Moline actor makes jump

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By David Burke | Sunday, January 14, 2007 1:06 AM CST | () comments

He may not have been paid for much of the work he’s done over the past 30 years, but Gary Baker says he’s always viewed community theater as his other job.

“A lot of people use theater as a hobby, and to me it’s a great hobby,” said Baker, who lives in Moline. “But if you want to progress at it, you have to turn it into a profession just to survive.”

And Baker is slowly getting the chance to make it his profession.

He just completed a role as a dimwitted stagehand in the Circa ’21 Dinner Playhouse production of “White Christmas” and will play Officer Krupke in “West Side Story,” which begins at Circa next weekend.

Baker, who also has performed in Circa-sponsored murder mysteries and worked backstage frequently at the downtown Rock Island dinner theater, said the greatest benefit was that everyone around him was working as a professional.

“It’s nice to see people have the same thoughts I do about theater,” he said. “In some community theaters, you have people there because they (just) want to do something.

“It was kind of nice to go to a group that knows what it’s there for, and they go ahead and do it.”

He hopes he’ll get the chance to do more of that after March 2008. Baker is counting down the 14 months until he turns 55 and can retire from Augustana College in Rock Island, where he’s in charge of central receiving, and work full-time in theater.

“Then I can go to whatever I want to,” he said. “Hopefully, (theater).”

Baker was a last-minute addition to the cast of “White Christmas,” and he said his first two questions for producer Dennis Hitchcock were: “How big is the part?” and “Can I come get the script right now?”

Hitchcock said he had read plenty of glowing theater reviews for Baker through the years, but had never seen him act outside of ComedySportz, the comedic improvisation troupe that is owned by Circa and performs next door.

“It takes someone with comic timing,” Hitchcock said of the “White Christmas” role. “We read Gary and we liked him a lot.”

It was during “White Christmas” rehearsals that Hitchcock and the shows’ director decided Baker would be a good fit for “West Side Story.”

“Almost simultaneously, we said, ‘How about Gary Baker for Krupke?’ ”

Hitchcock said Baker is the latest in a short list of community theater players who have made the jump to Circa, including Tom Walljasper, Peter Soderberg and Michael Kennedy among those living in the Quad-City area.

The biggest obstacle is rehearsal schedules, Hitchcock said, since not many people who work full-time can arrange for 12 days of practice.

“He’s a great guy, everybody likes working with him and it’s a pleasure to have him as part of the company,” Hitchcock said of Baker.

A Moline native, Baker has been working in community theater, both behind the scenes and on the stage, since 1976. He’s built almost every set at Playcrafters in Moline and said it gives him a greater appreciation for what he does onstage.

“It’s the other side of theater that a lot of actors don’t experience,” he added.

Some of his favorite roles:

* “Tuna Christmas,” in which he and Jim Adamson played a total of 26 characters. “You walk offstage and come back on as someone else in 15 seconds. You have to say, ‘OK, who am I?’ ”

* Sancho Panza, sidekick to Don Quixote, in “Man of La Mancha.”

* Capt. Queeg in “The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial.”

(“That put some pressure on me,” he said. “I didn’t want people comparing me to Humphrey Bogart,” who played Queeg in the famous movie version.)

* And, coincidentally, Tony in “West Side Story,” while he was in the U.S. Army.

“It’s like visiting old home again,” Baker said of returning to the famous Stephen Sondheim musical.

Baker was stationed in Germany and served as the performing arts specialist for his post. He also traveled as the advance liaison for two USO shows.

Besides being active in community theater in the Quad-Cities, Baker performs with ComedySportz in Rock Island at least twice a month. He’s been with the competitive improvisational troupe for the past 16 years of its 17-year history.

“ComedySportz, for me, is more brain candy,” he said. “It keeps your brain really fast — you think fast on your feet. The techniques I use there I’ve used in the work environment.”

Some of those techniques are quickly evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of others in a group, and making decisions on the spot, he said.

“You have to be real honest with yourself,” he said.

Married and a father of two, Baker said he views theater and ComedySportz as a release.

“To me, it’s a way of relieving the stress of work or home,” he said. “You learn to take whatever you’re living with that day, checking it at the door and not picking it up when you go home.”

Baker has a daughter in her mid-30s and a 20-year-old son, and a steady stream of theater has meant that he’s regrettably had to miss his share of baseball games and some of his children’s other activities.

“My attitude is that I’ve got a job to do,” he said.

Baker has played several lead roles, but he doesn’t mind being the comic relief, even if it means fewer lines and less stage time.

“To me, the big leads have all the pressure of the show on their backs because they have the most work to do,” he said.

One of the biggest differences between community and professional theater is time, he said. While a typical community theater show takes six to eight weeks of rehearsals to produce as performers slowly learn their lines and blocking, a Circa show is staged in two weeks, with actors expected to know their lines when they walk in for the first rehearsal.

“That, to me, is the interesting part of theater,” he said.

David Burke can be contacted at (563) 383-2400 or dburke@qctimes.com.

IF YOU GO

What: “West Side Story”

When: Jan. 19 to March 24; performances at 5:45 p.m. Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, 3:45 p.m. Sundays and 11:45 a.m. Wednesdays

Where: Circa ’21 Dinner Playhouse, 1828 3rd Ave., Rock Island

How much: $41.60 Friday-Sunday, $39 Wednesday evening, $36.40 for Wednesday matinees. Discounts are available for students (18 years and younger) and seniors (60 years and older)

Information: (309) 786-7733, Ext. 2