By Victor Herbert

Directed by Edward Center

Producer was “Miss” (the newspapers/country had not yet gotten to ‘Ms’) Joan Benjaminson. Prompter (it seemed natural to have someone sitting there, although most prompters were watching the show and rarely had the book open to the page the cast was on…….of course then there was the time during competition when Russ…..that’s another story): Irma DiCamillo.

Set construction; Dr Abbott, Irma DiCamillo, Ralph Tomao, James Gray the construction chairman and Robert Flaherty (Bob was one of the originals who joined back in the 30s… he taught me how to fix stage flats… Yes, Virginia, before Santa Claus we washed, repaired and repainted flats… as new members that’s how we earned our walk-ons).

Stage Manager: John MacInnes, Properties Miss Harriet Beebe, Set Design Robert Flaherty (Bob would go to the theater we would be using and measure everything out, then back to the 741 Main St basement… our Workshop and clubhouse/theater to design and build a set that the cast would use for rehearsal until production time then we break set, and we carried it, and all the props, up the stairs, out to a borrowed truck and drive off to the theater for setup… No nails, no screws, tie the flats off and use props ‘legs’ and weights… I never did learn the right knots for tying flats. And the flat with the door was only put up by Bob or the door wouldn’t open or close and to slam a door risked bringing down a set… never happened, but we had a few walls that wobbled).

Costumes: Mrs Maria Karasoff, Lights: Steve Kilgore, Public relations: Bernard Southwell and Ann LeBlanc, photography: Frank Keenan.

Performances: August 1961

Courtesy of Ralph Tomao, Hovey Historian

Performance, at the Boys Club of a one act melodrama, written by “no one” (Maria Karasoff), directed by “anyone who could get a word in edgewise”. This was possibly another FIRST. A member that wrote, directed, appeared in, self-published and commercially presented to the public. We cast members all appeared under an alias…I was Ben Dover playing Willie Work, Maria was Dawn Breaks playing the role of True Hope and the villain (who was roundly hissed at, on every entrance) was named Blackie Blackman played by Basil Metabolism (Dr. J. Karasoff).

Performances: January 1961

Courtesy of Ralph Tomao, Hovey Historian

By Herman Wouk

Directed by Dr. Abbott

A 3 act drama, presented at Lexington St. Jr. High School: Producer Doris Fuchs, set design Bob Flaherty other crew members included Miss Judith Wilkinson, Miss Annette Fanara and Mrs Angelina Emberley. The Cast included Norman Ferdinand as Capt Queeg, Sam Norberg, Jerry Leventhal, Fred Wilder, Dr Karasoff, Bob Gilkie and Ralph Tomao in his FIRST role for Hovey.

Some Interesting Stuff….One of the reasons the Play Reading Committee chose Caine was because we had so many Sailor suits left over from our November ’59 Mr Roberts show. There may still be a Sailor suit hanging up in the men’s room.

Another FIRST, I think, Bob Gilkie and Judi Wilkinson met at Hovey about this time, fell in love, married and had Hovey members at their wedding reception…. drinking enough champagne to be talked into singing Guys and Dolls show tunes (there is a lesson to be learned in here somewhere). This is History not Tradition; I think Hovey, like all theater groups, has spawned more divorces than marriages.

Most important…Norm’s performance as Captain Queeg was beyond outstanding. There have been a few efforts in cast or crew in the last 45 years that I would say have gone beyond good, great, excellent and have become memorable. Norm’s Queeg is up there with the others. The group voted to use the ‘mental breakdown, marble rolling scene’ for the ’61 NETC competition.

We went into that comp. knowing we would win, at least Norm would get Best Actor. Due to date conflicts we lost our defendant and our defense lawyer from the original production. I went from Sailor Urban to Lt. Marek. (No blocking, few lines, no problem.) For the defense attorney, who helps build the scene for Queeg we got Russ MacClure from the Auburndale Players. Russ was a very good actor and had done much for Hovey and other groups in the area, from romantic leads to drama. We rehearse, we’re ready we go to NETC competition.

During the big scene, (Queeg cracks up, the long soliloquy followed by deafening applause). Russ forgot his lines, he’s on stage hammering Queeg to the breaking point, and stops, on stage we freeze, everyone is silent, Russ turned, faced the stage left wings and said, LOUDLY; “Line, Line Please” …..but we had no prompter, no off stage script readily available…we all thought it wasn’t necessary (we should have checked with Russ).

Anyway he got no response so he walked off stage, found his script in his jacket, got his line and returned on stage to continue. Norman was great during the ‘delay’ and picked it right up. But alas the only performance and line remembered was Russ’s line request, exit and return. It was a one time thing, I never saw anything like it before or since.

And I was afraid Norm might drop one of those damn steel balls that would roll across stage, and down a flight of steps.

Performances: December 2 and 3, 1960

Courtesy of Ralph Tomao, Hovey Historian

Courtesy of Ralph Tomao, Hovey Historian

• The Caine Mutiny Court Martial – 1st general membership production
• Love is All, or Egad, What a Cad
• February 1961 – The Curious Savage – 2nd general membership production
• March 1961 – Hearts and Flowers …special fund/membership drive production (Newton)
• April 1961 – Holiday for Lovers …special fund/membership drive production (Auburndale)
• May 1961 – Guys and Dolls – 3rd general membership production
• May 1961 – 27 Wagons full of Cotton – Northeast Regional Competition
• My Three Angels – special summer theater production