Revolving repertory

When he was an aspiring young actor growing up in Missoula, one of Andy Meyers’ favorite things was taking family trips to Bigfork, spending days at Flathead Lake and nights at the Bigfork Summer Playhouse.

“We’d come up and see four different shows in a row,” Meyers said. “I loved the souvenir programs and couldn’t wait to read about the actors and see how someone would be the lead one night, and then would be in the chorus the next night, or who was back from the last season.”

Since then, Meyers has become intimately acquainted with the logistics of those rotations. In his fourth year as a member of the professional repertory cast, the 32-year-old actor, singer and dancer has the lead role in “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels,” a featured role in “Sugar Babies” ensemble roles in “Fiddler on the Roof” and All Shook Up.”

He also has directed events such as last weekend’s benefit revue and will be directing the late-season comedy, “Tom Foolery.”

Meyers’ experience as a multifaceted member of the Bigfork Summer Playhouse repertory company is typical. Most of the actors are given the chance to be headliners in one show, but then in others they might blend into a chorus line. The 20 actors also are asked to do backstage chores, including building sets and working on costumes.

“It’s a requirement that they get involved,” said Don Thomson, Bigfork Summer Playhouse producer. “We feel it’s important that just the tech people don’t hang out with each other, and the costume people don’t just hang out, and just the actors hang out. That doesn’t make a strong company.

“We have the actors build scenery or paint it or do costumes or props. It all makes the show come together.”

The rigors of being in the Bigfork Summer Playhouse company extend to more than the variety of the work. The first seven weeks of the season are spent in vigorous rehearsals.

With only 10 days in rehearsal spent on each show before opening night, or doubling up on rehearsals for a bit longer — as was the case with “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” and “Fiddler on the Roof” this summer —  the actors are forced to be quick studies.

“What’s so different here is the rapid turnaround,” Meyers said. “We open shows so quickly. Once you get one show open, then you’re up bright and early the next morning starting a new one.”

Meyers thrives on the schedule; he said he has been in rehearsals with other theater companies for two months and not achieved the same results as the Bigfork group does in 10 days.

“It’s almost a luxury,” he said. “You just have to make it work and trust that you’ll land on your feet and be confident.”

Thomson said being a Bigfork playhouse actor is not for everyone.

“Some people don’t want to do it again, they don’t want to go through that regimented work we put them through,” Thomson said. “Others come back because they love it.

“When we recruit people, I say, ‘If you can get through a summer of rep theater, you can do theater with anyone, anywhere, any time.”

It’s very intense, Thomson admits, but there’s a big reward waiting at the end of those first seven weeks.

“The payback comes in the second half of the season,” he said. “They have their own day to do whatever they want. We don’t encourage it, but they can sleep until a quarter to six if they want.

By this point in the season, Meyers said, the actors basically are on cruise control.

“You just kind of arrive and sometimes you don’t know which show you’re doing until you see the set,” he said.

Meyers’ life with the Bigfork Summer Playhouse is somewhat unusual in that he started his career there in 2000 and then came back in 2008, at a much older age than the average cast members in their early 20s. He played the son in “Fiddler on the Roof” in 2000; this year he’s back in the same show as the father.

“I get lots of compliments on that, as people say it’s fun to see someone so ‘old’ playing the dad,” though in many companies, he added, he would be too young to play even the younger of the two “scoundrels” in “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.”

He brings a wealth of experience to the playhouse, having played in regional theaters and with touring companies across the country since his college graduation. He was prompted to reconnect with the Bigfork Summer Playhouse in 2008 when he had a break after wrapping up a national tour of “Annie.”

Thomson was happy to have him back.

“It’s nice to have someone a little older, though they tend to not want to play all the old-man roles,” he said. “You can’t really blame them, it takes someone who can handle those things.

“Andy can go both ways very easily, he’s very agile, a good dancer, has a nice voice and his acting skills are quite good. He’s a genuine human being, we really like him.”

Meyers is currently attending graduate school at the University of Montana to earn a master’s degree in musical theater and he will be traveling in the spring with the Montana Repertory Theater tour of “Bus Stop.”

Though Meyers’ parents still are in Missoula, he currently calls New York City his home. But he’s usually only there long enough to find his next job, which usually takes him out on the road again. He believes his willingness to travel and his unencumbered lifestyle have given him a leg up in the theater world.

“I’ve never minded leaving town,” he said. “I’d rather jump all over the place and live out of a suitcase so I have the opportunity to do theater.”

He has kept returning to Bigfork, though, because, unlike most of the cast members who do not have roots in Montana, being in Bigfork puts him close to his childhood home and family.

He also said the town, the close friendship created within the cast and the generosity of Don and Jude Thomson has made a huge difference in bringing him and other cast members back year after year.

“As much as they (the Thomsons) ask us to do, we know if we worked a 12-hour day they probably worked a 16-hour day,” he said. “They have so much passion for the playhouse, it fuels us to work as hard as we can.”

Reporter Heidi Gaiser may be reached at 758-4431 or by e-mail at hgaiser@dailyinterlake.com.