Summer Stock

When I was growing up, one thing summer meant was theater. My family used to hit a lot of summer stock. There was good theater in Gettysburg. Totem Pole Playhouse was also nearby, the one run by Jean Stapleton’s husband, so sometimes we’d get to see her perform there.

In tenth grade I best friended Sue. We sucked at sports together in gym class and instantly bonded. She was a theater geek (in fact, got into the Tisch School at NYU), and I invited her to attend a play with my family. Before long, she and I were going by ourselves, hitting whatever we could, but mostly heading up to summer stock in Gettysburg, where we first saw Equus.

You’ve heard that story before, of course.

There seems to be a lot of good theater around here this summer. The hour-away place (at which one of the producing directors is a former coworker of Sue’s) has a great-looking season, and despite the drive, I bought tickets to three productions: The 39 Steps (I just watched the 1935 film in preparation), Avenue Q (one of my favorites—Sesame Street/Electric Company for adults), and Death of a Salesman (with Christopher Lloyd in the starring role). I saw Avenue Q on Broadway and had such a freakin’ good time that I have to (a) see for myself how it travels and (b) drag Tim to a production. After I bought the tickets, Gary Coleman died. There was a flurry of worry about whether the show should be changed, but it sounds like it’s being left alone. I certainly hope so.

Lo and behold, the only-20-minutes-away place has a new artistic director and an intriguing-sounding season, including some newer plays and a Noel Coward.

Those long teenage summers, theater was what I did, what I looked forward to. Now I think, “When will I find the time to see all these plays? I won’t. Can I afford to go to all of these? Probably not. But . . . ”

Sometimes it sucks to be me. (Of course, is there anybody here it doesn’t suck to be?)