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Patuxent Playhouse celebrates its 20th season
Patuxent Playhouse family makes itself at home
Friday, March 13, 2009
 Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by DICKSON MERCER
Willum Cubbert (John Hunt), left, faces off with Rick Steadman (Keith Mervine) in Patuxent Playhouse's production of Larry Shue's "The Nerd." The plays opens at 8 p.m. May 13.
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Patuxent Playhouse has never had its own house, but eight days before opening night of "The Nerd" the group nonetheless has a theater to itself. Not just the theater: the entire building.
There are no children tonight, post-practice, dribbling basketballs through the parking lot of St. John Vianney Family Life Center. No youth foosball, either. The hallway outside the theater is dark and quiet.
In the theater, the collective mood might be described as cheery. Deadlines, however, will make people a bit more serious than they were, say, two weeks ago … when the president of Patuxent Playhouse, Jack Reynolds, was running rehearsal while playing his character and filling in for another.
There is something intense about St. John Vianney Family Life Center Theater. Maybe it's the crucifix above the curtain, center stage.
Well, tonight the theater troupe can at least break out a few more props: A table stands were there was a lectern at another rehearsal, and in two days they will be able to put up the set.
Auditions were held in January. Patuxent Playhouse has been practicing here on Thursdays and in Lusby on Mondays.
Set in Indiana, "The Nerd" is one of two now-widely performed comedic farces written by Larry Shue in the 1980s before he died at 39 in a plane wreck.
As it happens, the Newtowne Players in Lexington Park performed Shue's "The Foreigner" in January, and the organization's founder and director, Wendy Heidrich, has joined the Patuxent Playhouse cast. She plays Waldgrave's wife, the prim yet tightly wound Clelia Waldgrave, who meekly utters one of the play's more memorable lines during a nothing-goes-right birthday party: I wonder if you have anything I can … uh … break.
In the midst of designing a building for Warnock Waldgrave (Leslie Dickey), Willum Cubbert (John Hunt) receives a surprise visit from Rick Steadman (Keith Mervine) — a nerd of sorts, no doubt, although today we would probably call it Asperger's.
Dickey is doing his best to follow the theater's rules by taking the "God" out of "damn it" whenever he can remember. Hunt, meanwhile, who is Hollywood's version of a used car salesmen and a DJ for the Southern Maryland Radio Network, is on stage for the first time since high school, and struggling to learn his lines.
More about the play: Although Rick apparently saved Willum's life in Vietnam, the two never managed to meet. Until now — when Rick, who is socially awkward enough to take seriously a part of an old letter from Willum which stated the old if you ever need a place to stay … And here he is, wearing a white shirt tucked into black slacks and Velcro shoes.
Rick's belt is wrapped tight around a sizeable midsection (which Mervine sticks out), and there's a piece of toilet paper caught in his shoe. He has thick glasses obviously, and his black wig does not look like a wig because it's a perfect match for his facial hair. When he does not speak, he practically snorts, and Mervine is so into his character that he does not even return to his own self during breaks in Act 1, the run through of which takes two hours.
Let's continue rolling through the cast.
There is a part for one child. One child actor showed up for the audition — 12-year-old Davis Kellogg of Mechanicsville — and he happens to be the perfectly mature little ham to play the Waldgrave's dramatic brat/son, Thor.
There is Kalena Gadoury, an experienced actress as well as former contestant for Miss Rhode Island USA, playing the perky Tansy McGinnis. She dates Willum but plans to leave him for her dream weather woman job in Washington, D.C.
Reynolds plays Willum's friend and tenant, the usually inebriated drama critic known as Axel Hammond. With the exception of the wiry Hunt, the men in this cast are large. Reynolds, in turn, possesses both the largest frame as well as the largest stage presence, the latter quality stemming from the fact that he is nothing less than a natural stageman — the kind of actor/director who can seemingly read a play once and memorize the entire thing.
He might not have Jesus' slight bone structure, but he once learned the lead role for "Godspell" in two days. And he filled in for the role in Patuxent's most recent production after the lead man went down with an Achilles injury a couple weeks before opening night.
"Godspell" is Patuxent Playhouse founder Geri Reynolds' favorite play. She and Jack Reynolds, both divorced, married in 2004. Jack has two daughters; Geri has three sons.
Geri Reynolds is here tonight, although she is not really supposed to be. In fact, she was supposed to get something of a play off. That's why MillieKate Dhu is here.
Years of trading off the directing role for the group's three annual performances became exhausting for the Reynoldses. Ready for a fresh perspective, they asked Dhu to direct "The Nerd."
Twenty years ago Geri Reynolds graduated from Calvert High School and says she was unable to afford to go away for college and pursue theater. She worked and took classes at College of Southern Maryland, which did not yet have a theater program. Calvert Community Theater existed only briefly.
"I wanted to do something for the community, of the community, by the community," she said on the phone, while multitasking at a local insurance company.
Reynolds says her faith is important to her, but that Patuxent will usually only produce, at most, one faith-based play per season. Her main concern is that of providing wholesome, family entertainment.
Patuxent Playhouse debuted with "Treasure Island," a play for children which benefited the Calvert Marine Museum. Pregnant with her first son, Reynolds played a cavewoman.
Show two: "Gypsy." At the Elks Lodge. Hey, why not? Roy Johnson directed the music and has been with the group ever since. Fundraisers/plays have been held at high schools and senior centers and firehouses and churches throughout the county. For a homeless theater troupe, it's a good strategy: You do something nice for the community. You also have a free venue.
Patuxent has been renting St. John Vianney Family Life Center Theater for about two years. It's not free, but it costs less than a high school theater. Practice time is limited, and it seems like a disadvantage to go so long without working with a real set.
But that's what a homeless theater company does. Plus, the theater has its perks. For example, it's minutes away from The Green Turtle.
Geri Reynolds increased her involvement in the production once she noticed some members of the cast were struggling with lines. She is not, however, interfering with Dhu, who has become involved with Patuxent the past couple years while continuing her own mystery dinner theater business. Calmly yet sternly, Dhu snaps at Jack Reynolds to be just an actor. He is not fazed though — nor is anyone else when he snaps at them.
"On Monday I'm just going to be an actor," he tells Dhu.
That's hard to believe — perhaps because Jack Reynolds, the actor, is the one who just called the practice short.
So maybe the play is running a week or two behind … When is a play ever not running a week or two (or three) behind?
There are seven more days after tonight. They will meet for a long rehearsal on Sunday, and then it's time for "hell week," four straight days of three-hour rehearsals.
The show will go on; it always does.
Maybe they have accomplished all they can accomplish tonight … or maybe it's time for karaoke. The DJ at The Green Turtle is already taking requests, and it's becoming a tradition for some in the cast.
Look at it this way: Once "The Nerd" has had its three-weekend run, hanging out on Thursday and belting out tunes by Elton John and Deanna Carter with your family, both real and imagined, will no longer be so convenient.
At least not until rehearsals begin for July's "School House Rock Live!"
If you go
Patuxent Playhouse's production of Larry Shue's "The Nerd" will open at 8 p.m. March 13 at St. John Vianney Family Life Center Theater. The show continues through March 28. Performances will be held at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays with an additional 2 p.m. matinee March 28. Tickets are $15, $12 for the matinee performance. The theater is at 105 Vianney Lane (off Main Street), Prince Frederick. Call 410-326-1401. Go to www.paxplays.com.
