THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, March 31, 1995 TAG: 9503290212
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 04B EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Art Notes
SOURCE: Marlene Ford
LENGTH: Long : 152 lines
How glamorous can theater be when the route to the stage is through the men's room?
Glamorous enough. Fulfilling, creative and even frustrating enough to keep Liz Sills, one of the founders of the Little Theatre of Virginia Beach, going strong for nearly five decades.
This year marks Sills' 47th season in the local community theater. She has directed, slapped paint on scenery, appeared in front of the footlights when absolutely necessary and even scurried through the men's room to find the stage. (Of course, that was in the 1960s when the little theater was at home in the former Courtyard Playhouse on 17th Street.)
It isn't that she doesn't still love it, but this current production of ``Another Part of the Forest'' is the 85-year-old's final curtain call as director.
Sills laughed wryly, ``It's not that I don't enjoy the creative part and love the people - it's just that directing is a lot to put an old body through.
``And I know people will laugh at this being my last production as director,'' she said. ``I've been told I've said this before.
``It's just that when we discussed putting Lillian Hellman's `Another Part of the Forest' in our season, I was the one who urged them to choose it - saying they would find someone to direct it later.
``They did.''
In addition to contributing her theatrical expertise, first learned through the storytelling talents of her Aunt Emily Johns and then sharpened at the Little Theatre of Norfolk, Sills remains a viable, vivid link to local stage and community history.
``What theater?'' Sills asked. ``This was just a village shut up tight in the winter. Auditions were my running into local gas stations and grocery stores shouting: Who wants to be in a play?''
Working with Carol Simpson, Sills organized Virginia Beach's Little Theatre.
Plays were rehearsed in the old community center bath house, the clapboard building on Arctic Avenue that later became the Virginia Beach Arts Center. It was so small the director had to sit in the middle of the set to direct. Performances were in the auditorium of Virginia Beach High School, now Virginia Beach Middle School.
And, before the current theater on 24th Street and Barberton Drive was built, Sills directed dramas and musicals at the Courtyard Playhouse. The local thespians tore out all the seats of the former movie house and set up tables and chairs for the audience.
``That was also where in order to get onstage, actors had to go through the men's room,'' she added. ``As a matter of fact, you had to go through the men's room, then outside and then onto the stage.''
Sills said there have been times when she's been burned out and taken some time off from directing. But the times she is in charge, she's a fanatic. Rehearsals go until midnight, and she expects the best from pros and neophytes alike. She demands the same from herself. Research for this drama has included devouring Hellman's writings, studying newspapers from the 1880s as well as tunes of the era and the authentic sounds of late 19th century doorbells.
``You don't just direct a play; you have your fingers on all of it,'' she said.
``It took the theater a month to talk me into this production, and I'm absolutely dedicated to it. But this is my last as director.''
``Another Part of the Forest'' opens at 8 p.m. Friday and plays Friday and Saturday evenings through April 22. Sunday matinees are at 3 p.m. April 2, 9 and 23. Tickets are $8 and $6. For reservations, call 428-9233.
IT'S SIMILAR TO, BUT EASIER THAN counting and identifying birds on the wing. At 10 a.m. April 8, Hampton Roads residents have the opportunity to join the largest volunteer cultural project in America's history. A workshop will be offered at the Virginia Beach Center for the Arts for anyone interested in identifying and surveying local outdoor sculpture for a project called ``Inventory of American Sculpture at the Smithsonian Institution.''
Part of a larger project titled ``Save Outdoor Art,'' this activity is a study for the National Institute for the Conservation of Cultural Property and the National Museum of American Art. The Virginia Department of Historic Resources has joined the survey and is looking for volunteers to help list, date, research, measure and describe outdoor artworks.
Before any field work is done, participants at the Arts Center workshop will hear a presentation by Sarah Driggs, Virginia ``Save Outdoor Art'' coordinator. Melba Myers of the Virginia Department of Historic Resources offers training in identification of conservation problems for outdoor sculpture. For more information, call Betsy Gough-DiJulio at 425-0000.
EVERYONE IS USED TO BIG-BUDGET MOVIES. Now it's a big budget musical - in a high school.
``Hello, Dolly!'' the Michael Stewart/Jerry Herman musical at Princess Anne High School, is chalking up a tab of $8,000. Director and theater arts teacher Nancy Dodd said it's worth it.
``We have more than 100 students directly involved in the show,'' Dodd said. ``More and different students than we've had before. And, this is the first time I can remember that our production has been a joint effort between the thespian troupe, the chorus, orchestra and visual arts department.
``It's a major and highly difficult musical to do in a high school, because of the acting, the sets, the orchestra score. And it will be a wonderful memory for all these students to know it was done as well as possible,'' she said.
This is not money frivolously spent. Lots of props and costumes were borrowed, built or rummaged from attics, but a whopping $2,000 went straight to royalties for the show before one line of music was sung and one dance danced. This was followed by bills for everything from sound engineering to lumber and nails for a grand staircase to Velcro and fabric to dress up the orchestra pit.
``It's amazing how expensive everything is. We went through pounds and pounds of screws to build the scenery,'' the director said.
However, every cent was earned the old fashioned way.
``Fund-raisers,'' she groaned. Money from car washes, candy sales, carnation sales, profits from past productions including a school student talent show that played to nearly 700 students, program sponsorships and even a few Broadway style ``angels'' have contributed to the grand total.
Dodd mused, ``It would be nice to make a profit. But even if we need to do a little extra fund-raising when it's all over, well, we'll just do a few more car washes.''
The remaining two productions of ``Hello, Dolly,'' are at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday. The first program helped raise money for Virginians Opposing Drunk Driving; profits from the second performance were contributed to the high school theater activities.
Tickets are $5 for adults and $4 for students. On Saturday a spaghetti dinner and show, which is also a reunion for past Princess Anne High School thespians, costs $11. Anyone still wanting to be an ``angel'' for this production should call 499-6272. For reservations, call 498-5707.
BOTH DANCE AND ART ALWAYS SEEM more abundant in the spring.
The WHRO Public Broadcasting studio at 5200 Hampton Blvd. in Norfolk continues to be a welcome gallery space to local artists. Two Virginia Beach based organizations on view are the Sumi-E Society of Virginia Beach, through today. This is followed by the Chesapeake Bay Watercolorists' 11th annual members show, opening on Sunday and continuing through April 27.
Both exhibitions are open free to the public from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., weekdays.
A NEW DANCE GROUP, Dames Dance Theatre of Chesapeake, based out of the Academy of Classical and Contemporary Dance, is looking for dancers from Virginia Beach and across Hampton Roads.
The dance theater is a multicultural group auditioning male and female concert dancers of various nationalities. They are traditional in modern dance technique, and many of their dances focus on a variety of jazz, modern, Afro-Caribbean mixtures as well as ballet, tap and avant-garde styles.
Proficient dancers 18 and older should call Keith Dames at 424-6177. ILLUSTRATION: File photo
Liz Sills, one of the founders of the Little Theatre of Virginia
Beach, is quitting the boards after directing this season's
production of ``Another Part of the Forest.''
Bobby Kendall, left, portrays Horace Vandergelder and Ashlynn Brooks
is Dolly Levi in the Princess Anne High School production of
``Hello, Dolly!'' More than 100 students are involved in staging the
musical. The remaining two performances of ``Hello, Dolly,'' are at
8 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
by CNB