The Buffalo Chip Design Team & The Water Tower Theatre

Barry, Annie, Charles, Joan, & Casey

Dan Guyette, and old friend from Colorado, was Dean of the College of Fine Arts at the University of South Dakota. USD is the academic sponsor of The Black Hills Playhouse. He wanted Annie to come design last summer, but the money and schedule did not work out. The cunning plan for this summer was that Dan's wife, Charlotte would direct, he would design, Charles Houghton would design lights, Casey Kearns would design scenery for a second show, Annie's friend from grad school, Joan St. Germain, would manage the costume shop, and Annie would design two shows. All the pieces fell into place, save one - Dan took a new job as dean at the University of Western Washington and did not work at the playhouse. We had been had!

Although the quality of the productions is high, we all felt a little old for the summer stock experience isolated in the Black Hills. With meals in a dining hall (and dinner at 5:00 pm), we found the structure a bit rigid for our tastes. That being said, most of the young students have a great time and are given the opportunity fill some good positions of responsibility.

The Saturday after the opening of the first show, THE SUGAR BEAN SISTERS (starring Marcia Wallace of Newhart and Simpsons fame), all of the design team went to a crafts show down in Hot Springs at the southern edge of the Black Hills. Lo and behold, we were called to a booth of an air brush tattoo artist who had a buffalo skull stencil. For $1.00 a tat, how could we resist?



On the spot, we formed the Buffalo Chip Design Team, and wore our brand proudly (for about a week). With our motto, "Chips Ahoy," we boldly went forward into the second production, the musical SUDS.


Annie and I went to Deadwood for our second day off, and ate at Jake's, a great restaurant in a casino owned by Kevin Costner. This was the ONLY sit down place in South Dakota that we did not find to be "server challenged." They just don't seem to do table service in South Dakota. Annie and I were happily to partake of the sacred offering of buffalo carpaccio.



Charlotte Guyette is a directing goddess and a saint. She met all of the challenges flung at her in mounting SUGAR BEAN SISTERS with style and grace. We figured her secret was to climb the hill behind our cabins up to the water tower (actually cisterns) to release her primal screams.

Charles & Casey at the Water Tower

Part of the View from the Top of Our World

Since the next show was shaping up with challenges of its own (including a talking buffalo head), the Buffalo Chips Design Team decided that they needed a secret code word to invoke at production meetings when things got too bizarre to nip insanity in the bud. Therefore, the Water Tower Theatre was born. During particularly tense meetings, someone could interject "You know, we tried that when we all were at the Water Tower Theatre, and it just didn't work."

We needed a back story. The Water Tower Theatre would be located in New Mexico. Truth or Consequences seemed like a good spot. Who could argue as to whether it was there or not, as long as we sounded convincing. With the back story set, the team was ready.

Until forces beyond the Black Hills came into play...

In her first week at the playhouse, Annie had received the sad news of the passing of a long time friend from our undergraduate days at Trinity, Steve Lovett, from complications after bypass surgery. Steve had made it to rehab, and we thought all was going great, but he was taken suddenly one afternoon. Annie was disappointed she was not able to leave the playhouse and fly to Steve's memorial service, but another friend from Trinity, Tom Masinter, was kind enough to send us a link to the Steve's memorial service: http://www.dallasvoice.com/artman/publish/article_11479.php. When Annie read the link that night, she discovered that Steve's latest play, Hopelessly Puccini, was performed in 2009 at THE WATER TOWER THEATER in Dallas. How could we possible make this up?????

Steve

The day closed with Annie and I watching Oliver Stone's On Any Given Sunday, a great football film with Al Pacino, Jaime Foxx, Dennis Quaid and Canmen Diaz. Stone withholds his denouncement until the credits, and I hung in for the list of the many, many songs used in the movie. At the very end of the title song (written by Jaime Foxx) came "Over the whole world they are coming -- The buffalo are coming, the buffalo are coming."

The Buffalo Chip Design Team and the Water Tower Theatre could not have had a more auspiscious debut!

Tower Logo from Suds