Dogwood Dell celebrates 50 years of making magic under the stars

It was 1965, and Bruce Miller had just completed his freshman year of high school. He auditioned for Hello Out There, a one-act play to be performed at Dogwood Dell, and got the lead part. It was a dream come true.

“I consider it my first professional acting gig, even though I wasn’t paid,” says Miller, who’s now artistic director of Barksdale Theatre.

Christopher Hudert grew up across the street from the Dell on Rugby Street, so he was always there.

“I played on that stage whether there was a show there or not,” he says, adding that he volunteered in the concession stand and often cleaned up the day after a show.

When Hudert was about 10, he made his first official appearance on the Dell stage. He played a chef’s assistant in Cinderella. He had one line — “right you are, sir” — and repeated it several times. He now owns touring puppetry company Applause Unlimited.

Both men tuned their creative skills at Dogwood Dell’s Festival of the Arts, a free outdoor summer arts series that’s celebrating its 50th season this summer. Miller and Hudert are among the many Richmonders who credit the festival’s continued success to Mary Boelt, who debuted on the Dell stage in the late 1960s. “Mary is the modern mother of the Dell,” Hudert says, “and the Dell is the grandfather of all outside events in the city.”

Boelt’s been performing since childhood. She once starred in a production of Our Town that toured on a flatbed truck. In the late 1960s, when she was attending summer classes the University of Richmond, a theater professor introduced her to Dogwood Dell. She tried out for The Unwicked Witch, a children’s play presented by Junior Curtain Timers — the predecessor to Richmond’s current children’s theater, Theatre IV, founded by Miller and Phil Whiteway, another former Dell performer — and got the part of an evil witch who lived in a chimney. After one show Boelt heard an older child tell a younger brother, “Come on back, I saw their brooms.” By the time the younger child was convinced it was OK to come backstage and meet the “witches,” cast members had removed their costumes and tossed their brooms aside. ‘Oh darn, they flew away,’ Boelt remembers the little one saying. “[The Dell] is extremely magical,” Boelt says. “It’s a beautiful park and the audience is so responsive.”

Boelt continued to volunteer at Dogwood Dell’s Festival of the Arts until she became a full-time employee in 1976. She started in the costume shop and now she’s Festival of the Arts manager/producer. In those 30 years of service, she’s made quite an impression.

“She always stays behind with staff to help lift, shove and move things around the Dell,” says Brian Little, cultural arts manager for Richmond’s Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities. “She is the first to think about the safety of her audience and will oftentimes be the last one at the Dell, even at 3 or 4 a.m. in the morning, trying to get things done. She seems to have a passion that goes far beyond the scope of average duties and is always willing to make it happen in the midst of dreadful weather conditions, flaring temperaments and pressing deadlines.”

There’s no arguing that rain’s an issue at the Dell, but Boelt and a crew of volunteers make do despite the precipitation. A set once washed into the orchestra pit, forcing the crew and volunteers to recreate the scenery before the next performance. Tropical storm Gaston flooded the stage in 2004, but luckily that was after the season ended. “It’s been really wet,” Boelt says. “We’ve been known to wear trash bags.” Because there’s no covered breezeway between the stage and dressing rooms, actors and actresses are sometimes carried over puddles. The Dell’s informal rain cancellation policy — see if it’s still raining 10 minutes after showtime — means that fast-moving summer storms rarely wash out performances.

Looking at the Festival of the Arts schedule, it’s easy to see that Richmond Parks and Recreation tries to offer something for everyone. “If you despise bluegrass, that’s not all that’s on the schedule,” says Barbara Brock, Richmond’s recreation program specialist. Past acts have included Kings of Swing, now known as KOS, Carlton Blunt & The Total Control Band and The Virginians. It’s hard to say just how many people attend Festival of the Arts performances. KOS, Brock says, usually brings in 4,000 to 5,000 audience members. Boelt says asking her to pick a favorite production is like asking her to pick a favorite child. “I think most of us like the one we’re doing right then,” she says, adding that audiences really connected with Steel Magnolias and Jekyll and Hyde.

Suggestions for the performance lineup come from Dell crowds and volunteers. For example, Celtic music has become increasingly popular during the past 10 years, Boelt says, so groups such as IONA have made their way into the rotation.

Theater productions are dependent on copyright availability and what other theater companies in town are doing. It wouldn’t be fair for the Dell to offer something for free when another company’s selling tickets for the same show, Brock says. For that reason, Boelt and other area theater personnel, including Miller — who, by the way, played Boelt’s husband in two University of Richmond plays — keep in contact. Before Miller brought Seussical the Musical to the Empire, he talked with Boelt a year in advance. Conversely, Barksdale agreed not to do Evita when the Dell decided to do it. (The Times-Dispatch reported an estimated 38,000 people attended Evita in 1989.) “Mary gives it everything she has,” Miller says. “I’m sure she eats thoughts of the Dell for breakfast.”

