Learn ‘How Other Half Loves’ Is Orchestrated Perfectly In Belfry Comedy

By: Betsy Reason

The set had to scream early 1970s. So play director Nicole Amsler gathered several key pieces from her own childhood.

A starburst clock. Macrame artwork. And vintage Fisher Price toys.

She scavenged her own mother’s basement to gather tins, an avocado-green crock pot, harvest-gold potholders and serving dishes.

Amsler searched near and far for a “porta-pram” for the show and finally found the “perfect” oversized baby stroller carriage online, in lower Tennessee. So while she was visiting friends, she arranged to take a two-hour detour to pick up the stroller from a seller who met her in a Walmart parking lot.

Amsler, of Noblesville, had so much fun finding pieces for her play, as set decorator, set designer and props mistress, along with not only co-producing but directing The Belfry Theatre’s first show of the 59th season, “How the Other Half Loves,” a comedy set in 1972. The show, presented by Hamilton County Theatre Guild, opens Friday and continues through Oct. 1.

Amsler went on to say that she found period kitchen canisters at an antique store in Michigan. (Cast member Susan Hill had the exact same set when she was first married, she learned.)

A 1972 TV Guide, 1970s newspapers, avocado green and orange telephones and vintage droperty were also scavenged.

“The effect is a time capsule of props and setting, which transports you back to 1972 where ‘Ain’t No Sunshine’ plays on the radio and the house smells of patchouli,” Amsler said.

She also wanted to create authentic 1970s middle-class style, just as if “you ripped a page out of a 1972 Sears catalog … bold patterns, turtlenecks, overstitched blazers paired with plaid pants, bell bottoms and macrame purses.”

Between The Belfry’s costume selection and her mother’s basement, Amsler said she got “some unique, authentic pieces.”

Amsler mentioned the year 1972 several times. Seems the play was originally written to be set in 1969 in England. “When we bought the rights, we chose the American version, and I reset the date to 1972,” said Amsler, who was born in 1972.

As the cast started discussing the script and the era, the cast and crew reminisced on where they were in the 1970s. So Amsler asked her cast to bring in old photos of themselves from the 1970s to create social media posts around the era.

While she had never been involved in this show before or had seen it in production, Amsler chose this show for many reasons. “Playwright Alan Ayckbourn is the Neil Simon of British plays, with a frenetic energy, quick quips, double entendres and clever premises,” she said.

“Once the audience understands the stage and the premise, it’s a beautiful dance of conflict and misunderstandings,” she said.

“Directing the show is not unlike air traffic controlling. Each character has to enter and exit with the stage with precise timing. They are ships passing in the night, coming inches from each other on stage but supposedly in separate domiciles.”

Amsler said, “The actors also have to be diligent about not reacting to others sharing the stage with them, which is the opposite of normal actors’ training.”

Watching the show is like seeing the Blue Angels, a flight demonstration squadron. “You are wowed by the choreography and near misses, while understanding there is a hint of danger if they crash into each other,” Amsler said.

To better understand, here’s the show’s synopsis: This wild farce follows three married couples whose lives are hopelessly entwined. Frank employs Bob and William and is considering William for promotion. Bob is having an affair with Frank’s wife and argues constantly with his wife, Teresa. Mary thinks, incorrectly, that William, her husband, is having an affair. The plot thickens when each of the adulterous parties plays host to William and Mary at dinner parties on successive nights.

You won’t want to arrive late to this play. The opening scene sets the expectation of how the set works and where each character is interacting.

The stage is segmented into strips and action overlaps in two distinct living rooms with three separate couples.

Each 10-foot soft green wall with arched doroways and pristine ivory furniture is the Fosters’ domain. Each 8-foot paneled wall with hand-me-down furniture, cluttered with toys, is the Phillips’ apartment.

Each actor only engages with the furniture in the home they are currently in. There is a lovely mirroring effect when Frank and Bob are sitting shoulder to shoulder, each on the phone in separate houses, Amsler said.

One of her favorite pieces of furniture she refers to as a “Frankenstein” couch. She bought a used, ratty brocade couch and chainsawed it in two-thirds. Then they added an angular, lovely ivory couch to the corner, creating a dividing line for the Fosters and Phillips.

The cast features Tim Long as Frank Foster, Susan Hill as Fiona Foster, Sarah Froehlke as Teresa Phillips, Ronan Marra Sr. as Bob Phillips, Lisa Warner as Mary Detweiler and Ken Kingshill as William Detweiler.

“The cast is amazing,” Amsler said. “When we started with the read-through, you could feel the energy immediately.”

She cast these actors in their roles because she could see their potential. Amsler’s favorite part about directing is creating a theater family, who spends weeks together, working on lines, blocking, pacing and staging, all volunteering their time, while encouraging each other, checking on each other and giving advice to each other.

On tech day, they shared a meal at the theater, sitting on the stage, eating baked potatoes and salad and chatting. “It could have been a Norman Rockwell painting, a moment captured in time of friends communing over a meal,” Amsler recalled. “Which is decidedly different than the shared meal we’ve staged for the play, where barbs are hurled and soup is thrown.”

Since The Belfry has become a traveling theater, the venue for “How the Other Half Loves” is Arts for Lawrence’s Theater at the Fort, a 23-minute drive south of Noblesville. “The Belfry certainly misses having their own venue (in Noblesville). But as we say in theater, ‘the show must go on.’”

She said most of the set was built at The Belfry and then they transported it to the stage in Lawrence, in a “load in.” She said, “It’s a lot of work and extremely complex,” but well worth it once all of their hard work turns into a show. “The theater is beautiful with comfortable seats, great vantage points, concessions and an expansive view of the stage.” She encourages patrons to “get lost for an hour or two, enjoying the story.”

Amsler, who is new to directing, is also new to The Belfry Theatre. She is not only guest director but is co-producing the show with Tom Smith of Westfield. She produced two shows prior, “Around the World in 80 Days” for director Eric Matters at The Belfry being one of those.

“It was not my goal to hold so many positions,” said Amsler, who is also set designer, set decorator and props master. (Julia French is set builder who split her time between Belfry and Footlite Musical’s “Hello Dolly.”)

Amsler admitted, “As a new director, I don’t have a large roster of people in my Rolodex.”

Smith has been “instrumental in building a team, reaching out to people for tech help, soliticing actors to audition and even filling in while an actor was absent for two weeks,” she said. “Having done many shows himself, he knows the theater community well.” She runs the marketing aspects while he has done everything from building sets, transporting furniture, making phone calls and loaning his garage to hold furniture and props. “I’ve been collecting furniture and props for the last several months, often sending Tom Smith to pick them up, after purchasing off Facebook Marketplace,” she said.

Amsler’s assistant director, Desiree Black, is also stage manager, whom Amsler and Smith met while performing in “Radium Girls” at Anderson’s Mainstage Theatre.

She’s thrilled about opening night.

Amsler said, “This was exhausting, but I am so proud of this show. It is hilariously fun and clever. After all the work the cast and crew puts into a show, it is only worth it when we can share it with others.”

-Betsy Reason writes about people, places and things in Hamilton County. Contact The Times Editor Betsy Reason at betsy@thetimes24-7.com.