By Zach Dunkin
After 35 years of doing theater together – 32 of them as husband and wife – Paul and Arlene Haskins can be excused for interrupting, talking over and correcting each other and finishing each other’s sentences. Married couples do that.
And so it went as the two stage troupers sat together recently in the quiet of the Mud Creek Players Barn to talk about their next production, the hysterical farce, “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.”
“They say that couples who play together, stay together,” said Paul, who met Arlene when he was casting her for a part in one of his plays. “We have our little arguments, but most of them are here. Artistic differences, you might say.”
“We’re very artsy, creative people,” added Arlene, explaining their long-lasting togetherness. “He sculpts and paints; I do some very elaborate needle point and sing. Art is what brought us together and keeps us together.”
After years of being involved with theater in various parts of the country, the Haskinses arrived in Indy in 1990 and, following a period of working in several local community theaters, gravitated to Mud Creek near their Geist home in 2007. Their years of experience in community theater have led to somewhat of a game-changer for the 65-year-old theater, one of the oldest, if not the oldest, community theaters in the state.
“We love community theater,” said Paul, born in Grand Rapids, Mich. “This place is like a family.”
Mud Creek members attend social events such as pitch-ins, parties, group outings and game nights. Most events are designed for the whole family.
As a director, Paul is known to “push the envelope.” He allows his actors freedom other director’s might not.
Saying “excuse me” and politely holding his hand as if to prevent Arlene from interjecting, Paul wanted to emphasize his approach to “blocking,” a technique in which actors need to be at a precise position on stage at a certain time.
“When I block, I have my actors move when they feel like it,” he explained. “Some directors will shout, ‘No, you move here!’ or, ‘Move here on this word!’ Actors are not puppets. They are people with personalities. As a director, I don’t want a bunch of little puppets running around on stage. I want different personalities. I want to see what they can offer because I don’t know everything.”
Both Paul and Arlene have been acting since they were in grade school. They have even acted on stage together, once playing a husband and wife. As a youngster, Paul played the Easter Bunny and did impersonations, like Bette Davis, for example, using oranges under his shirt to create her bosom. He once went to Hollywood “to become a movie star and ran that bit into the ground.”
New Yorker Arlene fell hard for the footlights at age 8 when she saw her first of many Broadway plays “when tickets were $7.” In the early ’60s, she would see the original Tony Award-winning “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,” starring Zero Mostel. “It was the funniest thing I have ever seen in my life.”
“She’s the one who talked me into doing it here,” said Paul, who has seen a couple of community theater productions of the play.
The musical (a band will make a rare Mud Creek appearance for this show) tells the story of a slave named Pseudolus, played by Aaron Cleveland, and his attempts to win his freedom by helping his young master woo the lady next door. The plot displays classic elements of farce: puns, mistaken identity, slamming doors, satire and bad jokes.
“It’s bawdy, but not naughty. It’s sexy without any bad words,” Paul said. “It’s vaudeville. It’s shtick. It’s a comical tour de force.”
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
Where: Mud Creek Players Barn, 9740 E. 86th St.
When: 8 p.m., Nov. 13-14, 20-21 and 27-28 and 2:30 p.m. Nov. 14 and 22.
Tickets: $15 evenings, $13 matinees
Info: www.mudcreekplayers.com, 849-0652.
