S4E1: The 39 Steps... dun dun dun!

(Almost all of) the cast sits down with Director James E. Ofalt to discuss BTE’s Season 48 opener, The 39 Steps!  From hijinx to esoteric analysis, this episode has just a little bit of everything. 

The 39 Steps Low Price Previews: September 25th and 26th. 
Opening Night Gala: September 27th (advanced tickets required)

Tickets available online at www.bte.org

Recorded remotely with fun technical difficulties and edited by: Amy Rene Byrne 
Original Music by: Aaron White

Transcripts of all Season 2-4 episodes are available on our Buzzsprout website.

Check out our current season: http://www.bte.org
Ensemble Driven. Professional Theatre. Arts Education. Rural Pennsylvania. For Everyone. With Everyone.

Transcript

Kimie: Welcome to Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble Down Center, a podcast where we delve into a world of mystery and intrigue, occasionally trip over a clue, and ultimately put a magnifying glass up to our company, our people, our art, and our town, front and down center. Hello, my name is Kimie Muroya and I am joined by my fellow Resident Artists, Amy Rene Byrne and Aaron White.

Aaron: Hi.

Amy: Hi.

Kimie: And this episode kicks off our fourth season of the Down Center podcast. That's crazy.

Amy: That's hard to believe.

Aaron: Yeah 

Kimie: And more importantly, we are about to kick off our 48th season of producing professional live theatre in Bloomsburg, PA. And to help us do that, we have a very special guest with us, the director of our season opener, The 39 Steps James E. Ofalt. Welcome James. Just the e stand for Edward? 

James: No, no, it doesn't. Everyone gets one guess though, so Edward is not it. 

Amy: Um, ooh, Evanescence.

James: No close, but no unfortunate. I'm sorry. 

Aaron: Close then I have to change mine to Evan, I guess. But I, I was going, Eugene or something along those lines. 

James: Oh, no, no, not, not you, Eugene. 

Kimie: Euan.

James: You and James Euan Ofalt That would be a wild choice in my parents' part, but no, uh, Ezekiel actually. 

Aaron: Ah, there you go.

James: Yeah. 

Kimie: My old roommate's name.

James: See? There you go.

Aaron: There you go.

Amy: Oh my goodness. James, we are thrilled to have you uh, here to direct our season opener. We all have, I think, myriad of levels of experience with this particular show? 

James: My, history and Kimie's history, actually a concur in that we both did the show in 22. It was? 

Kimie: Yeah, it was right before I did, Witch here at BTE-- 

James: Yep. 

Kimie: Which started my BTE journey, well well, the most recent iteration of my BTE journey, like literally we closed 39 Steps and we started Witch rehearsals the next day.

Amy: I forgot how hot off of 39 Steps you were coming in for Witch

Kimie: Both of those were such wonderful experiences. So maybe that's why I'm like so excited about bringing 39 Steps here that I'm like, in my head it already kind of just beautifully meshed.

James: Great The, so the bar is impossibly high. Wonderful. 

Kimie: Yeah! I have great expectations. 

Amy: That's a book. 

James: So is the 39 Steps!. 

Amy: Oh. 

James: And then I believe you all did 39 Steps in, what was that? 2011.

Aaron: No, it was actually 2014. 

James: Okay. 

Aaron: Winter slot for 2014. but the scope of that production was slightly different. I think in our, one of our first conversations, James, you said that there's kind of two different ways you can go about the play, you can either try and get to the film or you can play the mechanisms and the jokes and it lies somewhere in between.

And I would say that that, production was very much aimed at trying to get at the grandeur of the film. There was lots of large set pieces and--

James: Yeah, we'll be taking a slightly different tack. 

Aaron: Yeah, yeah. so much of our conversations thus far, has been about function and speed and comedy math. So I'm excited to dive in, to make that happen.