Relationships with other local theater companies allows the Dell staff to “beg, borrow and barter” costumes. Boelt knows firsthand how important it is to have a relevant, comfortable costume. During her first performance at the Dell as a witch, her costume was an old flannel outfit salvaged from another production because there wasn’t enough money for new duds. “And that’s still often true,” she says. Reminiscing about her witch’s role, she adds, “Being in a chimney with no ventilation … the makeup just melted off my face.”

Boelt’s the first to say the show wouldn’t go on without its extensive pool of volunteers, generated by the communal, homespun nature of the Festival of the Arts. People are always needed to help with the soundboard, build sets, dress characters and usher patrons. Actors and actresses in the theatrical performances are volunteers, too. Folks from local theater companies compete for parts side by side with amateurs from the community. “There’s something special about learning that [kind of] talent is in town,” Boelt says, adding that it instills a form of civic pride. (To honor the hundreds of volunteers Brock is thinking of dedicating a wall of names, so give her a call if you’ve volunteered at the Dell.)

One of those volunteer actors is Thomas Nowlin. He’s been watching performances at the Dell for about 20 years. When he lived in the Fan he would bike over to the park and watch theater production rehearsals, inspiring him to try out for Dream Girls, his favorite musical, in 2000. Despite the heat, copious amounts of pigeons and mosquitoes, and his allergies, Nowlin was buoyed by the audience’s energy, even though he couldn’t really see people’s faces when he was on stage. He’s since performed in 2003’s Ragtime and The Secret Garden in 2005.

Keep an eye out for special events marking Dogwood Dell’s 50th anniversary, including three or four national acts and some returning favorites, including Rene Marie on June 9 and KOS on June 10. “Fifty years from now we might not be sitting in these seats, so we have to make this memorable,” Little says.

Hudert’s Applause Unlimited troupe will pay homage to the Dell’s clown performers of the past with clown and puppet shows. Other favorites will include Cyrus McCormick and the Reapers on June 30 and plenty of offerings on the Ha’ Penny stage for children.

As for years 51 and beyond, Boelt knows exactly what she wants for the Dell — more programming. She would also like to see more schoolchildren involved because the arts are “another way to get out of trouble and learn something about life.” One thing will always be the same: “We want to make arts accessible to everyone,” Boelt says.

Increasing programming, technology improvements and costume updates will require an increased budget. Today’s programming budget averages $50,000, compared with $200,000 in 1997. Volunteer Kerry Keenan, who was also in Dream Girls, still has the acting bug, but he’s recently focused his efforts on fundraising for the Festival of the Arts. Donations to the Richmond Recreation and Parks Foundation can be directed specifically to the Dell’s needs.

The Dell also has to address visibility issues. “People forget we’re there,” Boelt says. Although some groups return, the performances are never the same, she says. And if you don’t like something, you can always get up and leave. “[It’s] the best value for your money, or lack thereof,” Boelt says. “You really can’t lose.”

For more on this story, visit our website at www.richmondmagazine.com.

 

Cast of Characters

What does television star Blair Underwood have in common with Tony award-nominee Emily Skinner? Both appeared in the same show at the Dell. Here’s a look at a few of the folks who have graced the outdoor stage:

Joe Inscoe: Since playing a mason in Working at the Dell, Inscoe’s gone on to act in movies such as 1993’s Children of the Corn II: The Final Sacrifice. He also had parts in 2005’s The New World and TV’s Commander in Chief and Line of Fire, all of which were filmed around Richmond and Williamsburg.

Richard Hankins: You may have seen Hankins’ production design on NYPD Blue or Guiding Light, but he used to design sets here in town for Dogwood Dell. When he was a recent Virginia Commonwealth University graduate, he designed sets for Kismet.

Stan Kelly: You might remember Kelly as a critic in the Dell’s Real Inspector Hound. His acting credits beyond the Festival of the Arts include roles on two television shows shot in Richmond: Blair in Line of Fire and Roman Wolfe in Commander in Chief.

Duke Lafoon: Boelt remembers Lafoon as a “dynamite” male lead in 1997’s City of Angels. He’s gone on to play a wounded soldier in the 2002 movie Wicked Spring and Seaman Yates in TV’s Ironclad, which also starred Barksdale’s Phil Whiteway.

Steve Kelley: Now a comedian and a syndicated political cartoonist for the Times-Picayune in New Orleans, Kelley once played Wazir in the Dell’s late-1970s production of Kismet.

Blair Underwood: OK, so he only performed at the Dell once — a tormenter/chorus member in 1981’s Jesus Christ Superstar. A Petersburg native, Underwood got his start in Hollywood by playing Jonathan Rollins on L.A. Law, which earned him a Golden Globe nomination. More recently he played Dr. Robert Leeds, a NY Knicks doctor, on several episodes of Sex and the City, and Carlos in the movie Madea’s Family Reunion.

David Crank: Perhaps practice at Dogwood Dell helped Crank make it in Hollywood. He began as a volunteer at the Dell and was later contracted to help with sets, props and costumes. He designed costumes for the witches in Dark of the Moon and kilts for Brigadoon. Crank’s gone on to art direct Fools Rush In, starring Matthew Perry and Salma Hayek, and Hannibal, starring Anthony Hopkins and Julianne Moore.

