FirstNight Inc., a Villa Park community-theater group, has had its share of growing pains.
The group’s small size-seven core members-has dictated that participants do everything from collecting tickets at the box office to appearing onstage.
“In many of our productions, our actors often double as stagehands,” says member GayAnna Weddle. “Our actors may also create their own costumes and do their own makeup.”
“We’re so small that we’re forced to help each other,” says her husband, Merle. “There’s no getting around it, actually.”
And then there are the technical difficulties that would make even the most seasoned professional actor lose his composure-or as Merle Weddle puts it, “the little quirks that make you skip a heartbeat when they happen but you can laugh at them later.”
One such incident happened in the one-act play “Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You.” Group member Bonnie Ravetto was onstage playing the title character.
“There’s a point when she decides these reproachable students are not worthy of this earth and (she) pulls out a starter pistol, which proceeded not to fire,” Merle Weddle says. “Well, the actors made a choice and fell down without the bang. So Bonnie looks at the gun and says, `The Lord works in mysterious ways.’ She turned a negative situation into a positive one.”
Ravetto also was involved in a backstage snafu that is typical in community theater.
“Between scenes of `How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying,’ it was my duty to put out a potted plant that an actor was going to hide behind,” she recalls. “Well, it was an extremely hectic night backstage, and I didn’t get it out during the blackout. Fortunately, this actor just grabbed a coat rack from backstage and started improvising with it. I was just thankful that he did something.”
“That’s the fun of live community theater,” GayAnna Weddle says. “Sometimes you’re really flying by the seat of your pants. You never know what may happen, and you never know how fun the outcome might be.”
Despite these mishaps, the group has nevertheless flourished, bringing 10 productions to Villa Park in the last three years.
“I’d say we’ve grown . . . creatively,” says MaryJo Carlson, the group’s newest core member, who works as publicity director and a performer.
The group puts on two or three plays a year, offering six performances over two weeks of each one. Each production draws more than 500 people.
In February and March, the group performed “Cactus Flower,” by Abe Burrows. Members are now gearing up for a November production of “The Foreigner,” by the late playwright Larry Shue, who had lived in Glen Ellyn and who also wrote “The Nerd.”
FirstNight Inc. came together quite by accident. The core members first met in 1988 while taking acting lessons at the now-defunct Du Page Repertory Theater in Villa Park. “We were all there for different reasons,” says Ravetto, a receptionist at a doctor’s office who took the class to improve her appreciation of theater.
GayAnna and Merle Weddle took the class because their daughter, Nicole, was in community theater. “I had done theater in high school and college but then took a 30-year hiatus,” says Merle Weddle, who runs an antique-restoration business.
“I never went near the stage until our daughter got involved,” adds GayAnna Weddle, a secretary.
When the acting class was almost canceled for the lack of an additional student, the Weddles called on their friend, Lynn Ricke, to sign up. “I had never been near the stage,” Ricke says. “The rest, as they say, is history.”
During the class, the new friends talked about forming their own community-theater group. “We decided this was a good locale to perform in,” Ravetto says. “There was nothing in the way of community theater here at the time.”
“We knew we were all committed to helping out as much as we each could,” says member Diane Murrish, an elementary school computer teacher. “That’s what has made this endeavor fly.”
The core group of six, however, knew that to successfully put on productions, they would need help from others.
“The idea then and now was to bring in people to help whether they joined the group or not,” says Ravetto, who brought her husband, Frank, into the group. “For example, there are people involved in other community-theater groups in other suburbs and we welcome them. Our members also participate in other groups as well.”
“We not only share actors, but we share props with other groups,” says Frank Ravetto, a chemical engineer.
To encourage a large number of people to participate when they formed, the group decided to stage “The Madwoman of Chaillot,” which had a cast of 26, in the spring of 1990 at the Iowa Community Center, 338 N. Iowa Ave.
“It all came together because the energy was there,” says Bonnie Ravetto. “It did go over well. (Because we used) a large cast, a lot of family members and friends showed up, which gave us a good start. It was nice that the community appreciated us as a new community-theater group.”
Since then, plays produced by the group have included “The Importance of Being Earnest,” “Our Town,” “West of Pecos,” an all-female version of “The Odd Couple” and one musical, “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.”
In 1991, the group, which had been operating out of members’ homes, moved into the Calvary United Methodist Church, 136 E. Highland Ave. It conducts all business there, including board meetings, rehearsals and performances.
Also that year, Carlson, a beauty consultant, became the seventh core-group member. She was interested in makeup. “I was a theater major in college, but I always stayed behind the scenes because I was chicken,” she says.
Group members choose plays they hope will entice and stimulate the community.
“We know from history that to be successful, we have to do what the audience wants,” Bonnie Ravetto says. “But we also have to be concerned with the physical aspects of a play-How technical is it? How involved are the costumes? Can we do it logistically?”
“Plus, we need to worry about the royalties and the cost of additional props and costumes,” Frank Ravetto says. “Being a not-for-profit group, we try to generally break even after a production.”
The season’s three productions are usually chosen at the beginning of the year. “We’re constantly screening ideas,” Merle Weddle says.
Several months before a production, the group begins posting audition information in local newspapers and on radio and cable television stations.
The following month rehearsals begin, and Carlson begins promoting the show.
“Because most people work during the day, we rehearse two or three nights a week,” Frank Ravetto says. “Then a week prior to show, we start construction of the set and have a bunch of people here nailing and hammering.”
A few days before the show opens, rehearsals take place on the set with adjustments for lights and audio. “That last week we’re here every night,” Carlson says. “It’s quite hectic.”
“The Thursday prior to the Friday opening is our first full dress rehearsal,” Frank Ravetto says. “We’re always sure the show is going to be a disaster.”
“But it always turns out wonderful,” GayAnna Weddle says.
Successfully putting on a production is what drives most of the group’s members, they say.
“It’s wonderful, after all the confusion and worry, to make the audience forget they’re sitting in this church basement and transport them somewhere else,” Bonnie Ravetto says.
“It’s a terrific awakening both emotionally and mentally-that’s what theater is about and that’s what draws me back to theater every time,” Merle Weddle says.
“It doesn’t matter whether there are 15 or 150 people in the audience,” Murrish says. “We strive to do our best.”
“We have a good time and the audience has a good time,” Ricke says.
The members admit that applause also helps.
“It’s nice to be recognized for your work,” Bonnie Ravetto says.
“It’s also nice to know you’re offering people an alternative to the video store, and they appreciate that,” Merle Weddle says.