James: Yeah. No, to my part, 39 Steps is one of those shows, and I've made this argument, not to the chagrin of our set designer that like could be done with a single ladder and, like that be the entirety of like what our scenic and like visual design is. And that really it is the magic of Theatre, for lack of better terms, but like really this sort of, as you said, comedy math, that like drives the show that it's a gag fest, that it's, you know, this sort of clownish cartoon put to the stage. And how do you achieve that in the container that is live theatre, the container that is limits of like physical bodies in an actual space versus in a film where you can cut, where you can go to a location scout, where you can be all these different places with this magic thing we call a camera now, it's like, well, it has to happen in front of me and I have to buy into it in front of me with, you know--

Aaron: Mm-hmm.

James: something that I can touch. And I, think there is a real joy to the challenge that the show allows you in that, that it is this virtuosic set of performances where you have, for actors taking on the entirety of of not just a spy film, but like an action thriller of a film that is multi local with set pieces and it's not like we're just doing, I don't know, any number of films that are already just plays like this is truly trying to take something that is in a lot of ways prefiguring, like the James Bonding Adventure movie and placing it on the proscenium.

Kimie: Yeah. I mean like how do you get from the London Palladium Theatre to a train station to the Scottish Moors, back to the theatre, all in, like, you know, with, know, two trunks and a ladder. 

James: Well, you walk out and you tell the entire audience to close their eyes--

Aaron: But I will say that the, and we kind of played around with this with Misery too. Nora Gair spoke a lot about that there's a thin line between suspending terror and suspending, into laughter, right? That there's something fun about a thriller set as a comedy and playing around with suspending the tension until it's ready to, ready to go.

And I think that this play does that. There is still a very much a thriller aspect to it and, a through line for Hannay at least. The actor who plays Hannay, which I'll, I'll be doing. That there's a real clear through line where he gets on the rollercoaster and doesn't get off. He never leaves the stage. and, that's a fun thing for an audience to go through as well, while the three other actors keep all the balls in the air, keep, the boat afloat.

James: The ball we call Hannah, tossing him through the air. 

Aaron: Yeah.

Amy: Yeah, we probably should let everybody know who all we're playing. There is a fourth cast member who is not here with us to record today. Keith Livingston is playing clown two. Aaron just said he's playing Hannay. I am playing, the Annabella. Margaret, Pamela Track. Kimie who you playing?

Kimie: I am playing Clown One. And we're repeating the track that I got to play at Montgomery Theatre three years ago, because I enjoyed that so much. I really enjoy the track that I'm in. Like, I wouldn't have it any other way. I, I love, this track.

Amy: Aaron, you're the sole person who plays a sole person.

Aaron: I, in the last year or so, we've done a lot of clown type shows where we're switching hats quite a bit. And I think that what's special and, kind of magical about this one is that you take the protagonist of, of the show and they don't leave to see how the other three manage it. So you get, you get the, pleasure of watching an actor go through a whole arc, right? A, a character go through the whole arc and then to varying degrees see the sort of virtuosic performance of three other actors being able to change and take masks on and off. Not real masks, virtual masks metaphorical masks, uh,, personas on and off. That's a lot of fun to watch.

Kimie: My favorite footnote in the script here on page 96,

Amy: Everyone, please open in your hymnals to page 96.

Kimie: To page 96. There's something they're referencing, but I'm not gonna say that 'cause it's a little bit of a spoiler, but this will depend entirely on your design amount of wing space and the actor's level of Olympian Fitness. Quite a lot of this show depends on your actor's level of Olympian Fitness. It has proved an invaluable aid to weight loss.

Aaron: It's true.

Kimie: Which I'm only salty that I didn't lose weight last time, but that's because we had an incredible barbecue place down the street that we would go all the time. 

James: Constantly. 

Kimie: So I'm hoping to lose weight this time. 

James: Constantly. 

Amy: So I'm not allowed to drag you out for mochi donuts every night?

Kimie: No, no.

James: For every mochi donut, I'll have to add one character to Kimie's track. And then we'll just keep going until it's just Kimie as all clowns. 

