Retro RFH Tower Players’ Outtake — Rumson-Fair Haven Retrospect

RFH Tower Players outtake 77-78
Photo/RFH Yearbook

When that chill hit the air and outdoor sports were not in season, RFH Tower Players have always played — and posed, too.

Improv was always a part of the merry players’ games. They were always ready and set to go onstage, show or not. Needless to say, if there was a call to sit still and no shows to rehearse, only meetings, well, the show folk natives got restless. So, when a photo was set for the taking, sometimes, the photographer had to do a few takes before hey or she got all poised and posed. Sometimes it took more than a few takes, too. Outtakes were big back then.

So was, as it still is, lots of testing of one another and the audience with some clownie curve balls tossed into pose time. And in back in these late 1970s days of inferior lenses and camera gadgets and no such thing as a peek at the shots captured until darkroom time, some surprises were inevitably revealed when the shots hung to dry. Yes, that’s actually how it happened in the day of the RFH dinosaur.

How many takes did it take for a Tower Player to play nice? Hmmmm … depends on the day, the agenda and, of course, the pranking players involved.

In this case it was two little RFH gremlins who are no longer with us — the deceivingly properly top-spidered and sweater and turtle-neck clad, yet ever-so devious Billy Weithas and Betsy Rowett. I happen to be the squashing, ever-pranked “victim” of their laughs and antics. They are missed.

The show, however, for Tower Players always goes on and in the same sort of kindred spirit inspired by the likes of players before and after them … and all the rest. Curtain? Yes, it’s always close encounter show time, or at least a little reunion in the mind. Can we have a Tower Player huddle? Of course, there’s always something to improvise about.

Your favorite outtake or stage prank? Ever make someone break character on stage with a crack-up improvised move or line? Staged prank gone awry?