Jason Mraz: It was July 1992, and a 15-year-old Jason Mraz played Joseph in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. This “Geek in the Pink” pop star’s voice is now heard on hundreds of radio stations everyday.

Emily Skinner: Richmonders got a peek at this actress/singer’s talent when she was an elf in the Dell’s Midsummer Magic as a child. She also performed as a chorus member in Jesus Christ Superstar with Blair Underwood. “It was one of the best things I was ever in,” she says. Putting her elfin days behind her, Skinner was nominated for a Tony for best actress in a musical — Side Show — in 1998, which landed her an appearance on the Rosie O’Donnell Show. She also played a bitchy receptionist in The Adulterer, and her voice can be heard on 1997’s animated Anastasia. Skinner, who’s playing Agnes Gooch in Mame at the Kennedy Center through July 2, says the Dell continues to offer high-quality community theater. “[It’s] the ticket to being around people who are really good with their craft,” she says, adding that she hopes to visit Richmond this summer and take in a few
Dell shows.

 

The Joys of Live Performance

An outdoor stage with free performances and audience members who come and go as they please allow for some interesting moments. Here are just a few:

Kids Say the Funniest Things: During The Wiz, a tiny girl stood up in the spotlight, arms stretched out, and said, “Dorifee!” as the actress sang her way through the crowd.

War of the Worlds: At the close of Dogwood Dell’s fireworks spectacular every year, cannons are fired during the 1812 Overture, which frequently prompts 911 calls from people asking if the city is under attack.

Perfect Timing: Before a wall was built behind the Dell’s stage, there were only bushes, and bored kids would frequently run through them. During a performance of Macbeth, a group of kids was in the bushes rooting around for their dog. Lady Macbeth said her famous line — “Out, damned spot! Out, I say!” — and the dog came running onto the stage. Guess what his name was.

Call of the Wild: It was a really dry summer, which evidently brings out snakes. The apostles were asleep on stage during a scene in Jesus Christ Superstar when the backstage crew noticed a black snake among the actors. Crew members dressed a technician in a costume and set him on stage to grab the snake before anyone else noticed it. The technician got really close but the snake was spooked by loud music, sending it over the edge of the stage and onto a keyboard in the orchestra pit and then up one side of the Dell. “I think we had the first-ever ‘wave’ as it worked its way up the bowl,” Mary Boelt says of the shocked audience. Barksdale’s Bruce Miller had a really close encounter with nature in the late 1960s when he played a wizard named Fiz in an adaptation of Sleeping Beauty called Sing Ho For A Prince. As he opened his mouth to belt out a song, a large moth flew in. He choked through the song, and the conductor replayed the piece one more time, so Miller could sing it bug-free.

Technical Difficulties: Wireless mics sometimes cancel each other out and let in unlikely conversations. When the young lady playing Lilli in Carnival was singing Love Makes the World Go ’Round with puppets, the audience suddenly heard through the speakers, ‘John, this is weird, you’ve got to listen to this,” as well as Lilli’s voice — and some other slight confusion that faded away. The Dell’s communication devices and those from a passing airplane were apparently on the same frequency.

The Show Must Go On: During 1969 a dress rehearsal for Simple Simon, which was staged soon after Hurricane Camille left the city without electricity and running water, the pie man was supposed to fall into his cart of pies. Well, the pie man fell alongside the cart instead and injured his nose pretty badly, so much so that he had to go to the emergency room to make sure it wasn’t broken. The pie man came back for that night’s performance, and as Christopher Hudert remembers it, because there was no running water the pie man wasn’t able to wash the dress-rehearsal whipped cream from his hair and face. “He smelled pretty ripe by showtime,” Hudert says.

 

In the Beginning

The Festival of the Arts at Dogwood Dell began in 1956 when a platform built from city street cobblestones was erected among a dell of dogwood trees. Events such as the dedication of the city’s World War I memorial, the Carillon, however, date to 1944; children’s shows date to 1951, producer Mary Boelt says. Back then, crews would set up “greenies,” aka platforms, for the performers.

After Hurricane Hazel knocked down dozens of trees in 1954, the current Dell and Festival of the Arts began to take shape. The first Festival of the Arts season in 1956 had five children’s shows, including Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Little Red Riding Hood, Sing a Song of Sixpence, The Pied Piper and Jack and the Beanstalk. The concerts included Hilton Rufty on the Carillon bells with classical pieces or hymns, and Jack Kaminsky, who often directed a 15-piece concert orchestra. The Richmond Choral Society, the Fort Lee Chorus and the University of Richmond summer chorus also performed.

The city added tiered seating for 2,400 in the late 1950s and later a wall behind the stage, a storage tunnel and dressing rooms. Where did people change before the dressing rooms? “I don’t know. Luckily, by the time I came they had dressing rooms,” Boelt says with a laugh. A roof and a light booth were added in the 1980s.