Amy: Who, who I've been planking on my vibration plate to get ready to be dead on top of Aaron. 

James: That, yeah, we'll talk about that rigormortis scene. but, you know, eventually I wanna cut that down to the show is just Hannay and a coat rack. So just putting hats on that 

Amy: Hats on a coat

Kimie: Hats on a coat rack.

Aaron: There you 

James: Already repurposing. Gosh, we're so clever. 

Aaron: It's true. true.

Kimie: I remember last time James and I did the show, our director was very fond of using the, the spin to turn into a new character. The little and I counted during one show how many I did, and there were exactly 

Amy: Was it purposeful?

Kimie: I don't think ' cause Damon added in a couple of like, fun places to play, and give, another actor some breathing time off stage. 

James: And I'm stealing those. 

Kimie: Great. Yeah, I remember I had a, I had a little, dog chase scene with one of those empty leashes that are like stiff, but they don't have an actual dog in them. And, at the end, Damon added a whole bit between Inspector and Compere and that was, the culmination of the marathon was this insane up and down 'cause I was kneeling 

for Compere and standing-- 

Aaron: Mm-hmm.

Kimie: for Inspector, which is crazy.

Amy: Yeah, so in case you haven't picked up on it, gentle listeners, this is a really physical show.

Aaron: Yeah. Yeah. We're gonna see, because this is a decade and about 30 pounds further into my life. I'm excited to revisit Hannay, it really scratches my itch for sort of the stiff upper lip British comedy as well. That, that there's something about Hannay that lives in along with James Bond and Hitchcock also sort of lives in the uh, Noel Coward, uh, comedy Land. I kind of forgot about that as I've been revisiting the language. So I'm excited about that sort of dry English wit, uh, as well.

James: Yeah. And I think that's like, that's clear from, I mean, even the thirties film with Robert Donat has like the same, where it's like there's more jokes in that movie than I think people can write before, especially since now our idea of the 39 steps as a comedy has been eclipsed with the play version that we forget that sort of like there's a dry humor embedded in the text already and we are now expanding or, you know, stretching that to the point of cartoon, to the point of comedy, to the point of vaudevillian gag. 

Aaron: it's also a little bit of a proto screwball comedy like Bringing up Baby or something like that. Like Kerry Grant and Katherine Hepburn sort of took, took the bones of it, like him pulling out, herring out of his jacket pocket.

And, you things like that, that there's a little bit of mis roll going on. And then you also have, Amy's character who, halfway through the movie turns into this, antagonistic love story is, feels very much like a Kerry Grant Audrey Hepburn or a Katherine Hepburn, uh, relationship. if you like those old movies, that's still very much in the play. Along with the comedy math, which I always get excited about. I'm excited about the sort of urbane British, you know that comes along with the dialect. You mentioned the movie James. Do, do you wanna cover the sort of, the origins of, how we got to the play? We kind of talked about both the movie and the play-- 

James: Well, Yeah. because we start with Buchanan's uh, 1915 book, which is nothing like the film. truly but that brings us to then I, think a, a really, really remarkable punch up in the Hitchcock film. The 35 movie not to be confused with the 73 film, not to be confused with the, I think there's a 98 film as well. 

Amy: Oh goodness. I don't think I knew that was one that recent. 

James: Yeah, it's like I I think it's a made for TV if memory serves, 

Kimie: See, James does his research. 

James: Yeah, 'cause I read that, I've read that terrible book. 

Kimie: Yeah, you did. I remember like The third day of knowing you in rehearsals-- or even the first day you were talking about the book while we were doing our, our first read through. And you're like, so this guy has a lisp in the book. And I was like, there's a book?

James: That was funny.

Amy: Who has lisp?

James: One of the heavies has a lisp. One of them is described as being like almost skeletal, and the other one is mostly described by having a lisp. Which, I can tell from experience, we'll see who wants to tackle it. If anybody fun to do with a Scottish accent, I think the real challenge is to do a Scottish lateral lisp instead of a vertical lisp.

