This weekend, the curtains will rise on the Aspen Community Theatre (ACT) stage for the 40th year. The production is a retrospective of the many songs performed by valley amateurs, and their stories of how the organization allowed them to become - at least for a weekend - a star.
Alycin met visited rehearsals last week and brings this report.
It’s one week until showtime.
Sitting midway up in the auditorium, producer Rita Hunter watches as the ensemble works out the blocking for a big group number.
The show this weekend features more than 50 actors and a full orchestra. Some have been in 15 productions with ACT, some are making their stage debut.
And that’s how it’s always been. All these years.
“It’s all locals,” Hunter said. “That's your auto mechanic, that’s your postman.”
Hunter has been with ACT since 1980. She wasn’t cast in the production that year…
“...But the director, who was the mayor at the time, saw that I was passionate and said ‘Hey, why don’t you come and do lighting,’” she said.
Then, just like a broadway plot, the producer got ill and Hunter stepped in.
“And I realized this is what i was meant to do,” she said. “I like bossing people around.”
As the cast works out their staging, Ned Sullivan hovers above prepping the fly rail. He has spent the day rigging up different curtains and background set pieces, that he can raise and lower with a pulley system. He is Aspen Community Theatre’s longest running volunteer, most of his contributions have been behind the scenes.
“I used to be a sort of member of the chorus. Just a voice the in background,” he said. “Sad to say other people's talents have gotten better, as mine have deteriorated. If I had any in the first place.”
But he loves theater, and he loves the family feel that comes out of the all-local, all-volunteer team. It’s not just the talent that has improved over the life of the organization. Sets are now extravagant, costumes are rented instead of hand sewn, and new gadgets have been purchased to help with production, like an air-pressure system that allows a single person to lift and move heavy set pieces.
This weekend, valley thespians will reprise their roles in a handful of musical numbers, and other long time players will share their own stories with the audience. There have been countless times when the rag tag group of locals has proven “the show must go on” – through injuries and stray rubber chickens ending up on the stage.
