THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 12, 1996 TAG: 9601110150
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TOM HOLDEN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 143 lines
IN THE BEGINNING, there were the demons. He could not see them. They made no sound. But each night, just as sure as the sun set, they came to haunt young Gary Spell just before he took to the stage at Princess Anne High School.
He knew his lines. He was as ready as an actor could be. But the demons of stage fright would not let him rest. So before the curtain rose, the young actor battled them in a bathroom the only way he knew how.
``It was like a ritual for me,'' said Spell, looking back on his early days. ``I'd spend hours just heaving my guts out. I'd lose my voice. I just had the worst case of nerves you could imagine.''
In those days, before he formed Dominion Theater and before it took over his life, before the modest success at the Founders Inn and his company's revival this week of ``Forever Plaid,'' before marriage even, before all that, the demons took time to quell.
``I can picture myself standing in the wings,'' Spell said. ``The musical we did that summer was `Li'l Abner.' I remember telling people in the wings, and here I'm on the verge of tears, I'm saying, `I'm never going to do this again! Never!'
``If I had quit, I would have let all these people down,'' Spell said. ``When you get on stage and deliver your lines and something like 500 people laugh at the joke and then later when you come out to take a bow and they roar in approval, then it becomes like a drug.
``It's like being drunk,'' he continued. ``You get up in the morning with your head all sore and say, `Why did I do that?' But, of course, there's something about the experience that makes it addictive. So I did it again. And again. And every time I stood in the wings and said, `I can't believe I'm doing this again.''
Believe it.
Almost 16 years after graduating from Princess Anne High School, Spell has never looked back on his acting career in dinner theater. But unlike those early days, the demons are long gone. Today, he not only stands confidently before audiences, but he sings, produces, directs and, to his occasional surprise, runs his own production company, Dominion Theater.
That company is now a force behind an ongoing effort to broaden the Founders Inn image from an elegant, if ultraconservative, haven for supporters of the Christian Broadcasting Network to more of a community-centered place where dinner theater is open to people of all beliefs.
The move is partly business driven. After it opened, the Founders Inn itself produced its first and only show - the musical ``1776'' - and it was a financial disaster.
``The production lost something like $70,000,'' said Spell, who at the time was the inn's music director. ``A lot of it had to do with the stigma the place had. The arts community had shut us out. We frequently heard people say things like, `I'm not going to put a dime in Pat Robertson's pocket.' They thought if they came here and bought a ticket, they'd be supporting some kind of a political agenda.''
For these and other reasons, the inn spun off the dinner theater as a separate business and that brought forth the Dominion Theater, which Spell founded with a succession of two partners before they left him in sole control.
Today, the company produces all the shows. It uses the space at the inn's stage and is currently in negotiations for a more formal lease agreement, which is expected this spring. Spell's ongoing efforts to strengthen the theater's image among artists within the community has even given way to a standard audition speech.
``I usually tell actors this: Let me tell you some things that aren't true,'' Spell said. ``You don't have to be a born-again believer to work here. You don't have to tithe a portion of your earnings. You don't have to be a registered Republican.''
He laughs at the speech, but it's an important one. Image problems hurt the ability of the inn to attract a broad range of acting talent - and the people who support them - and for these reasons, Spell said, Dominion Theater enjoys its separate state.
``We are a completely separate operation. If a person buys a theater ticket, they will be supporting us. The only condition for working here is that you are right for the part,'' Spell said.
Spell's efforts are beginning to pay off and the biggest indication of success is ``Forever Plaid.''
Last year, the inn hosted the production to rave reviews and sellout crowds. The production won Port Folio magazine's Theatrical Achievement Award for Best Musical of 1995. Its musical director, Kathi Caplan, also won the Port Folio Award for Best Musical Director.
The show, which premiered in New York City in 1985 and played to sold-out audiences for 3 1/2 years, will run through this weekend only. Performances are Friday through Sunday at 8 p.m. with dinner seating at 6:30 p.m. The price for theater only is $22 and for dinner theater it is $35.50.
There also will be special matinee performances today at 11 a.m., and Saturday and Sunday at 3 p.m.
The musical comedy, written by Stuart Ross, is based on the story of members of a young, semiprofessional 1950s male quartet who were suddenly killed in a car accident just minutes before their big musical debut. Miraculously, they are given one last chance to perform the show they never had the opportunity to perform in real life.
The four singers are Lewis C. Stark, who once performed in a production of the ``Gifts of the Magi'' and most recently was George Bailey in ``It's a Wonderful Life'' at the Founders Inn; Bryan Potts, a native of Flint, Mich., who is making his debut at the inn; and Garry Manasco, who is making his fifth appearance at the inn. He was also a cast member of ``1776,'' though most recently he appeared as Cecco in ``Peter Pan'' for the Virginia Stage Company. The fourth cast member is Spell himself.
The musicians are Jeff Barnes, on piano, who trained at the Armed Forces School of Music, and Steve Haines, a graduate of St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia, who plays acoustic bass.
But ``Forever Plaid,'' which will be performed for the first time in the grand ballroom, is not the only show on tap at the Founders Inn this winter.
``Pump Boys and Dinettes'' opens Jan. 26 in the main theater, and it will run until May 11. This will be at the Founders Inn theater, the original site for ``Forever Plaid.''
For a former football player whose ankle injury turned him to high school theater, the success of Plaid and, hopefully for him, Pump Boys, seems a stretch to think about.
``I was never anything you would expect from a performer,'' said Spell, who lives with his wife, Jennifer, in Princess Anne Plaza. ``I was not eccentric, or weird, or anything. I was a normal guy and until this day a lot of folks who meet me are fairly disillusioned.''
But at least he's overcome the demons. ILLUSTRATION: [Cover, Color photo]
THE SHOWS GO ON
Staff photos, including color cover, by STEVE EARLEY
Gary Spell, left, who runs and acts in the Dominion Theater, stars
with Garry Manasco, Bryan Potts and Lewis Stark in his company's
revival this week of ``Forever Plaid.''
Lewis Stark, left, and Bryan Potts don their plaid bow ties and
jackets for the revival of the production that was named Best
Musical of 1995 by Port Folio magazine.
The musical comedy, written by Stuart Ross, is based on the story of
members of a young, semiprofessional 1950s male quartet who were
killed in a car accident just minutes before their big musical
debut. Miraculously, they are given one last chance to perform.
This ventriloquist's dummy is one of several props used by the
Plaids to re-enact the old Ed Sullivan show during the performance.
KEYWORDS: PROFILE by CNB