Rae
Tanya Batson-Savage, Freelance Writer
NORMAN RAE has been one of Jamaica's major directors in a career that has spanned decades. Much of this craft has been used to deliver musicals to the public and now he is working on yet another - a production of the Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine work Into the Woods.
Rae has directed at least 12 musicals, Hail Columbus and Dickance for Flippance being two of the four pantomimes. He has also directed The Fantasticks, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Guys and Dolls and The King and I.
When The Sunday Gleaner arrived at the Ward, the theatre was largely quiet, though it was being dressed up for its big opening of Into The Woods today, Boxing Day. The sounds of downtown Kingston bustling towards night forced their way into the theatre.
SHUFFLING DOMINOES
The hooting of horns and yells of the throngs outside have been dimmed to a hum and from somewhere nearby comes the distinctive sound of shuffling dominoes. A backdrop is in place, flats have been erected and white, scrawny fingered trees start to shape the wood. This wood is not like the wild, untameable bush of Jamaica's hillsides. These are the woods where fairytales almost inevitably take place.
Here Rapunzel, Cinderella, Jack (the one who went up the beanstalk), Little Red Riding Hood, the relevant princes and, of course, a witch will cavort.
Rae explains that the musical, despite being grounded in the fairytale world, deals with serious issues. He says that this tendency of Sondheim's to tackle more than "surface stuff" is a part of why he likes the writer. "It isn't that you just come to an evening with fairytales and go out and forget about it," he says.
RENOWNED FAIRYTALES
The production takes these well-known characters from some of the world's most renowned fairytales and mixes them together with a new fairytale about the baker and his wife to talk about how people live in the real world. Of course, this is not new to fairytales, as they so well tell us about real life; they simply come with more mystery, majesty and necrophiliac princes.
The staging of Into the Woods is also a part of a larger project which appears to be quite close to Rae. The production is more than just staging a play and reaping the artistic benefits, whether to the cast or the audience. It is a part of renovating not just The Ward but the surrounding areas of downtown Kingston, making the efforts to reclaim the capital more than just talk. "You can't really just say to people, just go downtown," he says. "There has to be a reason to go down there." Into the Woods provides them with that reason.
Rae points out that people have suggested moving the theatre from this site we treat as an economic and social what-lef and move into the more hopeful surroundings of uptown.
PROBLEMS
However, he says there are two essential problems with that, where one would put the theatre, and then what would become of downtown after that. Into the Woods therefore has a huge task ahead of it, one which goes well beyond entertainment.
Rae has spent a life of balancing theatre and the corporate world and so the responsibility of pulling the production, for which he acts as director and producer, together seems to rest easily on his shoulders.
The graduate of Kingston College and Queen's College (Oxford) has been chief executive officer of the Banana Board and Trade Commissioner for Jamaica (Britain). In his life in the world of entertainment he has been a member of the board of the Talawa, a distinguished Black theatre company in England, and a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce in London.
NO EASY TASK
Even so, the task of getting the show together is not easy. Rae explains that the production is a very demanding one which has met with its share of difficulties, large and small. One of those difficulties is getting only four days to work out some of the technical demands of the production. Into the Woods sees various props being mechanically drawn across the stage at different times, for which special preparations have to be made.
However, up to last Sunday, L'Acadco's 21st season was being staged in the theatre and as such the stage could not be prepared for Into the Woods. And as Rae says, he will not be rehearsing either Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, the team is left with only four days to get it right.
On the list of major difficulties is the loss of the original lighting director, Franklyn 'Chappie' St. Juste, who recently met in an accident and is so unable to finish his work on the production. The lighting is therefore being directed by Rae and John DaCosta. These difficulties have all been faced and the production is gearing up for opening day.
COMPETITION
Having become something of a traditional day for theatre, Into the Woods will be facing much competition for the public's attention with the myriad of other productions opening on the same day and, at least with the Pantomime, at the same time, 6:00 p.m. Because of its role as a part of revitalising The Ward, the play's success is very important to the theatre's survival.
Large scale musicals are quite expensive and Rae reveals that the bill for Into the Woods amounts to close to $1 million. The cost of marketing the production is also quite expensive. Fortunately, the production has received sponsorship from the CHASE fund. However, the production still needs to be economically successful, so that the funds can be used to create an original musical next year.
Perhaps, then, Into the Woods is the perfect production to be staged at The Ward. Rae explains that its opening song, which deals with wishes, connects the production to the real world. It also connects the production to theatre and downtown Kingston. It is an attempt to make the wish for survival come true.
And, just maybe, the little fairy dust will help.
