Archived Players Notes
Players Note from Bill Shook

In this note Bill Shook gives us both historical and personal insight of the WP.

I moved to Waynesboro in the Fall of 1964, saw my first Waynesboro Players’ production in the Spring of 1965 (“A Thousand Clowns”) and tried out for a part in the Fall of ‘65 (“It’s Never Too Late”) with Stan Stark and Carol Gates as the leads. At that time, the plays were being presented Friday and Saturday nights starting at 8:30. Season ticket prices were $4.50 for all three plays. In spite of being mis-cast and up against the strong presence of Stan and Carol, I persisted, remembered most of my 24 lines and delivered the remembered ones with an indifferent attitude. My next part consisted of an off-stage voice (“The Seven Year Itch”). Nevertheless, from that point on, I was hooked on the Waynesboro Players and remain that way 40 years later. At that time (1965), the flats, building materials and paint/hardware were stored in Jack Howard’s basement, lugged to the high school a week before the show opened and built on the stage. After too many years of this, Jack and Marsha asked (demanded) that they be allowed to use their basement for purposes other than Waynesboro Players flats, etc. We moved to a new location in what is now People’s Garage, ironically next door to the warehouse the Players would own 20 years later.

My first attempt at producing a play came at the expense of “The Tiger” and “The Dumbwaiter”. A first stint at directing was “Plaza Suite” which was presented at Stuarts Draft High School due to Waynesboro High’s remodeling (1971). That same year, the Players moved their sets and building materials from the People’s Garage location to Stan and Barbara Stark’s chicken coops in Augusta County. I became the Players’ President that same year as I had been business manager for the past three years. The board’s feeling was that, by keeping me busy behind the scenes, it would keep me off the stage but that didn’t work. In 1973, I assumed the role of Treasurer even though the Players weren’t incorporated. That didn’t bother anyone as it was all covered over by a move of the sets/materials from the Starks’ chicken coops to the acetate grinding mill, now a Valley Building warehouse. The fine dust that accumulated on the flats and doors was impossible to get completely off so that every time a door was used on stage during a play, it appeared as if it was snowing!

I also had roles in many plays at Oak Grove, one of my favorites being opposite Pat Cabe in “Two for the Seesaw”. In the first scene on opening night, I had scored a pane of glass to break when I punched it with my fist, per the script. One of the shards hung up and dropped while my hand was still there, fell and cut a gash on my index finger. Someone in the audience remarked aloud that it looked like real blood to which I was tempted to break character and tell them that it was. It was probably the same person who came up after the show and wondered why the bandage stayed on throughout the play which supposedly took place over the course of a year. My response, blurted out in my own character at that point, “Because I cut the s— out of it!” The next stop for set materials was to move from the acetate grinding mill to the basement of a hardware store located at the corner of N. Wayne and Spring St. where we had free access to the goodies upstairs provided we made a list of the things we took. Unfortunately, the hardware store went out of business within a year necessitating a move from there to the basement under the Hamilton-Cook office strip.

In May of 1979, the Players presented “The Music Man” for the first time. I was Prof. Harold Hill and had the good fortune to prevail upon director Judy Freeman to allow my daughter Rachel to be one of the townspeople. We moved from the Hamilton-Cook basement to a quonset hut on the east side of town. No heat, no water but it was dry. Bob Killian brought in a wood stove which provided limited heat. We also shared the space with an auto body shop (shade-tree variety).

The Players became incorporated in 1982 as a non-profit, tax exempt organization so that we could solicit funds for our own warehouse—sometime—somewhere! In the meantime, we moved our belongings from Hamilton-Cook basement to the old C&O railroad freight station complete with no heat and a very leaky roof. In 1983, I directed “Bell, Book and Candle” which received a lukewarm reception. The same year saw the Players do “The King and I” which played to almost 4000 people. The Sunday matinee had people sitting on the concrete steps in the balcony. Never before and not since has the audience been so large. From that point on I ceased being a director or producer and concentrated on duties as Treasurer, Season Ticket sales, box office, and other lobby assorted duties. I try to participate in every show in some way.

Favorite Plays: In 1985, the Players did “The Sound of Music” and I had the good fortune to play Baron von Trappe. My son, Jeff, was one of the von Trappe children and daughter Rachel was a novice nun. In 1987, I played Horace Vandergelter in “Hello Dolly” with Jeff a dancing waiter and Rachel on clarinet in the orchestra.

In 1988, I had a role in “The Playboy of the Western World” at the Oak Grove. One of the actresses, a Gloria Stade by name, in the show had recently moved here from Williamsburg. We met at rehearsals, dated after the run of the show and the rest is history as we married a year later. Gloria sang in “Carousel” in 1991, produced “Camelot” in 1993, has ‘womanned’ the box office, started the intermission refreshments and been a booster to both myself and the Players ever since.

In 1987, the Players were asked to vacate the C&O station as Coors had come to the area and needed the space. We allowed them to do that as we were paying nothing for the use of the station and had run out of sheets of plastic to cover the costumes to prevent them from getting wet every time it rained! We moved to the South River Complex (Twice-Once in a concrete vat area and then to a basement, complete with mold, dirt floor, dank walls and poor lighting). Lil Morse was instrumental in raising money to buy our own warehouse. She threw a party in the basement of South River Complex and everyone took pity on us and donated enough funds to purchase our present location, a wholly owned warehouse, costume shop, rehearsal area, set building area, props room, paint room and meeting room. We purchased this from Ken Edwards who, in turn, made us a very generous donation. Lee McGratty and Bob Killian, board members at the time, worked every Saturday for years to bring it up to its present workable condition.

My most recent contribution to the Players was a portrayal of Aylott in “A Month of Sundays” opposite Cooper, played by Phil Ernst.  Neither of us could remember where we hid the crib sheets with our lines in the event things went awry, which they did. Instead of the 24 lines like my first play, I had 24 pages of dialogue in this one and again remembered most of them. One night during the first act, there was dead silence on the stage as we could not remember who had the next line or what it was. Phil gave a line that was from the second act but I didn’t bite as that would have ended the play an hour shorter than normal. Instead, I got up and went to the bar at stage left, hoping someone in the wings would throw me a line to get us started again. I knew we were on our own when I saw the stage manager with a play book and flashlight flipping pages as fast as he could, shaking his head. I decided to get the drink from the bar, return to my seat and throw out a line that was, remarkably, close to where we left off! Phil and I went on to glory from there!