Photograph by John Lamb
Last Friday night, the West End Grill & Pub was filled to capacity. Both the bar and the dining room buzzed with energy during the early evening, as servers flitted through the large crowd and bartenders filled orders for a two-deep ring of customers. The audience was there to dine and sip, of course, but most were also there to catch the sold-out “Closer” next door.
The current offering of the St. Louis Actors Studio, the Patrick Marber-penned “Closer” has been filling the 97 seats of the Gaslight Theatre over the past two weeks. It’s a mature and edgy performance featuring four talented actors working on one spartan set, along with three technical crew members who inhabit the light-and-sound booth high above the Gaslight’s compact stage.
If the stage is tight, the conditions upstairs are just as economical. Watching the performance from that space, though, allows for a whole new way of taking in a theatrical performance, with an observer not feeling tension for the actors down below, but for the trio of talented women in that very (small) booth: stage manager Amy Paige, light board operator and technical director Amanda Clayton, and sound board operator Justine Brock. The latter two seemed especially comfortable in their second-week-in-production roles, with Brock working on a future production on her laptop, as Clayton methodically banged away at a game on her phone.
But Paige, well, she wore at least some emotion on her sleeve, for sure. During one particularly key stretch of the first act, her job was to punch up short bursts of text behind two of the actors, who engaged in a particularly sexual instant messaging session. With an index finger primed above the send key, Paige clicked her way through the lengthy scene without incident, while also calling out directions to her colleagues, all the while flipping through the script with her free hand.
As the scene ended, she let out an exhale and a simple bit of feedback, “gorgeous,” as Clayton and Brock brought the next scene to life.
Those two provided an interesting dichotomy to Paige’s intensity. Like two good friends that you’d find cracking wise down at the corner bar, Clayton and Brock traded barbs throughout the performance, good-naturedly ribbing Paige and one another as they ran through what was essentially a sporadic, slightly salty, low-volume comedy show, separated from the mezzanine audience by thick glass windows and the simple fact that the audience is focused on what’s in front, not in back, of them.
Because of the unique nature of the Gaslight Theatre’s layout, Paige immediately fled the booth at the show’s intermission and embarked on a short odyssey. First, she went down the 21-stair flight of steps, landing back outside onto Boyle, before heading back into the theatre, then out the theatre’s back door, towards the green room two doors down. After talking to the actors briefly, she was pacing outside during what seemed like a much-needed smoke. Asked how things were going, she was succinct.
“It’s going great,” she said. “Everyone’s doing a fabulous job.”
Herself included, of course.
“Closer” continues at Gaslight Theatre this Thursday through Sunday. For ticket information, go to ticketmaster.com. Showtimes are listed on the St. Louis Actors Studio site, stlas.org
