“For twenty years he wandered the world. While living in Russia, he met a French journalist who was covering the Revolution.”
Gaston Leroux’s The Phantom of the Opera
2016 Production draft
ACT 1
Scene 1
SETTING: We are in a small room cluttered with actors and designers sitting in a circle for the first rehearsal of Gaston Leroux’s The Phantom of the Opera. They read through the script to hear it out loud and to begin finding their characters. Clothing racks and costumes pieces left over from a previous production are the only audience. A large mirror on the wall reflects the excited and concentrated faces of the actors bringing a world to life.
AT RISE: The read-thru rehearsal comes to an end and the cluttered room empties. One of the actors approaches the playwright/director.
ACTOR: That was a great read-thru, Kyle!
PLAYWRIGHT: Thank you, Mark. I’m really excited to work with you!
ACTOR: I was wondering if I could ask you something about the script.
PLAYWRIGHT: Sure!
ACTOR: (Pointing to his opened script) This line here… about the Revolution. Could I change that?
PLAYWRIGHT: What did you have in mind?
ACTOR: Well, he’s talking about the 1905 Revolution which was the first Russian Revolution. So, could I say “…he met a French journalist who was covering the first Revolution.”
PLAYWRIGHT: Of course, Mark!
ACTOR: Those Russians sure had a lot of revolutions! (Laughs) Wouldn’t want the audience to get confused!
(The Playwright joins in the laughter as they exit the rehearsal room.)
END OF SCENE
As detailed in my previous post, in the early days of film, the musical score would be performed by live musicians. Todd M. Lewis records his score so that we can program it into the sound cues, but at first, I toy with the idea of having the music performed live. Just like they would’ve done for the original 1925 silent film, my play would be brought to life with improvised, adaptive music. The dream of that idea dies when Mark Moran steps into the audition room.
An accompanist for the Grand Rapids Ballet School and Hope College’s dance department, Mark seems the perfect candidate to accompany my show. There is only one problem. His audition for Gaston Leroux blows me away. I wrote the role so it could be double cast as multiple characters – the narrator inserting himself into the story. The actor playing Gaston can also play Joseph Buquet, Francois Poligny and/or Philippe de Chagny. It’s a character that requires the weight of history and lightness of humor. Mark brings that all into the auditions.
But I can’t help but doubt myself. The idea of a live musical accompaniment still itches at the back of my mind. The play is inspired and rooted in the 1925 silent film. To have a phantom musician playing to the Phantom fits so well into the show. This doubt stays with me even into the first rehearsal.
And now, after speaking to Mark after the read-thru, I know I made the right choice. Mark walks into the role already embodying the history behind the character. Since Gaston Leroux started his writing career as a journalist, Mark knew his knowledge should be exact. Would the audience really become confused about which Russian revolution Gaston is talking about? Perhaps not. But it would matter to Gaston Leroux. And Mark knew that implicitly.
His dedication didn’t stop there. Mark made it his personal mission to try and find a pair of pince-nez glasses to wear for the production. Gaston Leroux wore these types of glasses throughout his entire lifetime. Even in pictures taken of him as a young man, he sports the distinctive spectacles that seem to magically adhere to the wearers nose.
Unfortunately, finding the antiquated glasses that went out of vogue in the early 1900s proves to be an unattainable quest. But Mark doesn’t let failure stop him. Instead, he tracks down circular frames that match the look if not function of Gaston’s glasses. In the end, even without the historically accurate costume piece, Mark becomes the mirror image of Gaston Leroux.
Mark is pivotal to the success of Gaston Leroux’s The Phantom of the Opera. He appears on Fox 17 to promote the show and returns to play Gaston in a workshop reading in 2019 and a virtual production in 2020. And afterward, he continues to star in multiple University Wits productions. I get the pleasure of directing him again in the next play I write and direct – an adaptation of “The Night Before Christmas” poem by Clement Clarke Moore. Even after throat surgery, he fights his way back to the stage again and again, bringing the same level of dedication and commitment to each role.
I have a confession to make. I meant for this post to be the first post in this blog. But writing it was harder than I thought.
On October 29, 2023, Mark Moran died peacefully at his home in Grand Rapids. I still hope that one day a production of Gaston Leroux’s The Phantom of the Opera will find a way to incorporate live musical accompaniment. I still wonder if there was a way to have Mark play both roles. The logistics always kept us from exploring it, but I have no doubt that he would’ve put his all into it. After all his work in bringing Gaston to life, he is sadly not here to see the published product of his humor, charm, and wit. His contributions to the play may not be obvious at first glance, but because of Mark, they are now forever cemented in ink.
“For twenty years, he wandered the world and while living in Russia, he met a French journalist covering the first Revolution.”
Gaston Leroux’s The Phantom of the Opera
2024 Next Stage Press Publication
- Rehearsal and publicity photos by Mariea Luisa Macavei
- Production stills by Chris Kotcher