By Laurie O’Neill — Contributing Editor
Every year, James and Lucille attend the State Fair. And every year James tells Lucille he wants to go on the helicopter ride. “It’s only 50 dollars,” he entreats her.
On their 46th visit, Lucille balks again. The pilot overhears the pair bickering and offers to fly them for free, but only if they agree not to utter a word the entire time.
The pilot forces the chopper up as fast as he can. He climbs, dives, and zig zags, and the couple says not a word.
“I’m impressed,” he says after landing. “I did everything I could to get a reaction from you two.”
Replies James, “Well, I almost told you to stop when Lucille fell out, but hey, 50 dollars is 50 dollars.”
This old chestnut, which Concord Traveling Players members Susan Ellsworth and Richard Fortier rehearsed recently at the troupe’s home of 51 Walden, exemplifies the actors’ aim to entertain.
A rousing rendition of “You Picked a Fine Time to Leave Me, Lucille” follows to cap off the sketch.
The company is comprised of eight actors, ages 70 to 96, who visit retirement homes, assisted living facilities, and other venues in the MetroWest area. From fall through spring, they present staged readings of classic pieces plus humorous sketches and musical interludes. They are working on a special production for Concord250.
Jay Newlon, the 2010-2011 president of the Players, had the idea of launching the traveling group as a way to bring live theater to people who couldn’t come to 51 Walden and to provide a means for Players members “of a certain age,” he says, to continue to perform.
Dorothy Schecter was the troupe’s original director and she focused on classic pieces. When Sandy Armstrong took over the reins several years ago, she added sketches and music.
Make ‘em laugh
A more enthusiastic group of actors would be hard to find. “We have a really good time,” Armstrong says.
That was obvious when the company did a recent run-through of Arthur Miller’s “Grandpa and the Statue” and polished a series of skits and songs for performances at the Framingham and Littleton Councils on Aging.
In Miller’s play, stingy Grandpa Monaghan, played by John Hutchins, refuses to donate to the Statue of Liberty Fund and even questions its existence until one day, his grandson (Anne Fortier, in knickers, cap, and Irish brogue as the youngster and Alec Walker as an older version) entreats him to take a ferry to Bedloe’s (now Liberty) Island to see for himself.
As the rehearsal unfolded, Armstrong, who provides introductions and announces scene changes, issued directives. “You need to come forward a bit,” she said. And, “Remember your angles; a little tilt is more flattering.” Walker smiled and delivered this aside: “We always obey her.”
The Traveling Players rehearse four times a month. They are each other’s understudies, as “things can happen,” Armstrong notes.
The troupe’s work is “not supposed to be stressful,” she says. “We may make mistakes, but we just laugh and keep going.”
The sketches, some of them gently risqué, “grab people and make them laugh,” says Armstrong.
“We make fun of forgetfulness and issues like having to take medications and use walkers and wheelchairs,” notes Anne Fortier, Richard’s wife. “We want them to connect to the material.”
Adds Ellsworth, “We tell old-people jokes because we are all part of that group.”
But amid the laughter is an undercurrent of reality. “All of us are aging,” says Kate Blair. “So there’s a poignancy to what we are doing.”
Each season, the group builds a one-hour (or shorter, depending on the audience) program that includes a condensed classic such as “Grandpa,” “Plaza Suite,” or “The Odd Couple.”
People enjoy the music, Armstrong says, and often sing along. “Some older audience members tend to nod off, which is understandable, but the music keeps them awake,” she says matter-of-factly.
Experienced players
The group’s trio of troubadours includes Hutchins, a former Boston attorney for 53 years and a member of the Concord Players since 1971 who sings and plays guitar, and Joe Ruggles, a 96-year-old who serenaded patients and staff for many years at Emerson Hospital while playing his “fluke,” a cross between a lute and a ukulele. The secret to Ruggles’ longevity? “I’m a chocoholic and I drink Moxie,” he says.
When Ruggles sings “Old Bones,” Armstrong notes, “there’s not a dry eye in the house.”
The third musician is Fortier, who plays guitar. He is a retired mechanical engineer and UMass professor. His wife Anne is a former social worker and a director of human resources.
Most of the troupe lives in Concord. Ellsworth has been with the Players since 1977 and loves to do accents. Blair, who helped create an occupational health consulting business in the 1980s, is a member of the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. An actor and writer, she has worked in more than 30 films and TV shows.
Walker was a professor and chair of the Department of Epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health and founder of the research firm World Health Information Science Consultants.
Armstrong majored in pre-med and minored in theater while in college but shifted to teaching so she could spend summers as a thespian. She has been involved in theater for more than 50 years, working on everything from acting and producing to makeup and hair.
The troupe’s next big project will commemorate the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution. It’s “a new iteration” of the play “A Flurry of Birds,” and Blair worked on the script with its author, David Fielding Smith.
The play premiered in Concord in 1975 after Smith won a competition the Players sponsored to write an original piece that would historically relate to Concord. It went on to win the Moss Hart Award from the New England Theatre Conference.
With this project, the troupe expects to be in high demand next season, says Anne Fortier, who handles its bookings. “It’s going to be a very exciting time.”
