Steps To The Stage
Steps To The Stage
The 39 Steps (3 on the Edge Festival) Guest: Cameron Harris
Ever wonder what it takes to turn a classic Hitchcock thriller into a side-splitting stage show? Well, cue the laughter and hold onto your seats, because Cameron is here to reveal the backstage antics of adapting "The 39 Steps" into a comedic masterpiece. With only four actors, a multitude of characters, and enough quick-changes to make your head spin, this episode peels back the curtain on the art of farce and the meticulous choreography that keeps the audience roaring.
Behind every great performance lies a world of creativity, and that's exactly what we explore with our guest in the heart of theater production. We're talking minimalist sets, a Hitchcockian palette of grays, and the kind of costume magic that only Megan Harris could conjure up. Meanwhile, casting woes are no match for the collaborative spirit of the Three on the Edge Festival, proving that it takes more than a village—it takes a community theater—to raise the roof with laughter.
As the spotlight fades and the applause crescendos, our conversation with Cameron comes to a close, but the excitement lingers. There's a special kind of buzz that builds towards the closing night of a show like "The 39 Steps," and we're here to share every last giggle and gasp. So, whether you're a thespian at heart or just love a good chuckle, be sure to catch this unforgettable performance at the 3 on the Edge Festival and remember to tune in for more behind-the-scenes banter here on "Steps to the Stage.
May 16, 18, 24 @ 8pm
May 11 & 26 @ 2:30pm
Festival tickets available at the box office now!
PLEASE NOTE: Festival passes with discounted prices ($39 student/senior and $48 general) CANNOT be purchased online - they are available by phone or at box office ONLY.
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But it's like shadow puppet theater too. Okay, oh fun. It's so much representation and it's so open for interpretation that you know the audience will have to use their minds as well, as which it was kind of what Hitchcock wanted to do when he was directing his shows.
Speaker 2:The lights are on, the curtains up. This is Steps to the Stage. Hello and welcome to Steps to the Stage, the 7th Street Theater podcast, where I talk with the community theater professionals you know and love. Today, I'm here with my friend, cameron, and we are talking about the 39 Steps. Welcome to the show. Thank you for having me. So why don't you start off by walking us through what the 39 Steps is for people who aren't familiar with the story?
Speaker 1:Gotcha. So the 39 Steps. I'm not going to tell you exactly what the 39 Steps is, because that's a whole secret of the play. But the 39 Steps is a play that was based on a movie by Alfred Hitchcock, which was actually based on a book, back in like early 1900s. And so Alfred Hitchcock made the movie, which is kind of like a film noir, detective, like murder mystery type thing, black and white, lots of fun, you know, deep and dark and haunting secrets. And then they turned it into a play, which is a comedy. It's not presented in a comedy, but how things are done it comes off as a comedy. It's very funny. So instead of you know in the movie, when there's, like you know, 20, 25 people, we have four.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we have only four people.
Speaker 1:And I'll let your mind wander. We can talk about that in a little bit too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, why don't we start off with that? Well, why don't we start off with that? Because you said there is initially a very large cast of characters in the story. What is it like translating that into only four?
Speaker 1:actors, so they basically wrote it like the one main character, mr Hene. He is the lead character. He plays himself the entire show, okay. And then he comes across three women along the way you got to have your damsel in distress and you know, type thing and that's played by one woman, okay, type thing and that's played by one woman.
Speaker 1:So she plays three different characters. She plays an English person, an Irish person and a German, and then the rest of the characters. All 100 other characters are played by two people Clown number one, clown number two. And they change costumes very fast, they change settings very fast, they move the pieces on and off. They're basically the. If something needs to get done, they have to do it.
Speaker 2:They do it. Okay, yeah, sounds very, very hectic. It's very hectic. You mentioned that this wasn't a comedy until it was adapted to the stage. I think that's a very interesting way to make that transition, especially with something like Hitchcock, would you mind?
Speaker 1:Well, see, like I said, in order to make it a comedy, they make it only for people, and that's what makes it funny, I see, and we're able to take liberties here and there, we're able to add some funny stuff here and there. So we kind of play it as straight as possible, where the detective is like trying to solve the case and let the audience, yeah, but then the people behind him, the people acting with him, the clowns and the lady, the things that they do are what's funny, not what they say, but it's what they do, okay.
Speaker 2:So it's really cool. I see, yeah, that sounds really cool. Would you mind talking about what attracted you to this show as a director?