Kimie: Yeah, it's not gonna be not gonna be me. 

James: I know. Well, and look, Keith has said he approaches every show wanting to like, work on and learn a new skill. And part of the appeal for him for this was having such a, like, heavy accent show and really like, dig into getting accents down and like building up that skill.

So I might tell him that he has to have a lisp 

Kimie: Truly just throw him into the deep end. 

Amy: it's the Aaron White approach. 

Kimie: the Aaron White approach. 

Aaron: I Dunno guys, I think, most like it. 

Kimie: It's a good thing. 

Amy: Are there any specific problem solving, like challenges?

Like are there any particular ones this time around James that are jumping out at you as I wanna tackle this in this insane way. 

James: I mean, one of them is that I am looking to have the sort of theatricality be front and center, and that is going to lean into very exposed scene transitions and the like that we will as audience be able to see the mechanics as they happen around. And even in those moments, we are engaged as a real thing with a believable set of circumstances or stakes. But I do think that that like means that in the same way that Aaron, you know, never leaves the stage as Hannay, 'cause Hannay is always at our core of our scenes, like we are not really leaving the stage with the clowns or Pam to the same degree because all of that emotional, that transition, all that change is happening live in front of our eyes and making sure that reads and that that is something that like the audience can follow, I think is really one of the exciting challenges.

Aaron: Uh, we talked a lot about kind of what the tone of the play is, but what is the play actually about? Is the quick plot synopsis for folks who, who are curious?

James: Ooh. Quick plot, synopsis. Fun. Yeah. Alright, I'll challenge myself. Let's do a quick five sentence summary. 

Aaron: Five sentences without spoilers. 

James: Richard Hannay is sad Richard Hannay gets chased by people that he doesn't know anything about. Richard Hannay finds out a little bit what they're about. Richard Hannay meets a lady, Richard Hannay and the lady save the day. 

Kimie: That's a good one. Yeah. 

Amy: Yeah. 

Aaron: I, think I forgot how much him being framed for the murder of someone sends him on the journey. 

James: Yeah, no, his primary motivator of escape is not necessarily I need to figure out what's going on, but is oh, they think I did it. 

Aaron: Yeah, I think. there's also like, sort of a parallel, because it's, this is set right before World War ii, the 35 film was made right before World War II and sort of ennui, or the ambivalence about the state of the world, and how small we are comparison to the state of the world. And then goes on an adventure and discovers some sort of meaning, is a story that I really like and kind of feel like I need right now. 

James: There's a sort of beauty to the way that Hannay starts in this, you know, depressed mode, it is worth noting that Hannay is looking for meaning and finds it in this adventure, finds it in romance with Pamela, but also he has given the alternative, he has given the counterfactual. He has handed fascism at the end of Act I

Aaron: Yeah.

James: and says no. And I think that that is actually a really important thing to note is that like, there is a strong and definitive statement that whatever it is, that the, that the meaning we are looking for, whatever it is that defines who we will be become, and who we shall be and what is worth fighting for. Those things must be good and just, and real, and are not the promises of at the time what it would be Nazi Germany. I think that is like Richard Hannay finds meaning. He chooses to believe in things that are good and worthwhile. Seeing that like the the call to adventure has transformed him and seeing that character change in himself and that re-solidifying him for the second half of the play, I think is sort of this beating heart. It's the thing that allows him to have a romantic relationship with Pamela coming forward. We can only connect to others if we allow that degree of connection, that degree of belief in others to exist within ourselves first.

Aaron: You summed it. The response to fascism is, is human connection 

James: Mm-hmm. 

Aaron: That's something that resonates that's what I'm finding enjoyable about and and exciting to tell this story right now.

You know, 

James: Mm-hmm.

Aaron: story now?

James: And that the, the joy and the victory is in action. It is in the recognition of that and then doing something about it. 

Aaron: Yeah. Plus pratfalls, you know, like that's, that's the play.

