Another day, another play

It seems to be turning into a thing I do

I’ve managed to worm my way into the next Lisbon Players production. It’s a comedy called Fallen Angels, written in 1923 by the prolific British playwright Noël Coward. We open on Nov. 26 for a too short, five (or six)-show run¹ at Teatro Ibérico. If you’re missing good theater in English and you’ll be in Lisbon at the end of November, you should check it out. The cast is terrific and it’s been a lot of fun working with everyone these past few weeks.

Some of you may recall this is my third show with the Lisbon Players. I volunteered to be an assistant stage manager for The Unfriend, which ran in July, but nobody else offered to help out backstage so I was given a battlefield promotion and muddled my way through what turned out to be a fairly low-maintenance show as the stage manager.² A few weeks later, Celia Williams, The Unfriend’s director, called out of the blue and I happily agreed to stage manage The Event in October, which was an entirely different experience altogether.

Fallen Angels is entirely different still, for an entirely different set of reasons. One main reason has to do with the structure of the organization.

The Lisbon Players

I’m still learning my way around the Lisbon Players. What seems clear is that each production is its own separate entity - casting, rehearsing, sourcing props as needed with little obvious oversight. There must be a budget for each show but I’ve only seen one for The Unfriend and I don’t know where it came from. I know what the tickets have cost but I don’t know who sets the prices - they’ve been different every time - or whether or not anything has made money. (Or, indeed, if that’s even a goal. Is LP a non-profit?) I imagine the theaters we’ve performed in got a cut of the revenue but I’ve no clue how that works. The shows have been publicized via social media posts and email blasts and programs have been designed and printed but, again, the whos and hows are unknowns.

I also am aware that LP has a governing committee (literally called “the committee” possibly even with capital letters³) that consists of, I think, five people. Over the three shows I’ve worked, I’ve met a couple dozen actors, directors, producers, light and set designers, light and sound technicians; everyone needed to make a show run. I can definitely name two people who are on The Committee right now. I think I met a third sitting committee member and maybe know the name of a fourth? I know a few others who have been on it before but I don’t know how people are chosen for The Committee and I don’t know how long they serve.

It’s not that The Committee is a secret. It’s just not super clear to me who they are or what they do. It doesn’t help that the LP website … um … needs work. Like, don’t even bother seeking it out.⁴ (As of this writing, the home page is still advertising The Event, which closed Oct. 12. There’s no mention of Fallen Angels, which opens in eight days.) I sent an email over the summer to tell them I was unable to order a t-shirt from their store due to a persistent error message. I got a prompt and chirpy reply from someone⁵ telling me they were in the process of re-doing the site and they expected to have it shiny and new sometime this fall. So it’s entirely possible that any day now all will become clear.

But for the time being at least, The Committee has a bit of a shadowy cabal vibe to it.

My understanding is that LP is a membership organization. My understanding is that I’m a member. At least, I paid 5€ through the website over the summer and got a receipt via email and I can login to their “Members Area.” What that membership means, though, is a mystery. I thought I could get discounted tickets but I only saw member pricing for The Event and I’ve no idea whether or how anyone checked to see if those choosing it were actually members. The Members Area is … sparse.

Yup. That’s all folks. Move along, nothing more to see here. (Did I mention their website needs work?)

I guess what I’m saying is that I don’t really know who the Lisbon Players are. (Or what the Lisbon Players is?)

As I write this, I find myself struggling with pronouns. Can I use “we” when I talk about LP? I feel more comfortable with “they.” It feels like I have been part of The Unfriend, The Event, and Fallen Angels but not as much the Lisbon Players.

There are some? … several? … many? people seem to be LP “regulars”. People like Celia, who directed and starred in The Unfriend and co-directed The Event, and her daughter Elizabeth “Wiz” Bochmann, who also starred in The Unfriend. They’ve both served on The Committee in the past and have been involved with dozens of LP productions across many years. A couple of the other Unfriend cast members have done numerous plays with either of both of Celia and Wiz.⁶

And in each of the three shows I’ve been part of there has been at least one key player who was making their LP debut. I got involved with The Unfriend because I responded to an email they sent about an open casting call.⁷

I like that mix of veterans and newbies.

And as with any organization that’s been around a long time, there are sub-groups.

One of the reasons Fallen Angels (FA) is a different experience for me is that I feel like I’ve leapt from one LP sub-group to another. There are eight people attending FA rehearsals: six cast members, the director, and me. Three of those cast members were in either the LP’s production of Hedda Gabler, which ran right before The Unfriend, or Accidental Death of an Anarchist, which ran right after it. The only other FA person attached to The Unfriend or The Event is the Light and Set Designer Marinel. And FA’s Director, Martim, is one of the two people I know who’s definitely on The Committee.

My hope is that I’ll be on the short list of people to call for future LP productions. It's one of the few ways I can make a contribution to my hometown despite my limited Portuguese.

For that to be more likely, though, I have to manage not to totally screw this gig up.

This is a Very Different Show

The Unfriend used 35 or 40 props. About half of them fit on or under one small-ish table backstage (which is good because there wasn’t much space in the wings).

The Event had two props: a chair and a jacket.

Depending on how you’re counting,⁸ Fallen Angels has more than 100 props. At the start of the show, those props are arrayed across seven different places. One of those “places” being “on stage,” which could mean on the bar, the dining table, a chair, the couch, or either of the tables next to the couch.

There are props living inside of other props. Russian nesting dolls of props.

We’ll probably need three tables just to organize the roughly 45 items that will be in another of the “places” - off-stage in the “kitchen.”⁹

I’ve no idea whether there’s room for three tables in the wings of Teatro Ibérico because I’ve never been there. And I won’t set foot inside until two days before we open.