Speaker 1:Yeah. So here at Chino I've directed I think this is like four or five shows and all but one were small cast, everyone plays everyone type of thing. They kind of drew me and I like playing the the farce. The farce is always what grabs me the most, I mean besides musicals, but the farce gets, it plays to my heart and I love it so much. So this one it's basically with those four people being on and off stage so quickly and playing different characters. They have to be someone very fast. They have to be somewhere else very. They have to be somewhere else very fast. They have to change their accents, they have to change their costumes and trying to figure out those things rather than just like let's cross from this side of the stage to that side of the stage, let's come in this door when we're supposed to. No, they have to. It's choreography. It's really what it is. It's not just blocking. It's choreography. So it's a lot more concept, a lot more thinking and I love that about it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then you mentioned you've done what was it? Five other shows, I think, yeah, four or five. Because you've done Elf, which we talked about when we did an episode about. Would you mind talking? What were the other two, three?
Speaker 1:So it's Elf. And then I had the Complete History of America. Yes, yes, yes, I remember that which was three men doing 10,000 years of. American history in an hour and a half. And then I came and did Completely Hollywood Abridged yes a similar concept which was written by the same people. Yeah, which just they're playing all the famous movies with only three people playing, One playing Dorothy and another's playing the dog, and then they're playing Alfred Hitchcock. So it's kind of fun.
Speaker 2:So. So this is kind of a return to form after the big sort of grandioseness of Hell they trust me doing that small cast, big show type thing. Yeah, you mentioned that. Because there's two people doing most of the roles, there's a lot of onstage sort of hectic costume changes, would you? Mind talking about the costumes.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So my wife Megan she had some time off, she was playing with the kids I said, hey, I need help, and she's like what? And so I brought her on and she's like, yeah, let me go see what we got. So my home theater Realtor, community Players, we have an entire what I like to call the thrift store upstairs of just costume after costume after costume think 40 or 50 jackets, another 20 vests, hats for days, wigs for days. So anytime someone comes out they're representing a different character and hopefully that'll become clear to the audience, that when that person steps out on the stage they can tell that it's somebody totally different. And my wife has a good eye for that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so the costume designer would be your, my wife. Yeah, megan Harris.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I gave her my concept to make it even harder on her in this short amount of time. I said Alfred Hitchcock is known for his black and white type theming, so we want to try and make all the costumes in black and white.
Speaker 2:Okay, or at least gray scale. Yeah.
Speaker 1:So she tried to follow it as much as she could with the limited resources we have. So anytime someone comes on the costume, it's either black, white or gray.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's really cool, we'll see if anyone notices it but it's kind of cool, yeah. And then I assume this is also very prop heavy it is, but it isn't.
Speaker 1:So it's like this play could be very prop heavy, but with how two people are playing so many people, your imagination has to take control, as it is. So instead of like taking a glass of milk and drinking a glass of milk, you can pantomime the glass of milk. Same thing with the door we have a real door. So we're, going to use a door that they have to open. So that's real. So some set pieces are real, okay, but props, we're trying to the. But it's like shadow puppet theater too Okay.
Speaker 1:Oh, fun so it's so much representation and it's so open for interpretation that the audience will have to use their minds as well. It was kind of what Hitchcock wanted to do when he was directing his shows.
Speaker 2:You mentioned, the set would be fairly bare bones, very bare bones.
Speaker 1:Okay, we're pulling the black curtain, the or up and around the side stages, but it's just a door. We've got some chairs, we've got some tables, a window piece, an armchair. That is very, very funny a little bit in the show, I'll leave it at that. But just these small little props and set pieces that create the world. Okay, because in the script they even break the fourth wall, like they're talking about there's something going on in the show and then they say let's get in the car, and then they all stop and like ugh, the car. So then they have to get the car, together with just four chairs that are backstage. So instead of bringing out like a real car, we just use that.
Speaker 2:That's very fun.
Speaker 1:Yes, so in terms of sharing, this stage with the other two shows in the Three on the Edge Festival. This is relatively more simple. I'm trying to make it more simple. Okay, with Three on the Edge, we all got to play together, yeah. And so in order to do that, I said I'll take care of my rehearsals, okay, and I'll be off site. I'll do what I got to do. I'll get all my stuff. You guys worry about your set because the other shows have two interior settings and mine takes place in 33 different locations. So, in order to have that, I just kind stage.
Speaker 1:I said, if I can just have the downstage bare area. You guys can build whatever you want upstage and we'll have fun with it.
Speaker 2:And they said that's great, and so working together, yeah, working together Very much a theme of this festival. Would you mind talking about the casting process for something like this? Oh yeah, the balance of four people versus however many roles, and having to figure all that out, yeah, so we had to find a leading man and a leading woman who can do their business, and auditions were on the kind of smaller side and I saw some good talent.
Speaker 1:But then there are other shows that audition the same people. So it's one of those things where we had to kind of share. So anyone who I wanted or they wanted we had to kind of go through. Well, I think they'll be good for us. And I said, okay, go ahead and use them.
