The magic of the theater relies on the ability to capture a scene and bring it to life again and again. From the splinters of the set, to the lines in the actors’ heads, none of it is real until that moment begins, and the story unfurls before an audience. Setting the stage for that moment is a challenge that can be met in myriad ways, but for Lompoc Civic Theatre director Paul Thornton, the upcoming production of I’ll Be Back Before Midnight is best preceded by music.
Thornton has set the tale—originally penned by Canadian playwright Peter Colley in 1978—in the late 1960s, so the show is preceded by a mix of billboard artists from the time, like Dianna Ross and the Supremes, the Mamas and the Papas, and Sly and the Family Stone. But the song that plays as the lights go down is a recent revival of an old folk song, Que Sera, Sera by contemporary group Pink Martini. The setting of the familiar tune is lilting and eerily dissonant, and serves as a perfect overture for I’ll Be Back Before Midnight, Thornton explained.
“It starts out kind of like a music box, but as the song builds it becomes almost like a calliope or merry-go-round kind of music,” he said. “Then it fades back down to the music box before it ends, so it’s really fun and helps set the mood.”
A musical interlude can help an audience get in the right headspace, but what truly influences our experience of the stage is the wealth of information flooding our visual field. The set, the characters, their costumes, and the light that illuminates the scene all reveal crucial details as the action gains momentum.
I’ll Be Back Before Midnight follows the four characters George, Jan, Laura, and Greg (Scott Swisher, Nikki Stark, Jesslyn Brundy, and Christopher Ford) who deal with the haunting mysteries of an old and neglected farmhouse. Conveying the character of the country home immediately was important to Thornton, who worked closely with set designer Dan Manko and set decorators Margie Lopez and Brenda Maltese to deliver a certain look and feel.
“I decided that I wanted the whole look of the set to be in a very specific color palette, and I chose a sepia-toned color palette, like an old photograph,” he said, “because it’s supposed to be an old, dilapidated, decaying farmhouse that was very nice in its heyday, and there was some serious money spent on building this house, but it’s just decayed as time has gone on.”
The difference between an actor and a character is often the costume, and staying true to the late ’60s motivated Thornton to reach out to professional costume designer Randal Sumabat, who crafted a wardrobe full of flower power and other styles true to the era. All four actors are returning Lompoc Civic Theatre performers, Thornton explained, and their character development enjoyed a spur from wearing the subject’s clothes.
Though four performers share the stage, they do only a part of the story telling. Several backstage technicians are necessary for lighting effects, special effects, and prop work. The play is the most involved production Thornton has attempted, with more than 25 volunteers pitching in to bring the suspenseful thriller to the Lompoc Civic Auditorium stage.
“I like the theatricality of it, the drama, the suspense,” he said. “I have always been a big murder mystery fan, especially period stories.”
The cooperation of motivated and talented locals is the fuel in the Lompoc Civic Theatre’s tank when the dramatic engine fires up and the show begins. In just a few weeks’ time the set will be torn down, the costumes packed up, and the salvageable pieces put in storage, leaving no sign of the time and place resurrected each night for LCT audiences. But until then, on Fridays through Sundays, the carefully crafted world comes to life.
“You have to have a vision from the beginning of what it is going to look like,” he said. “When you get all of those elements together, whether the actors in character, the costumes, the makeup, all the set decoration, the set pieces, the furniture, that’s when it gets really exciting for everybody.”
Arts Editor Joe Payne is firing up the Mystery Machine. Contact him at jpayne@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Feb 26 – Mar 5, 2015.