Author: Tami Keaveny

The construction is complete, and Robert Chapel is ready to dig in. As Heritage Theatre Festival’s Producing Artistic Director, Chapel is eager to launch the company’s first full season in two years following the opening of UVA Drama’s new Ruth Caplin Theatre.
“I’ll be doing five shows: two in the Caplin, two in the Culbreth, and one in the Helms, and for the last two weeks of summer, all three theaters will have shows at the same time,” he said. “I’m gonna stand in the lobby and watch people funnel off into each theater.”
One of Charlottesville’s revered local traditions, the Heritage Theatre Festival has been offering summer theater variety for nearly 30 years. The addition of a new 300-seat venue has invigorated the department, and Chapel returns to his programming formula with an eye towards fun. “It’s become very apparent over the years that the audiences want musicals and lighter fare over the summer,” he said.
When the UVA Drama buildings were built in 1978, department chair David Weiss and his colleagues conceived of the Heritage Theatre Festival as a way to make use of its new venues in the summer months. Initially the programming was committed to historical, classic American plays like The Patriot, but the limited range of material made it apparent that they would need to expand the content or repeat productions. By the mid-’80s the festival found success with its first contemporary ticket for The Foreigner by Larry Shue, a slightly slapstick two-act comedy built around human nature and absurdity. “It’s the biggest hit we’ve had. Even to this day,” said Chapel.
The 2013 season casts a collection of plays that will engage, provoke and entertain, beginning with Irving Berlin’s Annie Get Your Gun (June 27-July 6). The rousing, romantic musical is based loosely on outlaw Annie Oakley and stars Culpeper resident and New York City transplant Emilie Thompson. Thompson performs in two productions this season, but is most excited about playing the notorious cowgirl. “This score is incredible, and Annie Oakley is a character women everywhere dream of playing,” she said.
Chapel is enthusiastic about the choice as a season opener. “I always try to start the summer with a classic American musical,” he said. “It remains one of the greatest musical scores ever written for musical theater.” (Think “There’s No Business Like Show Business.”)
According to legend, Rogers & Hammerstein were asked to write Annie Get Your Gun, but handed it off to Irving Berlin. Chapel enjoys retelling the backstory about how Berlin, “a New York Jewish guy” questioned his qualifications to write about “hillbillies,” and then went home and wrote four songs over one weekend that helped define the lexicon of American musical theater.
While the main offerings are lighthearted, Chapel couldn’t pass up a chance to stage the Tony Award-winning drama Red (July 3-July 13), which takes things in a more complex direction with its moving story about modern artist Mark Rothko and his internal struggle over producing art for commercial use. “I had heard about Red in New York. Then I got the script, and literally began to cry at the end of the play,” Chapel said.
The Tuna, Texas small town satires have been a mainstay at HTF, and this season brings the series finale, Tuna Does Vegas (July 17-August 3). The laughter in this final installment will be provided by performances from Evan Bridenstine and J.P. Scheidler, both UVA Drama grads who return year after year to collaborate for the Tuna shows at the HTF.
Many actors return to the Heritage to hone their craft, while others have built careers that are far too busy with Broadway roles and television gigs. Chapel spoke gleefully about a missed opportunity with one of his most notable UVA Drama alums. “The fun story is that the one person that we should’ve cast that we didn’t was Tina Fey. She was one of our students, but I don’t think she’s ever auditioned for us,” he said.
The crowd-pleasing centerpiece of the season is the Marvelous Wonderettes (July 23-August 3), which came to Chapel through the suggestion of Wonderettes fans and word of mouth from patrons. It’s a feel-good musical tribute to the girl groups of the ’50s and’60s and also features Emilie Thompson in a leading role.
The most interesting, and possibly most challenging offering of the new season is Next to Normal, a vibrant rock opera on a serious topic. Six actors relate the story of a woman’s mental illness and her family’s coping strategy through a performance of 30 original songs. “I saw it on Broadway and it is very moving,” said Chapel. “I have what I think is one of the best casts I’ve ever had in this show.” The play won three Tonys, including Best Original Score, and takes the entire HTF season to a cathartic conclusion.
The high quality of the productions and the caliber of the performances attracts around 18,000 people to the HTF each summer, and while many of the attendees come from out of town, it’s clear among the insiders that Chapel and his team have built something special. “Heritage Theatre Festival is full of hardworking artists who truly want to put on the best theater possible for this area,” said Thompson. “Bob is a wonderful leader for the company, and really makes you feel valued as an actor. This is certainly one of my very favorite theaters.”
Most theater people have it in their blood, but one need look no further than the twinkle in Robert Chapel’s eyes to see his passion for the performing arts. “I get up in the morning, look in the mirror, and say ‘my gosh, I get paid to go to work today,’” he beamed.