As I detailed the last time I wrote about the LP, the company has been without its own space since late 2019 and is totally dependent on the schedules of the theaters gracious enough to host its productions. In addition to short, five¹⁰-show runs, this also means we must rehearse in spaces other than the venue where we’ll perform and we don’t get much time to settle in to the set before we open.¹¹

I also don’t know whether there’s a sink, microwave, or refrigerator that I can access during the show. Any of these would be helpful due to the large amount of food and liquid we’ll be using.

In The Unfriend, we needed a banana, a slice of cake, some milk that never left the carton, a can of Pringles, tap water for the live flowers, and sparkling water. The only thing actually consumed on stage was a corner of a sandwich and a few sips of water.

In Fallen Angels, two of the characters are served a four-course meal throughout much of Act 2. Some of that food ideally should be warm, some of it is best kept cold until right before it's needed. Acts 1 and 3 each open at breakfast and characters gobble toast,¹² poke moodily at soft-boiled eggs, and sip coffee. We’ll need water in at least four different colors and iced tea. All of this gets brought on and/or off stage on platters and trays. Four of the six actors will eat and/or drink at some point.

And, this being high society London 100 years ago, there’s smoking as well. Recently, I purchased a cigarette lighter at an antique store down the hill from our house¹³ and visited four tabacarias before I found someone who had butane to fuel it.¹⁴ I just hope the thing actually lights up when it’s supposed to.

Fortunately for me, much of the heavy lifting had already been done by the time I got on board. Madison McKenzie Scott plays the role of Saunders the housekeeper, and, as such, handles the vast majority of the props over the course of the play. She is every bit the rock star in real life as her character is on stage and she knows the value of a good spreadsheet. Before I attended my first rehearsal on October 29,¹⁵ she gave me access to the files she’d created to track and organize the sprawling array of items that get moved around during this production.

My job since then has basically been to mark up my script like a mad man - I have four different highlighter colors and needed a fifth¹⁶ - and stay the heck out of everyone’s way.¹⁷

One page of my colorful script. Yellow is for props, blue for scene numbers, gray for entrances and exits, and green for stuff I need to do. There’s also orange for sound and light cues but there are none on this page.

Before each rehearsal and performance, I’ll wash 25-30 glasses,¹⁸ plates, and assorted cutlery as well as fill more than a dozen containers with the aforementioned liquids. I’ll also scan to make sure everything is where it’s supposed to be¹⁹ and make runs to local grocery stores and fine-dining establishments to ensure we have the necessary supplies on hand.

Once the show actually begins, I have relatively little to do with the exception of a busy stretch near the start of Act 2. I’d take a nap but there’s always the possibility that something goes wrong. Even if it does, though, I have confidence this cast can work it out together and the audience won’t notice a thing.

It’s been a fun ride and it’ll be an entertaining show. Come check it out if you can.

Weather report

Last week we had a lot of serious rain and wind in the Lisbon area - two people died when their home was flooded, a third was killed in a tornado, thousands lost power - accompanied by thunder, lightning, and even a brief burst of hail thanks to Storm Claudia. The past couple of days it’s been clear and cool with occasional showers. Good fall weather.

The week ahead looks mostly clear (or overcast depending on which weather app you really on) and dry with high temperatures between 13 and 18 Celsius (56 - 63 Fahrenheit) and lows dipping into the single digits (low - mid 40s), which is close to as cold as it regularly gets in Lisbon. We haven’t seen below 0 temps since we've gotten here, really, no ice or snow.

That’s all for now.

Love from Lisbon,

Scott

1. The decision of whether to add a Saturday matinee will be made by Nov. 18 and will depend in part on how ticket sales are going for the original five shows.

2. I had a lot of help from an “assistant” stage manager who had more experience with stage management than I did. Thanks, El!

3. I’m going with it because it’s more … well, dramatic.

4. Ok fine. It’s here.

5. I think it’s one of The Committee members I actually know but I’m not sure; the message was unsigned

6. There were multiple conversations that included comments like, “Was I your wife or your daughter in that play?”

7. I’d love to tell you how to join their email list but I can’t figure it out. Did I mention their website needs work?

8. Like, there are eight bottles of “booze” on the on-stage bar. Only three will actually be touched by characters, the others are there as decoration. Is that three props? Eight props? Zero props? And what about the jewelry that gets placed on stage (as opposed to worn as an actor enters) at the beginning of Act 2? Costume or props?

9. That’s more props in one of the seven areas than were needed in both of the other two shows I worked combined.

10. or 6

11. And this set is, like everything else, quite different from what I’ve worked with before. The main thing is that it’ll be on a platform that rotates between Acts. We can pretend to do this in rehearsal but we won’t actually be able to practice that until Monday, Nov. 24. Did I mention we open on the 26th? What could possibly go wrong?

12. That reminds me … we’re gonna need a toaster back stage.

13. Four euros. A bargain at twice the price.

14. The first three didn’t sell the stuff. The guy at the last one spoke many, many words at me - most of which sounded like he needed to know what brand the lighter was before he could tell how to make it work. He finally pulled out a bottle of butane and squirted some in and, lo, there was flame! I still don’t know what he was worried about. Is there more than one type of liquid one can use to fuel a lighter? Will using the wrong one lead to possibly explosive results? On the plus side, I managed to get my point across in Portuguese to no fewer than six different shop owners.

15. The cast has been working together since at least mid-September.

16. yellow & blue make green!

17. I also keep alert for the occasional call of “line” from the actors but that’s getting fewer and farther between, as it should.

18. many of which are quite delicate, a fact I've found out the hard way

19. The actors will check as well, thank goodness.