Kimie: I was gonna say, there's all this beautiful esoteric stuff that you guys are talking about and me, I'm just going it funny, I like play cause it funny. Um, my, when I, when I did the show with you last James, and is my continuing mission on, on this particular show is to make myself and my castmates. Break laugh. 

Amy: Aaron, have you ever cracked on the BTE stage? 

Aaron: Um, 

Amy: I think we all during I, don't know how apparent I, try really hard not to. 

Kimie: I like I know both of your like crack covers.

Aaron: Mm-hmm. 

Amy: I don't know if I know my crack cover, so excited to have that pointed out to me. 

Aaron: No, I, I think probably the closest, like full on Corpsing would've been during the, there, there was a sandwich mishap in Grand Horizons where Brett went, And then Elizabeth went, 

Amy: and you went 

Aaron: then, yeah, yeah. Yeah, 

As soon as you went is when I cracked watching you, you go got me. 

yeah, yeah, yeah. But my back was to the audience, 

Amy: I was on the stairs. I could just lean on that railing and. 

Kimie: I most recently did it in Wayside, 

Amy: Was it the wig night? 

Kimie: No Apple night. 

The apple rolled fully off the side of the set into the wings.

Aaron: Off the 30th floor, and. 

Amy: Oh God. 

Kimie: And I ran off to get in and I ran back on. I was like, I'm still here. then I started giggling. So then the kids felt like they could, so they started giggling and then we got it under control. And then behind me, Aaron hiding under the desk, I hear him let out a big guffaw, which set me off again.

Amy: The audience laughing with you at 

Kimie: Yes.

Aaron: Yeah. Yeah. 

Amy: Okay. 

Aaron: They had a great time. 

Amy: Oh, that is a perfect segue since the three of you have all been involved in this show previously what is your, your favorite past show story?

Aaron: There, there were, I think Laurie was a sheep at one point, when we're, uh, in the car and, the sheep's job was to spray Highland Mist out of a fog machine, and it wouldn't work. So it was just Laurie going fog, fog, fog. And then in the middle of a really tense moment, I think it was during the professor's scene with Richie, the fog let go. And so there was fog where there wasn't supposed to be. I, That was the fun mishap there, there were a lot of mishaps in fun ways doing the show, but that, that's one that sticks out in my mind. Do you or and James have any fun, fun ones? 

James: Well, I was gonna say a Kimie, when we set off the smoke alarms and had to wait for the fire department to come shut 'em off. For like 10 minutes. 

Kimie: Oh, I forgot that. 

James: I, I just remembered it now, when we were in the car, 

Kimie: Yes, the car scene. Oh my God, I just remembered that.

James: The fire alarm goes off. The artistic director in this 102 seat house walks out and says. So it's directly wired to the fire department. So they're gonna show up. You just hang tight while we try to like fix all of this. We built the car out of chairs and the lectern, so we just moved them to the side, like sat, put our feet up, hung out for 10, 15 minutes. Saw the Marshall had to come by. You rift 

Kimie: We just, we were just riffing with the audience. That was a special one.

My other funny, I, I was lightly injured during our, our three times during our run. Two of which were on the doors 

James: Those stupid doors. 

Kimie: The very first time, the very first time we saw the set, said, somebody's gonna get hurt on them. And both times it was me. the top opened and the bottom opened, but you could latch them. And so they would both open at the same time. 

And the first time I smacked my head because James forgot to latch the door, and I pushed the bottom one thinking that both would open and only the bottom went. So I went face first into the door.

James: Which, objectively funny. 

Kimie: Very funny. Yeah. And then the second one, the doors, the top had to be open because we were using it as like the box for the box seat for the the Palladium. But I had to then crawl underneath it to go get to my spot for the next appearance that I had. And I thought I cleared the door, but I didn't, and I stood up into the door.

So that one was funny too. 