Speaker 1:So once that was being done, I went to my pool and I found my two clowns, both totally auditioned, fully auditioned, but then my leading guy and my leading girl who I wanted to use they took. So I was like, ah, let's go find someone. So, of course, mike Trueluck, who is native to this theater, native to my group as well. I was like Mike, I got a leading guy. He's like say no more. I got a leading guy. He's like say no more, I'm there. So I said okay. So he was in and then trying to find a leading woman who was also a native to this theater, who was also a native to Rialto, julie Kirkpatrick. I was like I need someone who's strong and powerful and who can do film noir, and Julie is so good at that. And she's like let me read it. And 10 minutes later she says I'm in. I was like, well, that's a fast read, perfect. So she just likes the. You know the multiple characters, multiple accents and things like that. And the other two they auditioned so funny.
Speaker 1:Uh, terry, christopher, clown number two, uh, he was in funny mirrors here, okay, um, and he did a great job. Everyone loved him. He's such a pleasure to work with his. His characters, his voices, his characters, his voices, his personality. He's a clown, he's a clown and he will love to admit it and he's my favorite clown. You know, bozo's fun too, but Terry's pretty good. My other favorite clown, milad. He's new to me, new to this theater. He's a graduate down in Irvine, I think, going to school. He auditioned, he read pretty well and I said you know what? I'm going to give this guy a try, let's bring him into our little community theater world. And sure enough, he said yes and gave him some of my tips and other cast members. He's having a great time, he's doing a fantastic job.
Speaker 2:Fantastic, it's very cool.
Speaker 1:So again, I can imagine that the rehearsal process for this is also very hectic. You know, one person can try and think as much as they can when they read it and write as much notes as they can on a piece of paper, but I also have to go back and say, terry, where did you exit last? Oh, you exit over there. So let's have you enter over here because you need to change into this costume. He's like, but wait, I have to have that hat. Oh, yes, you do, ok, so let's. So it's definitely collaborations huge and the actors I have are very good and have been doing this for a very long time, so they're easy to collaborate with.
Speaker 2:Yeah, fantastic. Would you mind talking about the technical aspect of this show?
Speaker 1:Oh, yes, tech is crazy. Like I said, there's 33 scenes and it's film noir. So film noir is kind of like back in the radio show days and types where you have to leave things up to the imagination. The best way to do that is with sound. So I'm the sound designer and I'm not necessarily the lighting designer, because the theater has their own lighting designer, but I'm kind of like lights up on this side of the stage, lights down on that side. We're using the house a lot. The house is going to be fun with the audience. The actors go through the audience a lot, so it's pretty cool.
Speaker 1:But as far as the tech goes, the sound is the most challenging and I've recently started doing my own sound designs and I'm having so much fun because I love sound editing Finding songs, finding other songs, putting them together to make something. And this show, every page probably has two or three sound effects, somewhere Between doorbells and phone rings to door slams, to romantic music, to film noir music, to voiceovers with plane fights. So we've had to do some recording with the actors and then I'd have to take that into my computer and edit it and everything. It's a lot of work but it's so rewarding. It's so much fun Because when you play it and then you get to see the actors play with my sound, because I think underscore is one of the most important things, so I try to add as much underscore as I can here and there, especially with film noir.
Speaker 1:Film noir, 90% of the movie usually has underscore, unless it's some kind of deep and dark secret meeting. That's supposed to be serious. So yeah, the sound has been fun, lights are good. Like I said, we already talked about the set and it's kind of been easy, but the sound is what's killing me.
Speaker 2:But in such a good way. Would you mind talking a bit more about the music and the underscoring for the show?
Speaker 1:Yeah. So there's a couple of websites out there that I usually go to that I find free stuff. I don't want to give away my secrets or anything like that, but it takes a long time trying to find that perfect underscore and sitting there and listening through track after track after track. I listen to it and I just write down a note. What? Track after track after track, I listen to it and I just write down a note. What does it remind me of? So then maybe later on in the script, when I get to something else, I'm like, oh, I'm going to go back to that track I just listened to. So it's just basically spending hours trying to find the right one and then putting it in there, listening to the actors act with it, and if it works then we keep it, and if it doesn't, Now, one of the questions that I normally ask when talking about plays that are adaptations of other media are how does this differ from the original concept?
Speaker 2:But there's already such a large sort of.
Speaker 1:So here's the thing with me I like to try and do as much research as possible based on past and history and stuff, but I don't like to watch those other things. I don't like to watch other people's versions of what I'm going to try and do. This one I didn't. I watched like the first 10 minutes of it. I was like this is fun, I'm going to take it now. Okay, maybe I should have because I think I could have gotten more ideas. I'm like, oh, that's funny, let's parody that a little bit more.
