Noises Off
Swan song for veteran actor
Jack Shuster

by Julie Mitchell

In the late 1980s, Jack Shuster was offered a role in Noises Off by a New Jersey theater troupe he worked with, but Shuster turned them down and accepted a job in Hawai'i. Now, over 20 years later, he is finally appearing in the British farce.
"Only back then I would have played a much younger character!" jokes Shuster, who portrays the septuagenarian actor and sot, Selsdon Mowbray, in the Aloha Performing Arts Company (APAC) production of Michael Frayn's "Noises Off."
"[My character] plays a burglar in the play within the play," Shuster explains. "Unfortunately, his drinking gets in the way, as well as his dotage-he's absentminded and tends to forget lines."
The comedic play, recently revived on Broadway, follows a small English touring company as they take their production from rehearsal to performance. By the final curtain, the show has devolved into near chaos, with missed cues, botched lines, pathetic improvising, offstage romances spilling onstage, irate directorial explosions, and general theatrical mayhem.
Each of the three acts of Noises Off depicts the first act of Nothing On, the play within the play. Act One shows the fumbling dress rehearsal before opening night; Act Two portrays a performance a month later, as seen from backstage; and Act Three is a bungled performance near the end of the ten-week run, when the actors are far past ready for the show to close.
Shuster first read the script in 1987 and loved it. "I was always hoping someday I'd be able to do the play. It's my second favorite show [after You Can't Take It With You]," he says. "Anyone who's ever done a show recognizes everyone in the cast as someone they've worked with before."
Directed by Jerry Tracy, APAC's production features Catherine Hansen as Dotty Otley, the actress who plays housekeeper Mrs. Clackett in the play within the play. In addition to directing the show, Tracy appears as Lloyd Dallas, the director of "Nothing On." The stage manager is Tim Allgood (Chad Boswell) and the assistant stage manager is Poppy Norton-Taylor (Sara Beery), with whom Lloyd is having an affair.
Lloyd is also having an affair with Brooke Ashton (Lea Gillette), the actress who plays Vicki in the play within the play. Brooke's counterpart is Garry Lejeune (Michael Shaw), the actor portraying Roger Tramplemain. Philip and Flavia, owners of the country home in which the play is staged, are played by Brent Whetstone and Robin O'Hara.
Noises Off premiered in 1982 in London to rave reviews, ran five years, and won the Evening Standard Award for Best Comedy. In 1983, the show opened in New York City, earning a Tony Award nomination and winning a Drama Desk Award.
"The British sex farce is a set genre and it's very funny, with pants dropping and people running around in their underwear," notes Shuster of the slapstick, adult-themed show.
Shuster, originally from Philadelphia, got his first paid acting job in 1965. "I was 'second banana' on a morning radio show-the comic relief. I played the entire cast of characters opposite the morning personality," he says. "My very first character was a Japanese kamikaze pilot."
Besides radio gigs in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York, Shuster went on to write commercials for radio, become creative director of a radio station, and win three Clio awards.
"Somewhere in there I wanted to see what it was like to… be on stage," recalls Shuster, who took acting classes and was cast in his first play in 1975.
Since then, Shuster has written and acted in television pilots and comedy shows, directed musical revues, cut a comedy album, and acted in films that are pending release, including a voiceover for an animated feature.
"I've always done voices, accents," says Shuster, a consummate character actor. "Probably my favorite [role] was the Russian ballet dancer in 'You Can't Take It With You.'"
After arriving in Hawai'i, Shuster joined the Kona Community Players, APAC's precursor. His first show was Oliver, followed by Annie, The Wizard of Oz, Sound of Music, Carousel, and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
In his day job, Shuster works as a social worker at the West Hawai'i Mental Health Clinic, has a private clinical hypnotherapy practice, and is also a deacon at St. Michael the Archangel church. Recently he directed the play Truly Dually.
"I've never been in a community this small that has had so many talented people," states Shuster.
Noises Off, the show Shuster just missed being in by moving here two decades ago, will be his last show in Hawai'i before he 'retires' to Ruidoso, New Mexico. There, he hopes to join the Lincoln County Players, continue his hypnotherapy practice, and serve at St. Joseph's Indian Mission on the Mescalero Apache Reservation. In addition, he just started the Kona Cowboy Coffee Company and will be marketing 100% Kona coffee in the southwest.
"My wife and I raised our kids here and now we have grandchildren on the mainland and we want to be close to them. We love Hawai'i and we love Kona; there are many, many things we'll miss, most of all our friends," says Shuster. "This is a real home. The theater is absolutely a family 'ohana." And Noises Off is Shuster's swan song.
Noises Off
Aloha Theatre
Kainaliu
June 8-24
F & Sa @ 7:30 p.m.
Su @ 2:30 p.m.
TIX: $12-15
INFO: 322-1648 or apachawaii.org

Top of Page