From left, Rusty Rechenbach as El Gallo, Dave Eaken as Bellomy, and Allan Stephens as Hucklebee rehearse a scene of the Rose Barn Theatre's production of “The Fantasticks.” Photo by Bill Robinson / The RegisterIn our Sophomore year, Allan Stephens starred in “The Skin of our Teeth,” playing George Antrobus in Thornton Wilder’s madcap survey of history repeating. Charles Boughton directed. Now 51 years later, Allan will appear as Mr. Hucklebee in “The Fantasticks,” a musical with elements drawn from Shakespeare and Rostand. It played off-Broadway for 42 years and brought fame to the likes of Jerry Orbach and F. Murray Abraham.
Allan first appeared in "The Fantasticks" in Austin, Texas about 35 years ago, for 40 performances. The current show plays at the Rose Barn Theatre in Richmond, KY on July 12-13 and July 21-22. A full story appears in The Register of Richmond, KY. Of this gig, our favorite thespian in Kentucky says “ It’s the best coverage I have had since Bill Tranquilli and I buried the skull.” (Do you remember that story? Let us know in a comment.)
8 comments:
I remember that story. Does anyone else? Hee hee hee.
I do not remember that story. Does someone care to share?
Judy
Care to share, Will?
I´ve directed this show and Allan has a wonderful role. I´d say "break a leg" but actually had one actress do just that!
So Gutes Glück, Allan!
I think Allan got his start at Butler Grade School. Mr. Head would be proud.
Ann
I tried to get Allan to tell the story, but he's too busy with rehearsals. The gist of it is that Allan and Bill were sitting on a porch one day, watching workmen dig a trench. Allan had in his home an anatomical skeleton. They lifted the skull and placed it in the trench, then covered it with loose dirt. Next day, the workmen found it and called the police. Then an anthropologist from the State Museum came out to see if the skull was ancient. The discovery caused such a ruckus that finally the lads confessed to their prank. No one was very happy.
Will,
Thanks for telling the story. It's priceless. I was only at SHS two years but I knew the minute I saw the headline on this story who it was about. Allan's a gem.
Barbara Edmiston Mitchell
Guys--my short version left out a lot of detail. Here is Allan's account. --Will
Will,
"One dark and stormy night, as Caesar and his followers were seated around the campfire..."
While in high school I had gone to a church camp in southern Illinois with the group from First Methodist, where I was a member. I recall that Dick Jamieson, Libbie Peterson and Steve Kwedar were there that week too. Anyway, Dick, Steve and I were digging, looking for artifacts, and uncovered the human remains. We boxed them up and brought them back, figuring they were part of an Indian mound. Neither Dick's nor Steve's parents would allow the bones in their homes, so I got them -- and just did not tell mom.
We did take them in to the state museum where they identified them as Indian, probably from the Hopewell civilization which flourished in Illinois and were the mound builders about the time Columbus was landing. The museum had no interest in the bones: the curator took us into the back room and pointed out aver 80 skulls they were in the process of classifying them all and said they did not need another one. They sat in a covered box in our basement for several years until one summer mom finally ran across them: a skull, a femur, a few vertabrae and other assorted bones. I was home from college at the time and she told me she wanted them out of the house.
That summer (1960, I think) I was working as a radio engineer at WTAX and was riding a motorcycle to get to and from work. One day I was headed home, coming down South Grand, when it started to rain. I was about by the Tranquilli home on South Grand so pulled in to get out of the rain. Bill was home and we were on the porch talking, including about the trench in his yard where the utilities company was putting in new gas lines, a ditch about four feet deep. Somehow I happened to think about the skull and bones about which I was under orders to disappear, and we started the "wouldn't it be funny if..." sort of talk - ending with my bringing them all over to his home and, under cover of darkness, his planting them in the pile of dirt already thrown up on the side of the ditch. The next day Bill was on the porch as the digging resumed, and one spadeful partially uncovered one of the bones. Wtih Bill's encouragement the diggers found the rest of them - and believed that they had actually dug them out of the trench. Coincidentally, the next-door neighbor was a state museum employee who correctly identified the bones. They called the newspaper and we got front page coverage on the Journal-Register, with the bones nicely arranged for the photograph, and "Ditchdiggers Discover Skull" headlines set in bigger type than sub-headline Ike got that day. I did have the clippings..... maybe I can find them again.
Anyway, I got a call from Bill telling me that the jig was up: seems the police had shown up to inquire about the bones, asking Mrs. Tranquilli if it were anyone she knew... and she told them the story. He knew it would get out and just wanted me to know. I called Shelby Harbison at WTAX (I was due in for the night shift that day) and asked him if they were broadcasting the story about the bones being discovered. When he replied in the affirmative I told him they should cut it since it was a hoax. He asked me how I knew, and I told him "We planted them."
Long silence.
He said "Hold on."
Long wait, then he got back to me, asked if I could come in an hour early so they could do an on-the-air interview -- and under no circumstance was I to tell anyone that I worked for WTAX.
So that evening on the five-o'clock news, "WTAX, with its policy of checking all the news for accuracy, has discovered that..." and proceeded with an interview with me, giving out the story.
Next day - our fifteen minutes of fame - Paul Harvey told the story as his conculding remarks on his noon news, ending with, "the police have kept the bones, leaving Stephens without his skull. Paul Harvey.... good day!"
Now you know the rest of the story.... ;-)
Best, --Al
PS: "The Fantasticks" ended Sunday. All went very well - it was an excellent production all around and I had a great time. Also spent a bit of time off stage just looking up and saying "Thank you!" for the opportunity to reprise the role that I had so enjoyed.
I did get started at Butler. Third and fourth grades each year alternated "Peter Pan" and "The Pied Piper." Third grade year when curtain opened I was only one on stage... as Nana, the Darling's dog in "Peter Pan...." (and Ann was Tinkerbell, I think).
Fourth grade was the mayor in "Pied Piper." Brother Stuart had title role in his day, while sister Dee Dee was the Head Rat...
And of course that does not even touch on "A Christmas Carol..."
--Allan
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