Aaron: I apologize 'cause I, as you were speaking, I just remembered that my memory was faulty and I was the one yelling fog. Laurie McCants was still a sheep I was the one that where the fog machine didn't work and I was the one yelling fog. Isn't memory funny? 

Kimie: Mr. Memory. Mr. Memory, 

Aaron: So the no matter how you engage with the material, whether you're in it for the Hitchcock film, whether you're in it for the thriller, whether you're in it for the Noel Coward, Britishy quips or whether you're in it for the slapstick--

Amy: Whether you're coming to try and see us mess up-- 

Aaron: uh, yeah. Yeah. Yes. Trying, trying to, to get to see uh, that theatrical story that something goes wrong and, and that one audience gets to see that one show that people talk about for years. Yeah.

Amy: one in a million 

Aaron: Yeah. the play that, The Play That Goes Wrong. Wait, nope. there, our opening night Gala is gonna be a lot of fun that no one will wanna miss. It is a dress to impress fundraiser. Break out your tuxedos, break out your-- 

Amy: Cigarette holder you've been dying to-- 

Kimie: Yeah, it is Film Noir themed.

Aaron: That Humphrey Bogart trench coat, 

Amy: That fedora. That's not ever been cool. 

Aaron: Your, uh, uh oh, who is the German actress? Um, 

Kimie: Ingrid Bergman. 

Aaron: No, earlier than that

Kimie: Oh, Marlene Dietrich. Yeah, yeah, 

Aaron: And, come and celebrate, our 48 season. 

Kimie: With the 39... Steps.

Aaron: Yeah. Don't get confused by the numbers. 

Amy: This is the kickoff of our fourth season of the BTE Podcast celebrating the opening of our 38th season, of 

Kimie: 48th season. 

Amy: What did I say? 

Dang Dang it. Take it away someone. 

Kimie: Let me try it. Lemme try it. 

Amy: Yeah. 

Kimie: Lemme try it. This is the first episode of the fourth season of the podcast, which is kicking off our 48th season of the theater with a production of the 39 steps of which there will be 12 performances.

Aaron: Bravo 

Amy: And on the opening of the 39 Steps, 

is the 27th, I believe, um. 

Aaron: of September. 

Kimie: No. 

Aaron: This is true. So there, there are two, low cost previews on Thursday and Friday. And then on Saturday it is a special ticket item, which is part of our fundraiser. It's $125 ticket. but you get party on Center Street. We're actually closing down Center Street, during fair, which is is crazy to me. 

Amy: I think we should just kidnap people trying to get to the fair and be like, No. This is it. This is 

Aaron: Yeah. 

Kimie: Yeah, redirect all the fair traffic.

Aaron: Yes, but we're, we're, we're, we're throwing, we're throwing a party on that Saturday, closing down center street. And it'll be a party with drinks and food and other live events prior to the show. And then you get to come inside and we will show you something really funny. 

Amy: And no one will die 

Aaron: Don't that outloud. 

Kimie: Someone will die. 

Of fun. Every night, one lucky audience member,

Aaron: oh my. 

Amy: You wanna do the outro Kimie?. 

Kimie: Yeah. I hope you have enough, good material.

This has been Bloomsburg Theater Ensemble Down Center, ensemble Driven Professional Theater, uh, arts, education, rural Pennsylvania. For everyone. With everyone. Don't be aloof. Sny your tickets for the 39 Steps now at bte.org. If you want, in on our low price preview night, September 25th and 26th, it's just $18 to see the whole madcaps mystery unfold before we officially open on the 27th. 

Aaron: And for those of you who love a little sparkle with their suspense, our opening night gala is calling your name. Grab those tickets ahead of time at bte.org. We can't wait to see you at the theater. Bring your sharp eyes, quick laughs, and maybe just maybe your best alibi.

Amy: Beautiful, beautiful. 

Kimie: Stupid.

Because gin is the only reason you need a bathtub.

James: That's the only thing I can think of. What else you gonna make in a bathtub? 

Amy: Human soup.

Kimie: Human soup, me flavored soup.