After acting in 25 plays with different community theaters in the area over the past 15 years, Harvard resident Maren Caulfield has taken the plunge into directing. She has always gravitated toward the comic, and so it is logical that her directing debut is a comedy, albeit a somewhat dark one. Tom Stoppard’s “The Real Inspector Hound” opens at the Cannon Theatre in Devens Friday, March 17, and runs through Sunday, April 2.
Director Maren Caulfield at a recent rehearsal of “The Real Inspector Hound” at the Cannon Theatre in Devens. (Courtesy photo)
In a phone conversation, Caulfield said she has always had an interest in directing, in “seeing things from the other side.” As an actress, she often noticed a particular choice a director made and wondered about the reason behind it and whether she would have made the same decision. She had a taste of directing five years ago with a series of 10-minute plays at Cannon Theatre. That was a good introduction, she said.
The Cannon is a black box theater, which presents some unique challenges. The space is literally a black box, with no raised stage, and tiered seating for 75. The audience is on two sides of the acting area, rather than one, so the blocking is tricky. As a director, Caulfield had to get over “the mental hurdle” that not all the actors could be facing the audience at all times. She had to make decisions about which side of the audience to play to when.
Caulfield said her main goal is to foster an enjoyable experience for the actors and the audience. If the actors are having fun, that will come across to the audience and be infectious. The payoff comes if the audience is laughing; that makes it all worth it. Her commitment to fostering an enjoyable experience has affected her decision-making as a director, she said.
The subject matter of “The Real Inspector Hound” lends itself to Caulfield’s goal of providing comic entertainment. The play is lots of fun with many varieties of humor, she said. The plot revolves around a play within a play in which two critics, Moon and Birdboot, are watching—and soon involved in—a murder mystery set in the drawing room at Muldoon Manor, a country house amid desolate marshes and treacherous swamps. And a nearby cliff. With lots of characters, a body under the sofa, and an escaped madman, it is a spoof on an Agatha Christie-like melodrama, where no one can leave the room until the murderer is found. It is also a parody of theater critics with their own agendas, pompous opinions, and bombastic language.
Caulfield has had to find a balance between holding to a strong vision for the show and being collaborative. A strong factor for her is that it’s community theater; it’s about community and it should be fun for everyone. She said as an actress she liked it best when a director was collaborative, and that’s how she wanted to be. Everyone in the cast has embraced their comedic side, she said, and she looks forward to going to every rehearsal because the cast and crew have such a good time. Invariably an actor will ad lib a new humorous twist on one of their lines, and that triggers someone else to one-up that. She said the actors have been a joy to work with.
Caulfield knows many of the cast members from having acted in plays with them. But she said she is delighted that there are three or four new faces. She remembers going to auditions and sitting off to the side because everybody else already knew one another. As a director, she wanted to be welcoming to new members, remembering that the first step is so hard. It’s great seeing people get along so well, she said.
The stress levels are different for an actor and a director. As an actor, the challenge is memorizing the part. Caulfield said she has always spent hours memorizing her lines, often saying them out loud; “People probably think I’m crazy,” she said. For a director, the work is more organizational. She said she took endless notes at every rehearsal. Fortunately, she had a stage manager to help her ensure that suggested changes had been made.
An intense rehearsal week
The stress kicks up going into tech week, or “hell week,” when all the technical pieces have to check out. The Sunday before opening is the most intense. First there is a “cue to cue” run, where lines are spoken only up to the point for a cue—a character entering or a sound or lighting effect. Then acting resumes until the next cue. It’s tedious for the actors, Caulfield said, but it’s necessary to make sure things are happening when and how they are supposed to. The cue to cue is followed by a straight run-through of the play. Two nights of dress rehearsal precede opening night.
“The Real Inspector Hound” has traditionally been performed as a one-act play, but Caulfield wanted to stretch out the time for the audience to enjoy the outing at the theater and have a chance to socialize with other attendees. She found a natural place to break the script into two acts and have a 15-minute intermission.
The Cannon Theater is located at 28 Andrews Parkway, above the Devens Fitness Center. Shows are Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m., March 17 and 18; 24 and 25; March 31 and April 1. Matinees are at 2 p.m. March 26 and April 2. For tickets go to thecannontheatre.org.
