Dan Jurman (left,front), Jeanne Cooper, Jill Gagliano (left, rear) and Joe Gagliano in the Ghostlight
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So what would you do if you decided to open a new theater company from little more than spit, polish and a prayer, in a venue with no wing space and a cast of passionate performers?
If you're the Ghostlight Theater Company, you stage "City of Angels," a show that's so notoriously difficult to put on, it's never been done by a Lancaster Theatre company.
And you declare yourself insane.
"Oh yeah, absolutely insane," laughs Dan Jurman, one of the founders of the Ghostlight Theater Company. "I've always loved 'City of Angels' and we thought, if we don't do it in this first season, when we are doing one musical, we will never do it. And what a way to make a splash."
What makes "City of Angels" such a challenge is that it is really two shows in one.
A spoof of hard-boiled 1940s Hollywood, the show is about a writer, Stein (played by Jurman) who is adapting his own novel for a brooding film noir starring his tough-guy detective Stone (Joe Gagliano).
'City of Angels'"Stein is trying to navigate the world of Hollywood, his marriage is falling apart and he's got plenty of character flaws that drive the plot issues," Jurman explains. "And we are also seeing the black and white screen and the screenplay he is writing."
The show, which was written by Larry Gelbart and Cy Coleman and won a slew of Tonys, shows Stein at his typewriter, creating and recreating his story. There are two sets, two scores, two worlds: one in color, one in black and white.
At times, when he is rewriting a scene, the film characters go backwards, even speaking backwards.
Ghostlight is performing in the newly renovated Puerto Rican Cultural Center and while Jurman says it's a lovely space, it wasn't made for complicated shows. There is no wing space.
"We had a real challenge in keeping those two worlds separate, how could we make it work," Jurman says. "We were forced to be creative with our answers. In some ways, it was more challenging than we anticipated and in other ways, it was a blast."
So how did they solve the two story scenes?
"We put the real world in the audience's lap," Jurman explains. "And the black and white world is up on a (more formal) stage."
Jurman, familiar to audiences from his days at the Ephrata Performing Arts Center, was directing the theater program at Conestoga Valley High School when he began to get a theater itch, as were some of his acting friends.
"We started talking about how we had done community theater in the city, and that it would be great to bring it back."
(The Fulton has turned into a Equity theater and Theater of the Seventh Sister had, at the time, been working at Millersville University.)
"We have such a thriving arts community in the city and people were traveling to Harrisburg, York and Ephrata to work," Jurman says. "And we knew that theater is a hard place to break into, it's hard to get a shot at directing, musical directing. We wanted to be open to new artists in every facet."
That includes director Mitch Cooper, who has never directed in this area before, and musical director Mike Popovsky, who just graduated from Franklin & Marshall College.
"He was so excited about the opportunity, he's really passionate," Jurman says. "That's what we were looking for."
And then they heard about the newly refurbished Puerto Rican Cultural Center on South Price St.
"It's got a state-of-the-art sound system, a projection system with a drop-down screen, but it had no lighting (they borrowed a rig for the show), no wings, no rigging space. It's more like a black box theater."
Is he fazed?
"No, some of the most satisfying experiences I've had are shows that shouldn't be able to work. "
THAT'S THE TICKET
"City of Angels''
Tonight-Sat. 8 p.m.
$15 adults, $10 students and seniors
Puerto Rican Cultural Center
150 S. Prince St.
www.ghostlighttheatercompany.com
(446)