Sitting at his desk, amidst a cacophony of buzzing, clanging, and sawing backed by rock music, Steven Warner has an internal antennae that functions like a sixth sense. “Right now I hear screw guns going and table saws going. You know, you get tuned in to it. Even if you’re here in another room talking to someone or working on the computer, you’ll hear something that’s not normal and you’ll realize that someone didn’t use the tool right.”

Warner has led the UVA drama technical department since 2006, when he was lured from a dream job in Las Vegas where he’d climbed the ranks at Cirque du Soleil.

At UVA, he oversees productions at the Culbreth and Helms theatres, and will add the new Ruth Caplin Theatre to this list when it opens on April 18.

Warner and his team currently design and build the sets for an average of six shows over nine months, along with special events and side projects like the upcoming Stan Winston Creature Festival (April 20). His is an all-out job that requires vision through to the end.

“During the design phase is where a lot of decisions get made,” Warner said. “What colors? What size of set? Does it need an elevator? What color will the lights be? Does it need any atmospheric things like fog or rain?”

“Once all of those things are decided, we have a week to do working drawings and a budget, then start building,” he added. “We have a very short time window to actually create an instruction manual for building the show.” After six weeks of planning, five weeks of building, and 12 weeks of rehearsal, a typical show runs for two weeks and 10 performances.

“In theater, the aim is for people to walk out of the show and say that was a great production, not ‘that was a great set’ or ‘the acting was fantastic.’ It’s a huge collaborative effort,” said one of Warner’s graduate students, Mark Gartzman.

Soft spoken and direct, Warner is a West Texas native who speaks with a slight drawl and brings a calm intensity to his classroom and his work. “I think I instill a lot of confidence in them. They know that because of where I’ve come from and the background I’ve had, that I’m someone they should listen to. As long as I don’t mess that up, I’m in really good shape. I’ve always got their back, and I’m in their corner.”

Warner initially pursued a career as a sports coach, but found he was more at home when he volunteered in a theater department. While attending the University of Delaware’s drama graduate program, he interned at the Utah Shakespeare Festival and made important connections that would shape his career. “It’s a great foot in the door to entertainment,” he said.

Show business became fully embedded in his DNA when he went to work for Ringling Brothers circus. The romantic’s notion of running away with the circus was Warner’s real life for almost four years. He lived in a train car, learned everyone’s role, and immersed himself in every aspect of production, even handling the animals.

“When we were doing a baby elephant tour called Romeo & Juliet, they did an act in the center ring where they played with basketballs and put them into a hoop. To get set up, you have to wheel the hoops out quickly, because the elephants are right behind you. I looked back and the elephants were chasing me, and the crowd was laughing, and I was the clown for that show.”

The vast experience of touring with a circus paired with his drama education inspired Warner. “I saw a great correlation with theater and circus in Cirque du Soleil and what they were doing in Las Vegas.”

Warner worked for Cirque from 2000-2006 and his connections are now the gateway for UVA students to enter what he calls entertainment’s Ivy League at high-profile productions around the globe. “The internships are hard to come by. It’s very competitive. It’s tough to meet those needs. So, raising the level of the program here at UVA to the point where it’s acceptable to a company like Cirque du Soleil—it’s all about safety, rigging, automation, technology—things that didn’t exist for very long in entertainment.”

When Cirque du Soleil arrives with Quidam at the John Paul Jones Arena on Wednesday, it will be met by Warner, and his wife Brigitte (also a former Cirque employee), as part of its extended family. “You don’t realize how many family members you have until you do something like that,” said Warner.

Drawn to UVA by the Jefferson mystique, and a slower pace, the Warners chose Charlottesville as a place to settle down and raise their son, as well as to build Steven’s own legacy. “I fell in love with [Charlottesville] and really felt like this is where I wanted to end up, and be able to utilize the talents I’d learned being on tour and … gained from being in theater at the same time.”

Back in his office adjacent to the theater workshop, Warner is a serene presence as pipes bang on the ground and directions are shouted over the din. A ringmaster in his own right, he is always tuned in to the show unfolding around him. “You start to become very aware of things that you’d have never listened to before,” he said, and compares it to having an ear for bird calls.  “It’s really strange like that. You hear the details.”

Tall tales
Broadway has a knack for re-telling classic children’s stories, and one of the early big ones was Into the Woods. Four County Players is mounting Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s multiple Tony Award-winning show in the continued celebration of its 40 seasons. Spinning new angles on fairy tales, the show combines the stories of Cinderella, Rapunzel, Jack and the Beanstalk, Little Red Riding Hood, and others, as they face the dangers in the woods—be that witches, giants, or themselves. The staging showcases Sondheim’s beautiful score, including the songs “Giants in the Sky” and “Children Will Listen.”

Through 3/24 $12-16, 8pm. Four County Players, 5256 Governor Barbour St., Barboursville. (540) 832-5355.