The Box in the Wood Theatre Guild has had its fair share of sell-out shows over the years, but it is hard to remember the last time the guild had its first show almost sold out before the auditions were even held.
However, it looks like tickets for opening night of the spring play, “M*A*S*H,” are going to be hard to come by, unless you’re a veteran. AMVETS Post 10 purchased 150 of the 200 tickets available before director Nathaniel Madsen could start auditions in February, and the veterans organization has purchased another 25 tickets since then, according to Madsen.
The post has also provided some of the props for the show, including authentic Army cots, Madsen said.
To add to the excitement of opening night, a color guard will kick off the play, also courtesy of AMVETS.
“M*A*S*H” has always had a loyal following since the movie and the long-running television series debuted in the 1970s, but the play written by Tim Kelly more closely follows the 1968 novel written by Richard Hooker, although many of the screen characters are in the show.
“M*A*S*H” is a comedy that focuses on a group of doctors and nurses in a mobile hospital unit during the Korean War and the antics they get into when they’re not patching injured soldiers back together. In one scene, the crew tricks a suicidal doctor into taking a placebo, which he thinks will end his life, and then resurrects him in a mock witch-doctor ritual.
That light attitude lingers in the theater even when the cast isn’t rehearsing. Madsen described the atmosphere as extremely casual.
“We definitely got that out of the cast. We’ve been having a great time,” Madsen said.
This is Madsen’s directorial debut, but he has the help of family. His brother, Geoff, is the assistant director, while his mother, Mary, and son, Jordan, are part of the cast.
“I said I’d like to direct something, and ‘M*A*S*H’ was kind of thrown out there,” Madsen said. “I said, ‘Yeah, that sounds like fun.’”
He admitted that directing has turned out to be more work than he anticipated, but said he’s enjoying the challenge. The challenge increased when Madsen had to step into the role of the base commander, Col. Henry Blake, when a cast member had to drop out more than halfway through rehearsals for health reasons.
“I didn’t want to act in this originally, but I’m having a good time with it,” Madsen said.
The cast of 30 is a healthy mixture of Box in the Wood veterans, but there are a number of new faces in the show. For the most part, there has been little difficulty getting the actors to grasp their characters, Madsen said.
“That came pretty naturally,” Madsen said. “At least 90 percent of the cast has seen (‘M*A*S*H’).”
The show has been generating a lot of buzz in the community.
“The box office phone has been ringing off the hook the last couple of months, at least 10 times whenever I’m here,” Madsen said. “This show is really hyped up.”
“M*A*S*H” begins its run April 23 and runs for two weeks.
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