the story) was on stage for nearly every scene in the play! 

"We'll be right back..."

The rest of us played multiple roles.  An indeed the big women's roles -- Daisy and Jordan -- were split between actors on different evenings (kind of like Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller in Danny Boyle's Frankenstein!) 

One of my roles in the play was Freddie Filmore, the host of the radio show, and thus I was also the person who got to put my radio-voice to work.  Thanks Dr. Leona Paterson for all those years of speech arts classes! :-). Who knew that I actually would have a chance to play at being a radio star (we all know how many times i answer the phone and people think I am an answering machine hahaha).  

wearing grandad's tuxedo jacket

According to the playright, we were not allowed to genderflip the characters (ah well...), so it meant playing Freddie in a more masculine form.  The awesome part of that was the opportunity to play the role wearing my grandfather Doral Pilling's actual tuxedo jacket!? My mom had saved it after he passed away, and then after she also passed away, it fell into my hands.  I never imagined that a. it might fit me or b. that i might have an occasion to wear it.  I can't really tell you what a pleasure it was to 'wear my granddad' through the rehearsals and into the performances!

The radio-play format is a sort of hybrid, something staged and with costuming, but using the form of a radio play (thus all the actors are working with script in hand in front of microphones) with a live musicians (keyboard and singers) and a foley crew on stage.  The foley are the people who make all the 'soundeffects' for a radio play [cars, trains, doors slamming, mixing drinks, rainstorms, car crashes, etc]. They are a riot to watch. 

the taxi pulling up outside

the sounds of a gentle rain shower

Foley capturing the sounds of Jake and his mistress Myrtle in the bedroom

  

Foley producing the train

cars racing down the road

Because we are riffing off the radio play, we also have commercials, and the commercials are done live.  We had a great group of singers (the 'Mellow Dees') to do musical part of the jingles.  A big shout out to our sponsors who paid for the ads, which also have an element of parody to them, like "I'm Dreaming of the great Floyd's Diner" [sung to the tune of I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas].  The play gets interrupted for 8 ads in total. We had tons of fun doing them.  Here are some shots of the commericals crew in action (Alex on keyboards, the 5 Mellow Dees and me). 

Ruari giving us the "5 seconds" cue  

Alex on keyboards, the 'on air' sign in the back

The radio play also had some staged dance scenes [big parties, charleston, tango, tap-dancing etc], and fabulous costuming to capture the feel of the roaring 20s.  How did Alison Roberts manage to wrastle a group of law folks into an introductory choreographed dance number?! 

We were also set up so that there were party scenes going on in the background.  It was fun to spend our time in the background, as part of the 'extras'. 

Rea and I gossipping as "partygoers 1 and 2"

We also got to be extras and in the background while some great numbers happened.  Not only to we get to see Nick and Daisy dancing, but Christine Ely put on her tap shoes for a great dance number, and then we also got a performance from some professional tango dancers! 

(Michaela as Daisy)

Most of us in the play had more than one role to play.   My second character was that of Meyer Wolfsheim (the gambler).  This meant a quick shift out my my announcer tuxedo, into a jacket, ascot and fedora (to channel my inner new-york accented role).  Here are some shots with Jay Gatsby and Nick Caraway, as I share stories ("I can never forget so long as I live the night they shot Rosy Rosenthal"), and of me showing off my cuff buttons ("finest specimen of human molars!")

Tiffany (who is the Graduate Admissions advisor) was amazing in her multiple quick change roles as Butler, Maid, and Policeofficer (each with a variation of different Irish accents)

Two of the Mellow Dees (Lisa and Ted) also played mulitple parts?!  Again, amazing quick changes!

brief cameo as Daisy's chaufeur! (Taryn as Daisy)

As you can tell from the photos, we also have an amazing professional lighting team (yea Karrie Wolfe et al), who have the skill with lighting and design to transport us from a bare stage into the world of the imaginary.

Here are some backstage photos, as people loosened up in the halls, and relaxed in the greenroom: 

practicing tango footwork

doing homework in between scenes

And getting the timing right on curtain calls also turns out to be "a thing".  So there you have it!  We will see what roles next year brings!

 

Addendum:  Just to really show off, here is a photo I took myself.   I am demonstrating my skill in seeing how many cast members I can fit into a 'selfie' using only my arm (no selfie stick).

p.s.   One last gift.... a short video clip of our fantastic director Sara Ramshaw filling in during a pre-opening rehearsal for our tap-dancing star, Christine (who couldn't make it that night).   Yep.... we all can see that Sara's got the chops!  Can't wait to see what she does next! :-)