The family that plays together stays together

By Michael Gorman

THE VANGUARD

NovaNewsNow.com

David Doucette and Tanya Wallace are on stage rehearsing at Th'YARC. In the background the sound of drills and hammers threatens to drown them out and in the audience, somewhere up in the back, the voice of their director, Sandy Fevens, calls out whenever they miss a line and she wants them to start again.

Everyone seems cool and laid back. You'd never guess they open in nine days.

Chalk it up to one of the benefits of a group that's been together long enough to know what they're doing.

Th'YARC's upcoming production of Hot Bed Hotel, which opens tonight and runs Oct. 9-11 and 16-18, features the cast Fevens affectionately refers to as the Farce Family. In this, the group's fifth time in five years staging a fall comedy, all of the familiar faces are back. The play tells the story of a couple trying to sell their hotel. When a prospective buyer comes to town and they have no guests, the couple gets creative in an attempt to make the place seem busy. Anyone who's seen the Farce Family in action before should have a pretty good idea of what happens next.

The shows have gained quite a following, with the last two productions — the Amorous Ambassador and Whose Wives Are They Anyway — posting sellouts from opening to closing night.

Fevens said she and everyone involved with the first production, Right Bed Wrong Husband, was surprised at how well received it was. The following year they decided to try it again with Who's Under Where? It was then that they knew they had something special.

"The second week of that show we sold out," said Fevens. "I just knew then that there was something about this cast. What was happening then was people weren't calling up to book tickets saying 'I want to book tickets for Who's Under Where?' they were calling up to say 'I want to see that show Raymond and Timmy are in.'"

Raymond and Timmy are Raymond Tabb and Tim Schrader. The two are familiar faces on stage at Th'YARC but they are at their best when they share the stage in comedies such as these. The two play off one another well and Fevens says they are the catalyst to why the shows are so successful.

"They gel on stage perfectly," she says.

With the success of Who's Under Where? Fevens said she knew she had a talented acting troop on her hands and they set out each fall to continue with the success. It carried over to Whose Wives Are They Anyway and The Amorous Ambassador, and now they're hoping it continues with Hot Bed Hotel.

Fevens's Farce Family is comprised of 10 actors from which Fevens draws when putting together these shows. While some of the faces are always the same, some come and go depending on whether Fevens can find an appropriate role for them.

"They understand that just because they're part of the troop, it doesn't mean that they always get a part — they still have to fit the role."

This is one of the reasons Fevens believes the shows are so successful. It also helps that the group has such natural chemistry.

"They work well together. I can't say enough about them."

Tabb and Schrader both say that chemistry is what makes doing the shows each year so much fun.

"We get more out of it than the audience, I'm pretty sure," said Tabb. "We feed off each other. It's like a well-oiled machine; it comes together every time."

It also helps with their approach to preparation, says Schrader. Because they are so accustomed to working together they know how to deal with any difficulties they might encounter along the way.

"If someone misses a line or drops a line we're so comfortable with each other that on stage we can feed off each other and just keep going with our lines without every having to worry if we've missed one."

Working with the group also changes Fevens's approach as a director. With a group that knows each other as well as this one there is no initial getting-to-know-you stage. That means they're able to jump right into the material and be comfortable.

"Nobody's really nervous, nobody's tense, nobody's unsure because they're already friends, they're already familiar, they've already worked together," she said.

The other perk, at least as far as Fevens is concerned, is that the group will do pretty much whatever she asks.

"They love it so much that they're willing to stretch it to the line as far as they've got to to give the audience the very best performance."