Ernelle Bellamy, lighting and sound engineer, and Tommy Rogers, sound,

share ideas about SMOKEY JOE'S CAFÉS.  You will be amazed by the lights

and sounds of the show.  Make plans to attend one or all of the final

four performances…April 29, May 1, 2, and 3. Tickets can be purchased

at The Prizery box office in person, via telephone by calling 572 –

8339 Monday – Thursday evenings from 5:00 – 7:00 pm, or on-line at

www.hclt.org.

 

 

 

In an awkward position beneath a set piece, Jesse Barksdale struggles

to attach a wheel to a large moveable platform.  Come applaud his and

others’ volunteer efforts at one or all of SMOKEY JOE’S CAFÉ’s  final

four performances…April 29, May 1, 2, and 3. Tickets can be purchased

at The Prizery box office in person, via telephone by calling 572 –

8339 Monday – Thursday evenings from 5:00 – 7:00 pm, or on-line at

www.hclt.org

 

 

"Smokey Joe's Café" a Work of Heart and Soul for Talented Local

Volunteers

By Melissa Elmes

Anyone attending a performance of Halifax County Little Theatre's

"Smokey Joe's Café" will have no trouble identifying the familiar faces

of friends and coworkers from the community as they share their amazing

musical talents on stage in one hit song after another. Identifying the

folks whose talent and hours of volunteer service to Little Theatre are

less visible but literally "set the stage" for the production,

providing the infrastructure that makes it such a success, might be

little harder.

For every number you see on stage, you can be sure there are hours of

unseen hard work and planning that went into creating the entire

experience. From set design to lighting to sound engineering, the

final, polished performance of any theatrical piece is the

collaborative creation of many unsung and unseen artists whose work, in

its way, often rivals that of those on stage.

Halifax County Little Theatre could not provide the community with a

show like "Smokey Joe's Café" without the volunteer efforts of talented

people like Jesse and Veronna Barksdale, Ernelle Bellamy, Ruth Ann

Roberts, and Mark Antony. For husband and wife team Jesse and Veronna

Barksdale, the magic act of set realization and construction is a

family affair. Neither are strangers to the behind-the-scenes work that

goes into making a HCLT performance.

Both have aided with and headed up set construction and realization for

past shows like "Pump Boys and Dinettes," "The Lion, The Witch and The

Wardrobe," "The Tempest," "Don't Dress For Dinner," and "Lying In

State", while Veronna has had a hand in fashioning the sets and

costumes of "Beehive" and "Come Blow Your Horn" as well. Veronna says

working on the sets with her husband has been great. "I am most proud

that my husband and I work together and get to share our concepts on

different aspects of whatever we happen to be doing at the time," she

said. "And that we accomplish setting out what we do while being with

lots of great people."

In the case of "Smokey Joe's Café," accomplishing what was planned

wasn't always easy. The Barksdales met with many unexpected challenges

in preparation for this show, such as building props and set pieces off

set, disassembling them, and then putting them back together in The

Prizery's Chastain Theatre. Sometimes, things got a little complicated.

One piece Jesse specifically remembers is "The Chariot" that director

Vicky Thomasson asked him to design and build.

"We pre-built it at the Tultex building," he says. But when they put it

back together, "we had a small malfunction. Vicky, in a panic, asked,

'Can we still make it work?' to which I replied 'of course.'" But

you'll have to see the show to know if it does or not!

  Barksdale's laid back, calm-under-fire attitude may have had a hand in

bringing the dream of this show to reality, but he is quick to point

out other hidden heroes integral to the show's success. Barksdale says

one of his favorite parts of the play is seeing the "wonderful light

show" created by lighting and sound engineer Ernelle Bellamy. Bellamy,

who has lent his musical engineering talents to every HCLT performance

since 2004, says the biggest challenge for him is always time.

"There are a lot of technical things going on that the audience does

not see," he explained, noting that "Smokey Joe's Café" was especially

hard because he could not start work on it until just weeks before

opening night. "I had to do three months of work in about 12 days.

There truly was no way to get around this because we could not get into

the space until two weeks before the opening."

And then disaster struck just one day before the curtain rose. "The day

before opening we had a power surge in the building," said Bellamy. "My

lighting computer went down, erasing 150 sound and light cues I had

programmed in for the show. It was about 3:30 p.m." The situation would

have sent most volunteers into a panic, but fortunately, Bellamy is a

consummate professional. He kept his cool, got busy reprogramming the

computer, and reports that "by 9 a.m. (opening night) I had

reprogrammed the show."

Bellamy doesn't mind the tight schedules and last-minute disasters, as

long as it all comes together in the end. "The response of the audience

makes you feel that all that work was worth it," he said. "People asked

what town the show was going to next."

Of course, having the right costumes is just as important as having the

right lighting, as HCLT veteran Ruth Ann Roberts knows all too well

from her performances in "Homecoming" and "Come Blow Your Horn."

Roberts also has worked with Ginny Bogart, the reigning HCLT Costumes

Doyenne, fashioning the on stage look for "Grease," "Beehive," "Always,

Patsy Cline," and "The Fantastiks". She says the hardest part of this

play has been balancing late nights with an early morning start to her

job, but that it has all been worth it because of the people she has

had a chance to meet and the talent involved in all aspects of the

performance.

"Watching Mark Anthony create the museum-quality art work has been the

most rewarding part of it," said Roberts. "It just amazed me, the

talent that came through her hands and landed on the canvas. To see the

art she created is worth the ticket and time alone."

Anthony is a relative newcomer to HCLT, first getting involved with

"It's A Wonderful Life" just two weeks after moving to the area. "I won

the role of Violet and was an avid performer from then on," says

Anthony. "At the same time I also painted some of the set pieces. I

already have a background in portraiture and trompe l'oeil and mural

work, so it was inevitable that set painting for the theatre would come

into the process at some point."

Anthony says that the size of the artwork she created for "Smokey Joe's

Café" and the time frame available to complete it were a real

challenge, but well worth it, particularly when she had a chance to see

her portrait of Louis Armstrong hovering over the stage during final

rehearsals. "As I watched the play, I kept looking at his facial

expression in such a large scale," says Anthony. "It was almost surreal

that I had produced that."

But of course, while the actors, musicians, set designers, sound and

lighting engineers, costume designers and artists all have contributed

their talents and volunteer efforts to "Smokey Joe's Café," the real

work of art is how all those elements come together as a finished

performance.

"It is more than I envisioned it to be when you see all the parts come

together," says Veronna. "I feel like this is Broadway. And then you

see and hear from audience members how much they have enjoyed the show-

well , that is indescribable.  I get so much from knowing we have

helped to make something so many have enjoyed. You know it even if they

don't tell you themselves - just look at the faces and they tell you

everything."

And the audience members aren't the only ones enjoying it. "Backstage,

we are all singing, dancing and clapping along with the audience," says

Roberts. "Bravo! Bravo! Bravo!" adds Anthony. "When's the next one?"

Come add your applause and accolades to all the rest.  Don't miss the

final performances of "Smokey Joe's Cafe," directed by Victoria

Thomasson.  The play continues Thursday - Saturday, May 1, 2, and 3 at

8:00 pm.

"Smokey Joe's Café" is a show dedicated to the music of the period.

While not racy by today's standards, HCLT won't be held responsible for

any toe tapping, leg shaking, or hand clapping fun had by theatergoers.

Tickets can be purchased at The Prizery box office in person, via

telephone by calling 572-8339 Monday - Thursday evenings from 5:00 -

7:00 pm, or on-line at  www.hclt.org