'Figments' opens weekend run at Naperville Central

Theater students at Naperville Central High School have been learning some valuable lessons while preparing for their fall production of “Figments.”

They've learned to deal with the opening night jitters that might materialize when the curtain goes up at 7:30 p.m. today for the first of four performances at the school, 440 W. Aurora Ave.

They've learned about the comedic timing necessary to make a fairly obscure, but funny show work.

And they've learned that the world isn't a perfect place and that sometimes the fates and a bunch of guys in hard hats and florescent vests conspire to make things a little more challenging than you may hope.

They've also learned a lesson Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland probably taught their grandparents. But more about that later.

A tight fit

Tom Ulbrich has been teaching and directing shows at Naperville Central for 33 years and he's pretty much seen it all.

So it's not a surprise he's taking the challenges facing this production of “Figments” pretty much in stride.

With his school in the midst of an $87.7 million renovation project, almost everybody has had to make their share of sacrifices and that includes the fine arts department. True, the school's auditorium is one of the few spots not being touched by all the construction, but the area around it is right in the middle of the work.

When the dust finally settles by year's end, the department will emerge with bigger and better facilities for band, orchestra and choral groups, as well as a spanking new black-box theater right across the hall from the auditorium.

Central's performing arts facilities already are top-notch, Ulbrich says, and when the work is completed they'll be even better.

In the meantime, though, the auditorium is off limits to the cast and crew of “Figments” and the students will find themselves performing in the much smaller Little Theatre on the opposite side of the building.

While the auditorium holds 835 people, the Little Theater seats roughly 250, even with the addition of an extra row of chairs.

To make up for the smaller venue and with an eye toward breaking even and maybe even turning a small profit Ulbrich has added a Sunday matinee as a fourth show.

The new setting offers other challenges, too. There's virtually no dressing room space and the already tiny wings are jammed with orchestra lockers.

Indeed, orchestra and humanities classes are sharing the same area on a daily basis and have been working around the play's sets for several weeks.

“Every space is at a premium,” Ulbrich says. “It's a very, very confined space.”

It's not exactly a picture-perfect situation but Ulbrich isn't letting anybody mope.

“This is what actors have to do,” he says. “We play where we have space.”

More than figments

None of that will really matter to audience members, of course. When they settle into their seats over the next four nights, their only questions are likely to be what's this play about and is it funny?

Ulbrich says it's a “very, very funny show” about a playwright who bangs out productions for high schools and colleges and gets paid by the number of shows he writes.

When he sits down to tackle his latest masterpiece, he finds he's suffering from a case of writer's block.

As he struggles to come up with a story, the characters begin to materialize in his room as, well, figments of his imagination.

The plot thickens when his stereotypical Jewish mother shows up in real life and naturally can't see the other characters. Add a cute girl from upstairs and a jealous boyfriend and things quickly spiral out of control.

“We see people and situations not only as they are, but as he sees them,” Ulbrich says.

The challenge for his student actors is that they often can't react to other actors onstage because they aren't supposed to be able to see them.

A few scenes had to be adjusted because of the close confines. An actor who was supposed to do an acrobatic flip out of a chair had to be grounded because “we were afraid he would fly into the audience,” Ulbrich says.

Some set pieces had to be repositioned so a large actor whose costume is a life-size burial urn could move around without knocking stuff over. Figments of your imagination, after all, can't very well send a chair skittering across the floor.

But Ulbrich says such tests are exactly why he selected the play.

“I'm always looking to pick things that will challenge the kids,” he says.

Mickey and Judy

Rehearsing in a cramped classroom probably isn't the best setting for high school theater students. Putting on their fall play in cramped quarters probably isn't either.

But, hey, Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland put their shows on in barns and nobody complained, right?

Ulbrich knows things are a little tougher than normal, but he also knows others at Central have made sacrifices to help his students. And everyone can take heart that the work around the auditorium should be finished by the start of next year, in plenty of time for the spring production.

“We're definitely all in this together,” he says.

All of which is fine, but Ulbrich seems to be missing a very, very important point.

So finally, like a director standing offstage trying to help a struggling actor, it becomes necessary to give him a prompt he can't ignore.

Ulbrich laughs when reminded of what his line should be and takes the cue. Finally.

“The show must go on,” he says with an enthusiasm that would make Mickey and Judy proud. “It has to. No matter where we're going to play, it must go on.”

There's a brief pause because once somebody convinces you to commit to a cliche you may as well go all the way.

“The show not only must go on,” he says with relish, “it will go on this weekend.”

'Figments'

<p>When: 7:30 p.m. today, 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Nov. 5-6; and 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 7</p>

<p>Where: Naperville Central High School's Little Theatre, 440 W. Aurora Ave.</p>

<p>Tickets: $5</p>

<p>Info: (630) 420-3885</p>