Little Theater, Grand Ideas

Spending the entire summer at the cottage in Maine could be busy with the arrival of relatives and friends but there was only so much swimming, boating and playing in the sand that I could tolerate. The weather could be hot and unforgiving or damp and cold leaving us to quiet indoor activities.

The cellar was our escape from our parents and one summer, the occasional hot weather kitchen, the sometimes swimsuit changing room and the creepy corner of rusty tools was transformed into our personal theater.

The first production that was held in the cellar was the brainchild of my older cousin, Steven. He fashioned a curtain out of sailboat rope and a faded threadbare sheet, wrote a rudimentary script and cast his younger brother Todd and me into leading roles. He designed the set around the old kitchen table which was impossible to move and then created stadium seating for the audience using old cinder blocks and a series of beach chairs. Tickets were distributed to our fan base and playbills were hand written with colored pencils. Steven paid attention to every detail in his role of Director, Producer, Stage Manager, Set Designer, Costume Designer, Makeup Artist and Playwright.

The second production was designed by me after Steven had left for his home in New York. I enlisted the help of my sister, Elizabeth and a couple of the neighborhood kids. It was Elizabeth’s first and only musical entitled “The Genie in the Clothesbasket”. Elizabeth was the genie in the clothesbasket. I thought “Clothesbasket” sounded classier than “hamper”. Even at 9 years of age, my sister was tall and the clothesbasket was the only thing she could fit in. When someone rubbed the clothesbasket the right way, Elizabeth would spring from the depths and sing a jaunty tune that I wrote with the help of my flute:

I am the Genie

I am the Genie

I am the Genie

Of the Clothesbasket!

I believe my sister discovered her love of theater and performing arts in the cellar of our summer retreat. I have attended many of her plays, which are strangely non-musical, in South Carolina, Georgia and Connecticut and have noticed that she never once mentioned her childhood performances in Maine.

For myself, I am content to collect my monthly royalties for my one hit wonder and fondly remember one summer, over thirty years ago, where the gathering of many creative minds produced the littlest of little theater in the small lakeside community.