Chasing the bright lights of Little Theatre

BLOOMFIELD, NJ — Two Bloomfield actors serious about community theater are currently preparing their latest roles in Ken Ludwig’s “The Fox in the Fairway,” to be presented at the Nutley Little Theatre in Nutley.

Township residents Nelson Valentin and Jim Simpson have appeared numerous times at this well-known local theater. For Valentin, in his debut at The Little Theater 10 years ago, he played the role he most wanted to play, in Michael Frayn’s “Noises Off.”

“When I did ‘Noises Off’ I played Frederick, my dream role,” he said at the theater earlier this week before a rehearsal. “I saw it on Broadway.”
A first-love experience.

“Now it’s just doing different roles and making people happy,” he said. “If I’m up there getting chuckles, then I’m good. I’m the 5-year old you tell to act like a dog and he does it.”

But Valentin, 52, also performed in the comedy, “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged), by Adam Long, Daniel Singer and Jess Winfield.

“I did it because I hate Shakespeare,” he said. “I had to learn Shakespeare and that meant a lot to me. It’s hard to memorize. You have to first figure out what he’s saying.”

Valentin, an assistant bookkeeper in a law firm who took acting classes in college, said he is not looking to make money.
“I do community theater because I enjoy it,” he said. “It’s the closest I’ll get to Broadway. There’s stress on Broadway.”
But another reason he said was because everyone at The Little Theatre is 100 percent committed to doing their best.
“My heart belongs to Nutley,” he said. “I love the space of the theater and the intimacy. When you’re here, you feel you’re involved.”
But Penny Paul, the director of ‘The Fox in the Fairway,’ thinks Valentin has a lot to offer.

“He’s gifted,” she said. “He makes me laugh out loud. Comedy is extremely hard to teach.”
But as Valentin implied, The Little Theatre is a very small house seating only 48 with a stage that is tight as a bedroom. But dimensions aside and with two Bloomfield guys on stage with what was a very charming set, any show would be expansive. The Little Theatre has been around for more than 65 years, after all.

The other Bloomfield resident, Simpson, 62, runs the prop shop at the Metropolitan Opera and has been with The Little Theatre for 11 years.
“I’ve had a long and glorious relationship with Nutley ever since I met my wife,” he said. “My test, as a suitor was to join the company of ‘Measure for Measure.’ She was in the cast.”

Simpson has performed in three of Shakespeare’s plays at The Little Theatre but he also mentions “Cyrano de Bergerac,” a play by Edmond Rostand.

“That was your best role,” Valentin said. “Watching him was an acting class.”
Simpson, who studied acting in college, said he was attracted to community theater because of the wide array of eccentric people he finds there. “I’ve enjoyed acting also,” he said. “And there’s only 48 seats here so we couldn’t ruin the night for too many people. And it’s fun.”
In developing a character, Valentin said he combines people that he knows to create the role he is to perform.
“Maybe my boss and someone I saw in the grocery store,” he said. “I take bits and pieces from different people.” And he will try to remember what gets him a laugh.

“I love comedies,” he said. “I feel comfortable doing them.”
Simpson explained a different approach to building a character. “You learn your lines and the arc of the story and how you fit in,” he said. “All academic things. But you have to humbly do your part. That’s important in ‘The Fox on the Fairway,’ which is a farce.”
For Simpson, growing up when he did is an influence in developing a comedic role.

“A whole heck of a lot comes from memory of what you see on TV,” he said. “We were raised on a pretty steady diet of comedy.”
When being directed, Valentin said he wants guidance and the truth.

“I want to make sure what I’m putting up there is not just something I want but what the director wants,” he said.
Simpson said he wants to work with a director who has had acting experience, as does Paul.
“It’s important because if you’ve never performed, you don’t know how to do it,” he said.

For an actor, Simpson said it was important to know what was entertaining while for a director it was important to know how to entertain.
“If you can’t do that, you’ll have a hard time taking something from a piece of paper to the stage,” he said.

Unlike Valentin, Simpson has not acted his plum role yet. For him, it is the part of Sir Robert Morton, a famous attorney hired to clear the name of a 14-year-old boy accused of theft and expelled from the Royal Naval College in Terence Rattigan’s play, “The Winslow Boy.”
“It a heroic part in a middle class soap opera,” Simpson said.

“The Fox in the Fairway” will be presented at The Nutley Little Theater on Nov. 3, 4, 10, 11, 16 and 17 at 8 p.m.; on Nov. 5 and 12 at 2 p.m.; on Nov. 18 at 2 and 8 p.m. A fee will be charged.

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