Blind Prophecy

Okay, just to get it out of the way, I received my first law school decision letter yesterday. I was rejected from a school that wasn’t my first choice, but should have been a pretty solid safety school. Looking back over the application (it was the first I sent in), I see several rather silly errors that reflect badly on me, so I’m not getting upset (yeah, right) over it.

Anyway, I also bought a scanner at WalMart to cheer myself up. While I have about 3,000 photos that need scanning and archiving, I decided to start with some of my favorite photos from the college years. Maybe it was my very, very nerdy love post to my makeup kit a couple days ago… maybe it’s the anticipation over going back to school… maybe it’s just regular nostalgia… but I’ve had my theatre years on the mind a lot lately.

Looking back, I think my first musical (not my first time on stage, but my first time singing) was one of the more defining moments of my life. Despite my fears that I was rather tone deaf, Eryka and Mandee convinced me to audition for the fall ‘96 production of Steven Sondheim’s A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum at UNR. To my shock and surprise, I was asked to come to a callback and eventually cast in a supporting role as one of 6 “Proteans.” If you’re not familiar with the show, the Proteans get to have all the fun, providing backup to most of the songs, switching between characters like eunuchs, soldiers and townspeople and engaging in hilarious, high-paced slapstick.

Overall, I simply had a blast with the goofy choreography, “not pretty” singing, sight gags, entendre, and our show motto, “Louder, Faster, Funnier!”

That’s me at the far right…

The cast and crew includes people who became some of my best friends in college and beyond.

Specifically, Alicia was the stage manager for the show and if I had to pick out the period where she and I became great friends, I’d have to say it happened during A Funny Thing… . While I had many awesome friends in college, I think Alicia and I were particularly inseparable.

I remember using Alicia’s stage manager keys to sneak into the proscenium theatre late at night for spiritual bonding with the space. We would sit in the back of the audience and watch the ghosts play around the ghost light, or climb into the rafters, or dare ourselves to visit the spookiest part of the building (deceptively named “prop heaven”). This ritual was off-limits, an abuse of trust, and completely against the rules, so everyone did it sooner or later.

We were all so unreasonably proud of that show. UNR has a tradition of “tagging” the wings and backstage area after each show. To take a tour of the department’s history, one only needs to spend a few hours looking at backstage walls masked from the audience’s line of sight. From tiny sharpie scribbles of a show’s title to larger artistic statements, we decided that A Funny Thing… needed to be one of the dominant tags in the wings and that we needed it to be highly placed so as to avoid getting graffiti on top of it. I seem to remember someone getting yelled at because a) there was no way that tag could have been painted except by foolish twenty-somethings in the theatre building well after the faculty and staff had gone home, b) it was too big and wall space was already at a premium after 25 years, and c) we clearly used some sort of dangerous climbing mechanism (like, you know, a ladder) without permission.

A Funny Thing… is also where I got my name. See, until this point in my life, I was universally known as “Jeremy” by friends and family alike. During rehearsals for the show, however, our director scribbled his notes to the relatively large cast in a hurry. It was my first show with Dr. Dillard and I’d yet to take one of his classes, so he didn’t know me especially well yet. After a run-through, when he called the cast out for notes, he would see his shorthand version of my name (4 letters is all he had time for) and address me as “Jere.”

At first, the cast laughed a bit at him for inventing a nickname for me, but it stuck. This was only a few short months after I’d come out of the closet, I was sorta dating-but-not-dating a guy for the first time (a story for another time), and generally coming out of my shell. I decided that a new name seemed perfectly appropriate.

Every show I participated in at UNR has special memories attached, and you’ll probably get to hear those stories sooner or later. Anyway, a big shout-out to all my friends (even those who I would later feud with) from the show. Cast and crew of the Nevada Repertory Company’s 1996 production of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, I love you guys!

Someone better effin’ call me if UNR ever mounts a reunion special of this show!

Cast
Prologus (Act I) … Douglas Walls
Protean … John J. Adams
Protean … Jason Evans
Protean … Jaimi Ficco
Protean … Jere Keys
Protean … Bill Ware
Protean … Raymond L. Williams
Hero … Tim Glynn
Philia … Janine Burgener
Senex … David Seibert
Domina … Eryka Raines
Hysterium … Marcus Wolland
Pseudolus … Douglas Walls
Lycus … Scott House
Tintinabula … Amanda Gunderson
Femina … Leslie McCarroll
Vibrata … Laura Rappa
Gymnasia … Andrea Cozzens
Geminae … CaraJo Basso
Geminae … Amy E. Yarnell
Erronius … Tom Krakowiak
Miles Gloriosus … Tom DeWester
Prologus (Act II) … David Seibert

Staff
Director … Bob Dillard
Scenic Designer … Larry Walters
Assistant Scenic Designer … Paul A. Kiser
Lighting Designer … Michael Fernbach
Sound Designer … Michael Fernbach
Technical Director … Greg Artman
Choreographer … Nancy Shaw-Pferschy
Musical Director … Brach Thomson
Costume Designer … Gerilyn Tandberg
Stage Manager … Alicia Wolters
Scene Shop Assistant … Chip Egbert
Scene Shop Assistant … Bill McCandless
Chief Electrician … Alicia Wolters
Light Crew … Thomas Hallbauer
Costume Shop Manager … Lindsay Jones
Costume Shop Manager … Bill Ware
Costume Shop Assistant … Sarah M. Fitzgerald
Costume Shop Assistant … Jere Keys
Makeup and Hair … Janine Burgener
Stage Crew … James Lowery
Stage Crew … Tracey Smith
Stage Crew … Raymond L. Williams
Wardrobe Crew … Andrea Cozzens
Wardrobe Crew … Janine Simonowski
Wardrobe Crew … Tanielle Thew
Wardrobe Crew … Lisa Weiser
Properties Manager … Janine Burgener
Properties Crew … John J. Adams
Sound Board Operator … Robert Luis
Light Board Operator … Mike Kari
Follow Spot Operator … Chris Counsil
Follow Spot Operator … Chip Egbert
House Manager … Bob Barsanti
Assistant House Manager … Mary Van Kirk
Management Assistant … Saralinda Seibert

Band
Musician … Kurt Flaghenhoupt
Musician … Richard Howard
Musician … Phil Jerome
Musician … Robert Lightfoot
Musician … Vernon Scarbrough
Musician … Brach Thomson
Conductor … Brach Thomson

Filed under: law school, theatregeekery by Jere Keys