BWW Interviews: First Stage's Jeff Frank Celebrates New Holiday Productions

Milwaukee's First Stage Artistic Director Jeff Frank finally returns to the Milwaukee for his own holiday celebrations in his homtown. After spending weeks in Chicago this fall to consult and ready the production Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, The Musical for the November 16 opening at the Windy City's Broadway Playhouse, Frank can appreciate the restaging of It's The Best Christmas Pageant Ever in Milwaukee. Audiences there await the play's opening in the Todd Wehr Theater at the Marcus Center on Thanksgiving weekend.

For the past 25 years, Frank has spearheaded the development of professional children's theater by using child actors in age appropriate casting for all First Stage productions. When the company approached Character Arts, the organization who holds the licensing rights for the Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Television Special, First Stage desired to bring the beloved 1964 classic show to the stage for young audiences so they could experience the iconic story through a live perfromance instead of only viewing thie heartwarmiing tale on the small screen.

Character Arts realized the expertise First Stage instills in their new works, all their productions, and after 15 years of searching for the 'right' venue, allowed Frank to develop a live performance of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, The Musical. The selection became one of the most successful holiday productions for the company last year. From an interview arranged in Chicago, Frank explained how Rudolph and other First Stage plays would encourage the use of young performers when produced across the country.

When working with young performers, Frank also insists on adding emotional resonance and integrity to each theatre selection for young audiences First Stage produces, including the most recent one. He commented, "The iconic piece [Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer] can be experienced again, to realize the story artistically as a handcrafted special inspired by the costumes and staging."

He then continues, "When actual young people are the face of Rudolph and Herme, the Elf, characters trying to find their place in the world, when there is no place for them [at Santa's workshop], the emotional support for this piece can be quite strong. Then after discovering the father and son relationship, between Rudolph and Dancer, these [the story's] through lines connect endearing moments every play must have."

To capture the integrity of the production, Frank spent time in Chicago this fall in collaboration with Emerald City Children's Theatre to restage the classic holiday story for the Broadway Playhouse. Chicago's company rarely used age appropriate casting, children for these major roles, including Rudolph and Herme. The opportunity also provided Frank to "discover new elements in the play and pass on the tradition to future audiences with expanded musical numbers, a more symphonic quality to the music with new arrangements by Tim Splane, and recordings using live musicians."

Besides these revisions to the original Rudolph production, Frank brought his experience using "Snowkins," in Ernie Noland's choreography for Emerald City. In the television special, Sam the Snowman must glide over the white ground as he narrates the story, reindeer need to fly, and the scary Bumble, an abominable monster, appears to scare Rudolph duing the biggest snowstorm of the century when when the reindeer tries to help Santa save Christmas Eve.

For the initial First Stage Rudolph production, Brandon Kirkham developed the costumes with Mark Hare's inventive puppets to make these Christmas dreams come true. Then, designated cast members disguised as snowkins, or people dressed in white who remain essentially invisible as possible, move the characters on stage, through the air and the planned choreography while using a uniuqe technique of Japanese theater. A technique Frank used when he staged Peter Pan and Wendy. (Where the characters need to fly to Never Never Land.) Several revisions to the Chicago production allow more details and movement to the Forest puppets while Sam the Snowman wanders free, this time without a snowkin, and yet retains the snowman's affectionate gestures appearing in the television special.

While Frank spent most of his time in Chicago helping adapt the play and work with the young people cast in this production, he also consulted at Dallas's Wishing Star Productions and the Orlando Rep when these theater companies bring Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, The Musical to children in Texas and Florida this season. In 2014, Connecticut's Five Cents Performing Arts Center hopes to stage the production for the story's 50th Anniversary. Each theater company builds on the model First Stage developed and premiered in 2012.

While First Stage commits to using child actors, age appropriate casting in all their performances, many come from the First Stage Theater Academy developed over 15 years ago to train children in acting and life skills important for their personal growth. These graduating students who continue in theater after leaving the academy for their higher education eventually enrich the Milwaukee performing arts community, especially when working with actors writing original plays based on their Milwaukee experiences First Stage contiues to develop.

The company recently commissioned and then produced Don't Tell Me i Can't Fly written by Y York in 2011 for their Wisconsin Series of play that create stories from Wisconsin's historical past. York's play delved into serious subject material, when a child grows up with a mother who experienced mental challenges bases on a Milwaukee aritst named Della Wells's actual life. Several cities have produced the profound play where the daughter needs to draw beautiful art to cope with her mother's illness that influenced her unusal childhood.

This season, First Stage will finally produce a musical for the young, or young at heart, to open Anatole in January 2014. The famous mouse of storybook fame will come to life through a tale with music and lyrics by James Valcq and Lee Becker. Frank smiles and comments, "The play will be a touching piece on what it means to be a dad, that bond between father and child, or parent and child."

Then in Spring 2014, First Stage brings to the stage another World Premiere in collaboration with publishing house Simon and Schuster titled: Nancy Drew and Her Biggest Case Ever. Frank wrote the piece with First Stage Assistant Artistic Director John Maclay and then asked Wisconsin composer Willy Porter to complete an original score for the production.

The First Stage version returns the iconic teenager to the 1930's, when the books were introduced and the 16 year old girl was a highly independent sleuth for that era. Frank and Maclay studied the original manuscripts instead of later revisions for their inspiration where Bess, George and Ned Nickerson revive the beloved detective tales for Milwaukee audiences. Even before the premiere, several national theater companies are interested in staging the production.

Producing these original plays requires Frank to tour the country and consult while adding to the existing canon of children's theater, to inspire other cities to attempt fresh stories, attempt and encourage the age appropriate casting. To explain more completely Frank says, "The continual new play development builds our [First Stage] national reputation by contributing original work to the field."

To insure this will happen, Frank thinks far into the future, realizing time is a necessity for developing new work. For 2016, Frank commissioned his first international playwright from Tasmania to tease the imagination with what he says, "Will be a way into Grimm's Fairy tales that respects the hearts and minds of young people."

For each of the new works, Frist Stage continues the tradition they began 26 years ago when young performers had been a part of First Stage productions since the company's inception to inspire those tender hearts and minds. With all these innovative projects ahead, Frank also explains, "More and more theaters are beginning to use young people in their productions. And for those youth sitting in the audience, there is a greater truth and connection when they see someone their own age on stage. They believe they can do something equally as rewarding."

After traveling the entire fall season to cities far and wide in an effort to assist other theater companies to produce original plays and use young performers, Frank finally settles in Milwaukee, to oversee a debuting First Stage director open It's The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. To return to the city for the holidays where he and his family personally and professionally will be able to enjoy a reprise of a First Stage holiday favorite. Remounting the play with new young performers and directors who give added dimension to the seasonal children's story..

When looking forward to being home for the holidays and the approaching New Year, Frank finishes the interview when he says of all future First Stage theater seasons: "We honor what we've done in other productions, challenging ourselves to rise above our artistic comfort zone, rise above what we can be and dream."

First Stage presents It's the Best Christmas Present Ever in the Todd Wehr Theater at the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts from November 20 through December 29. For information or tickets, please visist www.firststage.org.