Dick Gage was a showman. His shows were a remarkable demonstration of what the energetic command of what was stored in a showman’s bag of tricks could do.
He had an uncanny skill at casting, the art of choosing the player to play a particular role. And he did it while selecting an actor to play not merely one role, but also a season’s list of roles.
He knew how to stage an entrance and an exit, beginning with the elementary skill—how to keep ‘open’ while opening and closing a door.
“Make a good entrance and an effective exit and it will not matter how you muck up what comes between.”
Gage knew how to place actors on the stage.
“Save the down center for the climax.”
He placed actors in relation to one another so that one look at the stage picture told what the scene was about. His stage was full of movement; the emphasis and the picture constantly changing as the scene developed and became different.
Dick watched, he listened, and he constantly weighed what was going on.
Although he was well known and recognized in New York — George Freedley, New York Morning Telegraph drama critic, wrote of Gage: “He is one of the best directors in the business” — Dick was totally involved and satisfied with his work at Allenberry. He said “Leave New York to the other guys. There’s more to theatre than just a few city blocks.”
Mr. Gage’s dedication to summer theatre and to young people beginning their careers was unfailing. In 1961 Newsweek magazine did an article about “Straw Hat” theatres. Broadway press agent Richard Maney said “It should be outlawed. Sure the kids can go if they want to, but they’re exploited to the hilt.” Newsweek quoted Allenberry’s Richard North Gage with the opposing viewpoint. Gage said, “Stock companies are the only training place for young actors. John Q. Public can teach them quicker than all the drama schools put together.” The thousands of aspiring actors who learned from Dick Gage would agree.
Although Gage was small of stature, he was an effervescent, dynamic man towering in his chosen field. He is no longer here to take his curtain call, but many performers and audiences will read these memories and say a soft “Thank you, Dick” to the man who gave so much of his energy and knowledge for our learning and entertainment; three hundred and thirty-eight productions at Allenberry — over six hundred in a fifty year career in the theatre.
“I shall never lose my enthusiasm for the theatre, but I believe I have earned an opportunity to relax on the sidelines.”
NATIONALLY RECOGNIZED
AUGUST 21, 1961
Newsweek
The Straw-Hat Theater Where Stars Are Born
Where do young actors and actresses get their first on-stage experience? Summer stock used to afford the most promising opportunity for fresh talent, but glossy packaged shows have crowded amateurs out in recent years. A good summer theater for young performers is rare, and valuable to the whole American theater.
Is summer stock worth the deficits, dedication, and travail that so often
come when it tries to do something more than preview next fall’s TV favorites?
Even among the experts, there is little agreement. “Summer stock? It’s a
pest,” snapped veteran Broadway press agent Richard Maney last week. “It
should be outlawed. The whole thing’s a flimflam. Sure, the kids can go
if they want to, but they’re all exploited to the hilt.” Longtime stock
producer-director Richard North Gage disagrees:
“Stock companies are the only training place for young actors. John Q. Public can teach them quicker than all
the drama schools put together.”
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| The Rainmaker, 1955 A Director’s Play “Hard to equal in brillance.” --The New Chronicle 7/8/55 |
Marcus Eugene Merwin
After meeting at Yale Drama School, Marcus Merwin and Dick Gage teamed up as business associates, running a stock theatre in Connecticut. This partnership ended with the onset of the war when finances dwindled and both men were called to serve.
The two friends were reunited in 1950 when Dick persuaded Marcus to come to Allenberry to manage the box office at the fledgling Playhouse. Happily settling into his job as “super boss,” Marcus made thousands of friends for the theatre with his honest, personal, highly educated and sophisticated appraisals of current productions. He had an uncanny ability to ask potential customers the right questions, assess the answers and then direct them to those shows which they would most enjoy. A salesman, both for theatre in general and the Allenberry stage in particular, his contribution to the Playhouse cannot be measured and will never be forgotten.
Marcus Eugene Merwin, Esq.… a founding member of the theatrical family and a much beloved legend in Allenberry Playhouse lore. His unfilled wish was to write a soap opera entitled, “As the Breeches Flow.”