Paula Sharum

Paula Sharum is the Director for the FSLT 2005 production of Mame. She gave this interview on 7 June 2005.

(A list of Paula’s Directing and Acting Credits are at the bottom of this interview.)

Paula McClaren Sharum has been married to Stephen Sharum since 1976. She is the mother of 3 daughters and the grandmother of 3.


FSLT: When did you start in theater?
SHARUM: Very early in life. From the first grade all the way through high school, I took part in all the school plays, readings and dance activities. I intended to major in Math in college so I could get a real paying job but somehow ended up with a theater major. The summer after my freshman year in college I did summer stock work as one of the characters at the Dog Patch USA theme park. I completed my theater degree in 1974 and came to Fort Smith.

FSLT: What was your first theater work here?
SHARUM: My first theater experience in Fort Smith was doing makeup for Fiddler on the Roof in 1974.

FSLT: And your first work at Fort Smith Little Theatre?
SHARUM: I played Lorene in The Time of Your Life also in 1974.

FSLT: Were you recruited to come to FSLT or did you seek it out?
SHARUM: I definitely sought it out.

FSLT: You have directed 12 shows at FSLT over the years. Do you have a favorite directing role?
SHARUM: Not really. Every show has its own unique features and all of them are special to me for one thing or another.

FSLT: Why did you choose to direct Mame next?
SHARUM: We had contracted with Tams-Witmark to stage Gypsy but when we had to withdraw it, I wanted to do another of their musicals to maintain our excellent working relationship with them. I talked to my Musical Director, George Mann, who said “How about Mame?” I readily agreed to that because Mame is a good show. We felt it would go over well in Fort Smith.

FSLT: You mention your Musical Director George Mann. Do you always work with him?
SHARUM: George and I share a vision of musical works and we work very well together. We usually team up on musical productions. There are several fine Musical Directors in Fort Smith, but I like working with George. Some directors want the Musical Directors’ name placed well down in the credits so the Director can have the glory. I want George’s name right up there with mine. I don’t mind sharing the credit for a good show but in case of trouble, there is someone to share the blame. There’s little concern about that, any show that George does has a head start at being a fine show.

FSLT: In all your directing efforts there must have been one or two disasters that you faced. Would you care to talk about any of them?
SHARUM: There were several. In Moliere’s Imaginary Invalid (1978), one of the men in my cast gave me a real scare. On the night of one of the performances, he checked in at the theater before the show but then disappeared. We couldn’t find him anywhere. I was in a panic until he showed up at the last minute. I found out he had been padding his calves to look better in the 1600’s costume of knee pants and tights. On this night he had forgotten his calf pads and didn’t tell anyone he was going back home to get them.

IN the Hollow (1999), one of the women did not show up at the theater for the Matinee performance. I called her home but there was no answer. I dressed in her costume and was ready to go on stage in her place when she finally showed up minutes before curtain time. She had been taking a nap and had overslept.

During that same show, we had a Dark Night performance scheduled. At 6:30 pm, my Producer came to me and said one of our actresses had laryngitis and couldn’t come to the show. I donned her costume and did the part with a script in my hand. The audiences were very kind. They never mentioned that I was reading the part from the script.

I guess my biggest disaster was at the King Opera House. The Bob Burns Theater was being renovated so we had to do the show in the library building which was just one big room. One lady read beautifully in her audition so I cast her in the leading role. She did very well through rehearsals but when she stepped in front of the audience, stage fright took over and she panicked. At best she did about one in five of her lines. Michael Johnston was playing opposite her and he was able to deliver his own lines and cover for hers. It was awkward but at least it got the story told.

On the Sunday Matinee for that show, the actor playing the Doctor didn’t show up. I played the part. In one scene the Doctor was required to pick up the heroine and carry her off the stage. There was no way I could do that. Again, Michael Johnston came to my rescue and carried her off for me. Michael Johnston saved that show.

FSLT: Do you have any particular plays you would like to direct?
SHARUM: I would really like to do Camelot but we would need a lot of lead time because of the male singing roles it requires.

FSLT: Now for your roles as an actor. You’ve averaged better than a show a year since you started in 1974. You must really love acting.
SHARUM: I always have. I use the word magic a lot but that’s what it seems like to me. It’s a wonderful new world out on the stage in front of the audience and I truly enjoy being out there.

FSLT: As an actor, do you have a favorite role?
SHARUM: Yes, four shows stand out in my mind. In Crimes of the Heart (1985), the cast just clicked from the first read-through. It was a magic moment.

I loved the role of Shy in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1986). Something special about that part made me wish the show would never end.

Night of the Iguana (1987 ) was set in a fishing camp. Charlie Long rigged a rainstorm on stage and I remember leaning in the doorway, looking into the lights, watching the rain fall and smoking a cigarette. The character of Hannah Jalkes was outside of my usual genre but it was wonderful because of that one moment.

Also in that show, there was a scene where Rod Henley’s character was tied up and my character held the cigarette for him to take a puff. He would grab me and struggle with me, trying to escape. During one performance he grabbed me and I dropped the cigarette and it went down his shirt collar. He was holding my arms and I couldn’t get free to retrieve it. The more I tried to get free, the harder he held me. Finally I broke loose and got the cigarette out of his shirt. He told me later he never knew it was there.

