Page 19 - the NOISE August 2013

Ellen Ryan (Adrienne Bischoff) and TV host Troy Richards
(Dennis Hattem) “Backstage” on the set of Game Show.
the play improvisational. I ask Ms. Bischoff
how she and the cast are planning for this. “The audience participation is the curveball to our batters,” she says. “Without them, there’d
be no point to the show. That said, every the- ater production has audience participation to some extent. We just encourage it with Game Show. I love that we get to acknowl- edge the audience instead of them being the elephant in the room. Comedy, more than any other genre, plays to that because it ex- pects laughter.”
The cast has been practicing improvisation games to get them in the anything can hap- pen mentality. “It’s so much fun wondering how you’re going to react to what the audi- ence gives you,” Ms. Bischoff says. “Nick has also pushed us to really explore our charac- ters’ motivations, desires, and backstories; something that is all too often overlooked in Community Theater. Fleshing out your character is crucial, especially in comedy; audiences turn against you pretty quickly if your jokes fall flat because you’ve essentially insulted their intelligence.”
The host of the show, Dennis Hattem, tells me about playing the role of Troy Rich- ards. “My character, Troy Richards, is the Game Show host and is the star of the show, and he knows it!” Mr. Hattem says. “He loves the position, it gives him access to lots of money, power and women. I think he’s a pretty clueless guy, very into himself, which of course makes him very funny. In most of my other roles I’ve played characters with at least some redeeming qualities, even when I played George in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, there’s was a spark of humanity. Troy isn’t like that at all.”
Most recently, Mr. Hattem directed the musical, The Spitfire Grill, another play that is a contrast to Game Show.
To prepare for his role of host, Mr. Hattem
turned to YouTube where he perused clip af- ter clip of game shows, studying people like Chuck Barris on the Gong Show and Richard Dawson on Family Feud.
“I studied their mannerisms, how they talked, and how they interacted with the au- dience,” Mr. Hattem says. “It is challenging to have to pretend you’re talking with someone you don’t know, since we have been using crew members and staff to fill in for now. I’m not very shy about starting up conversations with people, so I’m hoping that will carry me through the actual performances.”
Scott Kennedy plays Gerry and has before acted in Theatrikos’ Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Cabaret, Comedy of Errors, and One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
“In Game Show, I have the unique pleasure of being cast as one of the cameramen,” Mr. Kennedy tells me. “It’s vastly different than anything I’ve ever done before because I spend the bulk of my time onstage offstage. I spend a lot of time in the audience, manning the camera and making sure that Dennis, er, Troy Richards, looks good. Also, as Nick Rabe puts it, I don’t have to worry so much about the audience’s perspective of me, because that’s not what I’m doing. My character is at work. He’s a professional, for sure, but his job caters more to the TV audience than to the studio audience.”
Game Show opened on July 26 and will continue to play at the Doris Harper-White Community Playhouse through August 11. Remember, if you have an inclination to, volunteer to be a contestant on stage. Par- ticipants all walk away with real prizes, and grand prizes are generously donated by many local businesses. Theatrikos.com
landScape thRough the lenS
The Z House Gallery has recently wel- comed a new artist. Georgia Michalicek,
>> continued on page 20
thenoise.us • the NOISE arts & news • AUGUST 2013 • 19