Speaker 1:It's not supposed to be funny, but let's parody that or this is why they wrote that scene Like I think I could have done a little bit more of that, but I think, coming into it with fresh new eyes and fresh new thoughts, we can make it our own. People like that, because this 39 Steps, I think, is done, at least around this area, quite a bit. My home theater did it a couple years ago, riverside. They've all done it and there's all different ways of doing it. People say that they're happy that I'm only doing four people, which is really cool, but I'm glad that we're able to take it and make it our own rather than copying something else. Yeah, so the idea is someone else's, but it's our prosecution the execution exactly.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I like that idea of choosing new parts of the film to sort of satirize and poke fun at. I think that's a really fun.
Speaker 1:There's some parts in the play that I'm like why is this in here? Especially one part with like there's an election, that happens. So I went back and watched I was like, okay, this is why they wrote it. It's kind of dry, but let's see if we can play with it. So we added some old people, gestures and some very, very funny moments to try and make it as interesting as possible.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's cool. Yeah, I think this is a really fun concept. Yeah, do you happen to know the dates for your show, because you're the last of the?
Speaker 1:cast to win the rep, let's see. So I know we perform on the 11th, which is yeah. So we perform on the 11th, which is a 2.30 matinee, and I believe we're doing a talkback right after that, because I think every show gets a talkback.
Speaker 1:So we perform on Saturday. That's our only day next week, okay, and the week after that we get the Thursday and, I think, the Saturday night. I think that's right. Yeah, so we get the Thursday. I think that's the 16th at 8, and then the 18th at 8 pm and 11th at 8 and then the 18th at 8 pm, and the following week we have the Friday at 8 pm and then the Sunday at 2.30. So the Friday would be the 24th at 8 pm and then the 26th closing show. We're the third show in the rep. Oh, hey, we get the closing night. Nice, that's pretty cool.
Speaker 2:You've talked about how your sort of whole production is a little bit separate from the other two in the festival. But would you mind talking about the instance the instances that you do have of working with those other two groups and sort?
Speaker 1:of yeah. So the main word and theme that comes to mind is text message feed. We have a huge feed between the three directors of like hey, I need this for the set. Hey, I need this prop, do you have this piece, do you have this? And we've all been kind of talking. I kind of I'm a little on the outside because I think Ken and Chris have been talking more they do more stuff here than I do, so they know more about this place and then we have another few with Jeff, one of the producers, to help out in anything that they may need. So they've been doing a lot of the communication, but we had a pre-production meeting at the very, very start of the show to discuss our needs and that was the communication between the three of us have been very, very poignant, it's been there.
Speaker 2:Well, because you like you're a little bit more on the outside, but you've done your fair share of work here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, that's true. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, I'm like you, so I feel I don't feel left out, that's for sure. Yes, yeah, it's not lights up, play lights down. Yeah, I completely agree, but in the best way. I think it's really unique, especially for this, for sure, yeah.
Speaker 2:Anything else that you would like to add?
Speaker 1:It's been such a great process. I haven't done one of these small person shows, fast-paced farces, in a long time, so it's nice to get the quick wittiness coming out. Yeah, the fun. So it's nice to get the quick wittiness coming out. The fun blocking the fun moments, creating moments because the script allows us to, and I think that's been one of the best parts. And, of course, working with the four fantastic actors has been such a pleasure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean I can't wait to see it. It sounds really electric and really fun. It's so much fun.
Speaker 1:It's so fast-paced. Yes, it's got to be fast-paced, because then it turns into a 1930s film noir and then is this one-act play, or is there? There's two, okay, but it's actually on the shorter side, I think even with the intermission it's about an hour and a half Okay, so it's pretty quick. Act one happens pretty quick. Act two same thing. So things get a-moving. Yeah, I imagine. Yeah, less than 10 seconds. So it's like we don't spend time, because I feel like blackouts take away from audience their attention span.
Speaker 2:Yeah the rhythm.
Speaker 1:The rhythm exactly. So, we want to keep it up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it sounds fantastic, right. Thank you so much for joining us today.
Speaker 2:Thank you for having me again this is always so much fun, of course, and be sure to check out the 39 Steps at the Three on the Edge Hitchcock Festival. Thank you so much. Thank you, thanks for listening to Steps to the Stage, and now it's time for the curtain call. You can follow us on Spotify, apple, google or any podcasting platform. We have videos up on YouTube and you can visit our website at stepstothestagebuzzsproutcom. And, as always, a special thank you to our audio engineer, joey Rice, and our producer, kirk Lane. Without the two of you, this show would not be possible.
