William Spademan started the Ashfield Community Theatre because he wanted to act.
Two decades later, he finally gets to.
“This is my first time acting with this company after founding it 20 years ago. It’s a lot of fun. I love being directed and being part of a group that’s thinking creatively together,” he says. “Before, when I was doing directing, I was focusing on everything but acting.”
Spademan’s debut on the ACTH stage comes in conjunction with the nonprofit organization’s 20th-anniversary play, “The Quick-Change Room: Scenes from a Revolution” by American playwright Nagle Jackson. It is a backstage comedy set in St. Petersburg’s Kuzlov Theatre as the Soviet Union crumbles in the early 1990s.
Spademan, who has been out of theater for 10 years, plays Nickolai, the lead actor of the fictional theater that struggles in the midst of a sudden switch from communism to free-market enterprise.
A quick-change room is an area just off stage where people — the theatrical equivalent of a NASCAR pit crew — assist in changing actors’ clothes during a performance.
Co-producer Jackie Walsh says opening night is Friday, May 27, and there are shows on May 28 and 29 and June 3 and 4. She says tickets are $12, except for opening night, when they are $6. All performances start at 7 p.m., except the matinee, which starts at 2 p.m. on May 29.
Director Chris Rohmann says rehearsals started the third week of March and were held at Belding Memorial Library, before they moved to the rustic confines of Ashfield Town Hall’s second floor last week. He says the play takes place when the Soviet Union is giving way to what he calls “gangster capitalism.”
“That’s exactly the situation that the Kuzlov Theatre finds itself in,” he says during a rehearsal on May 10. “They’ve been a state-supported institution for decades and suddenly the ruble (Soviet currency) is devalued, the state support — subsidy — disappears, the audiences dwindle and they are caught between a commercial rock and an artistic hard place, so to speak.”
Rohmann, a Florence resident who works as the theater critic for The Valley Advocate, says the play is set in Russia, but reeks of American identity.
“I think what’s special about the play is … that it’s a comedy about a serious subject and even though it takes place in a foreign country, it’s really about the arts in this country,” he says. “(Jackson) uses the break-up of the Soviet Union and the collapse of artistic support and the crisis that happens to (Kuzlov) Theatre to reflect on the crisis that many nonprofit arts institutions in this country are up against all the time.”
That’s part of the reason why “The Quick-Change Room” is a fitting way to celebrate the all-volunteer ACTH’s 20th anniversary. Those involved with the production describe community theater as the truest, most organic form of acting.
Ashfield resident and co-producer David Knowles, who portrays stage manager Timofey, says community theater reaches out to a lot of people who would otherwise not be involved in the arts. He says ACTH has plenty of seasoned actors who create a nurturing environment by taking newbies under their metaphorical wing, forming bonds with people who share a mutual love of the stage.
Knowles also says the company often gets large audiences, because people are fascinated with the transformation of Town Hall, which proves it can serve as a political center and a cultural hub.
The ACTH’s performance venue at 412 Main St. temporarily serves as a hybrid — part Town Hall, part woodshop, part studio. Pieces of the set are strewn about the theater room and racks of costumes sit in the backroom for actors and actresses to perfect their ensemble.
The play’s characters are performing a revival of “The Three Sisters” by Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, and local cast members walk around the theater room in flamboyant attire and chat with each other.
Rohmann requests certain scenes be rehearsed on stage to get out some final kinks, and co-producer Walsh, sitting in the front row, reads aloud any lines the actors forget. Phillip Isermann, who plays artistic director Sergey, reads his lines from a booklet and recites them to himself at the back of the room.
Shelburne Falls resident Caroline Johnson secured the role of Anna after reading about the auditions in the newspaper.
“There were, I think, four or five female roles and they were a range of ages and I thought, ‘I could fit in somewhere in there,’” she says with a laugh.
Johnson says the dedication of the ACTH cast and crew reminds her of when she was a professional actress in New York City.
“It’s all the same. It really is still just about having fun. You put the same into it,” she says in the back of the room, while other cast members rehearse a scene.
“The rehearsal process is fun,” she says. “I’m looking forward to opening night, but I could rehearse a little longer. It’s fun.”
Knowles says the company’s auditions are as legitimate as they are in a professional studio — people who are not qualified for a role are not awarded it — though everyone is encouraged to help out in other aspects of the production.
Rohmann says the ACTH, unlike some other local theater groups he has worked with, always draws its talent from the surrounding area. He says no one comes any farther away than Amherst.
“It really is a community enterprise,” he says. “It’s a vehicle for having fun, doing art and reviving community.”
More information can be found and tickets can be purchased at: www.acth.org