Monday, July 09, 2007

The Little Theater of Geneva

Reg Bird, Mary Lois Adshead in Forty Carats
July 9, 2007

They're all in boxes now, photos of the many plays I worked on in Geneva back in the 1980s. It started as a lark, a Monday evening activity at the American Women's Club, sitting around a table reading plays. After a few months of this, one of our regulars suggested, "It's time to mount a production."

If memory serves me it was Bob Hinely, a personnel guy at the Du Pont company and longtime amateur actor, who made that suggestion. He said, "Reading plays is fun, but if this is going anywhere, we've got to get a stage and put on a show."

He was right. I had been an actress in New York, studied with Peggy Feury and her mentor Lee Strasberg, and had been in plays since I was a teenager in Fairhope. I had worked backstage a little, but what I really wanted to do was direct -- so all the pieces fell in place to get something started. I had been on the board of Geneva's English Drama Society (GEDS), but when I didn't get re-elected to that I decided to produce American plays with the American Women's Club.

We started with an evening of one-acts, which went off pretty well. Then we held auditions and began planning a full-scale production. The play I chose was the old chestnut The Man Who Came To Dinner. It had a cast of 28 people! This was a way to get ourselves known in the American community of Geneva -- I cast the minister at the American Church as a delivery man, and the Vice President of the American Women's Club as a television newscaster. I updated the script ("Hamilton Fish" became "Prince Andrew," "Gertrude Stein" became "Frank Sinatra," that sort of thing). What I didn't know when doing that was that every single celebrity name dropped in the play became a laugh line in the show -- and there were lots of them. Here we see Dorothy Watkins as the actress charming Keith Kentopp as Whiteside.

Jim Buckner, Dorothy Watkins in The Little Foxes
After that first full production, Geneva glowed with a new energy. I heard people talking about the play at cocktail parties, I had a huge crowd audition for the next play, and the Little Theatre was on its way. We did The Little Foxes and Forty Carats that first season. Our mission was to provide American theatre for "the tired businessman and his wife," emphasizing comedies and including 
Reg Bird, Julian Finn In Tribute
one show for the whole family every year. I was going through my boxes of photos in preparing for the move and there it all lived again -- from Mr. Whiteside's "I may vomit" through the real tears from Reg Bird in his monologue in Tribute and the ebullient participation of Julian Finn, an executive at one of the inter-national orgs that make up Geneva's economy. Some people became directors -- Ronnie Cohen, who organized me and often stage-managed. 

Ronnie later directed a first-rate production of Deathtrap in Geneva. We all had great fun.

The Little Theatre changed lives. Reg moved back to Michigan where he and his family produce summer theatre on Torch Lake. Ronnie has written plays and movie scripts. More than that, we offered something unique in Switzerland, and we had as almost many Swiss in the audience as we had Americans. There is nothing quite like the theatre of a country and how it represents everything about that country. We were an outpost of American culture as well as the best of the American attitude that if-you-want-to-do-it, you-can! We made friends and we made memories.

I hope someone looking up Little Theatre of Geneva finds this blog post and adds a comment. Wherever you are, you remember all that we did. It's one project that will live in my memory, and that I'll always be proud of.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't think I ever had more fun working on theater productions than with you in Geneva. Thanks a million for the memories.

Mary Lois said...

It was great having you on board, too! How's California these days?

Anonymous said...

I still act from time to time and whenever I do I think of you. It was a fantastic and exciting time.

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Anonymous said...

hello MY NAME is JONATHAN LIPPMAN; I lived in Geneva from 1990 to 2010 and the first few years there I did 6 plays, five with LTG and one with GDS In order COME BLOW YOUR HORN CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF VERONICAS ROOM ON GOLDEN POND OUT OF ORDER and one about Picasso meeting Einstein in a bar in Paris but I cannot remember the name.. I had a few leads and a few supporting parts.. I auditioned for a few others but politics got in the way and people were casting their friends who didnt even bother to audition and it was all planned in advance and I dropped out of the scene. I had a good time performing but didnt always enjoy the rehearsals due to one reason or another As you know LTG closed down at some point and there was only GDS and the GOAS left to do plays and musicals. I am not a trained or a great actor but someone once told someone I wasnt a great actor but I had stage presence and that was nice.. I moved to Nice in 2010 and I do bit parts as an English speaker in French movies and TV shows from time to time...

Mary Lois said...

Jonathan, I left Geneva in 1986 so our paths never crossed. I am pleased the group kept going for another ten years or so, and that you had a good experience there. Sorry to hear it became something of a private club, but that was probably inevitable. I can be found on Facebook if you want to communicate further. Otherwise, thanks for commenting here. I hope you kept active in theatre wherever you are.

Andrew Dale said...

I googled Little Theater of Geneva and found your blog. Many good memories of those plays, but I mostly worked with GEDS. I worked at ILO with Julian Finn. I played Algernon in "The Impportance of Being Wilde", when the author came over from NY to play Worthing. I wonder if you have any old programmes of that? I have the script buried somewhere in the house.
Thanks for writing this. I remember you.
I think the play Anonymous is remembering is "Picasso at the Lapin Agile"...

Mary Lois said...

Andrew, I will look for photos and/or programs from our production of THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING WILDE, but unfortunately I don't think I have any. Look for me on Facebook where you can send me a private message and let me know your address so I can send if I find anything. Glad to know you have good memories of that show!