Matthew Phillipps, 10 years old, from Brookline, is coached by Michael Lopez-Saenz, drama teacher at Cambridge Rindge and Latin, while other cast members look on.
Brian P. Fehlau '97 (left) and Lopez-Saenz act out an intimate moment.
Director/choreographer Peter Wilson '99 follows the musical score during a rehearsal. Photos by Marc Halevi

For a young man in charge of staging three major theatrical productions over a two-month season, Seth Harrington seems remarkably relaxed.

"I guess you could say that as a producer, I’m someone who does nothing but is responsible for everything," he jokes.

Harrington ’00 is the producer of the Harvard-Radcliffe Summer Theatre (HRST), the student-run repertory company that performs in the Loeb Experimental Theatre at 64 Brattle St., under the sponsorship of the Harvard- Radcliffe Dramatic Club. The summer theater program has been operating since 1980.

For someone who "does nothing," Harrington has a very full plate. He is in charge of everything from scheduling rehearsals to arranging publicity to finding housing for the cast and crew to borrowing an ornamental elephant from Cafe of India for HRST’s first production, Tom Stoppard’s The Real Inspector Hound.

Despite his myriad duties, he says the responsibility is only occasionally overwhelming. In fact, Harrington, who has worked in both summer and term-time theater since his freshman year, says that summer theater is in many ways more relaxed.

"During the year, productions tend to start off calm and then get more hectic as they approach opening night. In the summer they seem to start out very busy, and then calm down toward the end."

The reason, Harrington speculates, is that once the initial logistical problems have been solved, there are fewer distractions from the intense concentration needed to put on a play. Many students work during the summer in addition to their theatrical activities, but these are most often jobs that can be left behind at quitting time and need not be obsessed over like term papers and final exams.

Moreover, the level of professionalism is higher in the summer. Budgets are bigger than for term-time student productions, allowing for the creation or purchase of new props and costumes, many of which can then be reused in productions during the school year.

Plus, runs are longer. Term-time student productions generally run for a maximum of eight performances. This summer, the performances vary from 11 for the second production, the William Finn-James Lapine musical Falsettos, to a whopping 25 for Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing.

"Having that many performances allows the cast to become more familiar with the play, to work on their characters over time and deepen their interpretations," Harrington said.

Because of their professionalism and the fact that they are more likely to be reviewed by local papers, summer theater productions can serve as stepping stones to opportunities in the professional theater.

Jennie Connery ’99, an English concentrator who has taken part in many productions during her years at Harvard, hopes that summer theater will help launch her career. Co-designer of the 1930s-style costumes for Hound, Connery, like Harrington, has spent most of her time at Harvard on the production end of things, producing a total of 13 plays. This is her third summer working on summer productions.

"I haven’t decided yet whether I want to work in the theater or in television, but I know I want to work in production. I’ll probably move to New York in the fall and see what happens," she says.

Connery caught the theater bug in junior high school when she auditioned for a show and "miraculously" was cast in the lead. She continued to act through high school but at Harvard she realized that she was probably not cut out to be an actor.

"But I was still really interested in theater and I wanted to learn about different aspects of it. I’ve learned a lot doing different productions, and I’ve had a lot of fun."

Harrington agrees that Harvard theater, and Harvard summer theater in particular, offers unique and valuable learning opportunities.

"What we do at Harvard is closer to what real theater is like than at most other schools. In most colleges, production and direction are handled by faculty members. We get tremendous support from the American Repertory Theatre staff, but basically, we’re on our own."

Not only are the 40-odd students who comprise the HRST company on their own, but they also serve as mentors to youngsters with theatrical aspirations. In addition to putting on a full roster of plays, the summer theater staff runs an intern program for local high school students who want to learn what theater production is all about.

The students serve as interns, helping out with the productions. They also direct and act in their own short plays, which are staged on Mondays when the "Ex" (the Loeb Experimental Theatre) is unused.

The HRST’s current production, The Real Inspector Hound, runs until Sat., July 17. Falsettos begins July 22 and runs until the 31st. Much Ado About Nothing begins Aug. 5 and continues until Aug. 28. For further information, call 617-495-4597 or 617-496-3030 or visit the HRST website at http://hcs.harvard.edu/~hrst.