Dancing at Lughnasa was a really fulfilling role. I loved doing the Irish accent and really enjoyed the rest of the cast of that show.

FSLT: How do you choose a play to perform in? Apparently it only has to have lights and you're there.
SHARUM: You might be right about the lights, but generally it has to do with the character. One time another actress said she was having trouble getting cast and asked me how I landed so many roles. I told her instead of just signing up for specific named roles, I put down that I would play anything. I never cared if it was a lead role or a walk-on. I didn’t even have to have any lines, just so long as I got to be on stage. When you’re willing to do any character, you get more experience. You can watch other actors at work and learn from them. Not every role was wonderful, I couldn’t wait for some of them to end, but I wanted others to go on forever.

FSLT: What other roles would you like to perform?
SHARUM: The one role I’ve wanted to do for a long time is Anne Boleyn in Anne of the Thousand Days but it never came along. I did a reading from it for a workshop that was a Juilliard audition and I have loved it ever since. Then again, I would have loved to play the role of Lavinia Penniman in the current production of The Heiress, but it came along at the wrong time because the dance studio where I work was tied up with recital for most of May. Besides, Nancy Moon is doing a wonderful job in that part.

FSLT: Are there any acting disasters that stand out in your mind?
SHARUM: I would have to say that the most remarkable collection of disasters happened during Dracula which we did at Westark. A number of us from FSLT decided it would be fun to audition together and we all won parts in the show. These were great people like Ray Coleman, Kelly Shepherd, Bill Blanchfield and Britt Crews. The director had so much talent on stage all she had to do was hold on for the ride and it would have been just fine.

However, she was doing this show for credit towards her masters degree in theater and wanted to be really creative and inventive. She had a storm of original ideas. She rewrote parts of the script and redefined who all the characters were as if she were working with beginners.

She decided instead of killing Dracula by driving a stake through his heart, she would use a shaft of light.

She couldn’t decide whether to play the show high camp or dead serious, so it wandered back and forth between the two.

Vivaldi’s Four Seasons fitted the show well, but she changed that as well. During the love bit scene when Dracula bit Mina’s neck, the audience heard the Fantasie Impromptu in C Sharp Minor by Frederic Chopin, which everyone knows as “I’m Always Chasing Rainbows.”

A tech director from UA Fayetteville had worked out a way to fly bats around over the stage but she thought that was too much trouble so she changed it to people standing behind tall flats at the back of the stage and casting stuffed bats out on fly rods. The idea was to reel them back in fast enough to make it look like they were flying. IT didn’t work real well.

To make the sounds of the bats wings, there were several people behind the flats using paint brushes on the canvas flats. She brought in some young people who got overly enthusiastic and ‘painted’ so hard it sounded like Godzilla bats or giant eagles.

She changed the sound of the baying hounds to little yippy dogs.

For the crowning glory, the pyrotechnics guy was just back from a tour of duty in Viet Nam. He used squibs to make a cloud of smoke for Dracula (Kelly Shepherd) to escape from his coffin. Each night he used a larger charge so the effect grew from a modest cloud of smoke to a sheet of flame. On the final night, the lining of the coffin caught fire and Kelly had his eyelashes , eyebrows and the hair on one side of his head burned off.

We all had to spend a lot of time encouraging each other to get through that show.

FSLT: You’ve done almost as many crew roles as acting roles. Do you have a favorite backstage job?
SHARUM: My most enjoyable backstage job is costuming. One of my favorite shows was No Time for Sergeants (1985) when I got to create my own Army Air Corps. I studied a lot of pictures and had Lloyd Johnston as my advisor. He had actually been in the Army Air Corps as it was called before becoming its own branch of service.

FSLT: Do you consider yourself primarily a Director, an actor or a crew person?
SHARUM: I consider myself primarily an actress.

FSLT: In addition to all your onstage credits since 1974, you’ve served something like ten terms on the Board of Directors. Since each term is three years, that means you’ve been on the board almost continuously for thirty years. That sounds pretty formal but I know that it means you are out in the theater doing all the grunt work not directly related to the play. You have emptied the trash, worked the box office, swept the floors; everything there is to do in the building. Where do you get your energy? What keeps you going in theater?
SHARUM: I can answer both those questions with the same answer. It all has to do with the Magic of Theater. Directing or acting in a play is like creating a beautiful butterfly and then turning it loose to fly. There is magic in that.

FSLT: Yes, but what about all the grunt work?
SHARUM: All that stuff is required so we can keep the doors open and continue to create the magic. I’m motivated by a feeling of magic in the theater building, any theater building, even when no one else is around. In the late 90’s, I worked quite a bit with the American Association of Community Theatre (AACT). I got to travel a lot and visit other theaters. I felt that magic in all of them, large or small, fancy or plain. It didn’t matter.

FSLT: Here’s hoping you continue to work your own magic at FSLT for many years to come. Is there anything you would like to add?
SHARUM: Yes there is. Please let people know that the Box Office people are all volunteers doing the best they can. The Box Office opens ten days before a show opens on stage. From 11-1 and 4:30-7 there is one person in the Box Office answering the phone and making reservations. If you don’t get through to a person, it’s usually because they are handling another patron at the moment. There’s no need to leave sarcastic messages on the answering machine. Also, our plays are generally heavily attended. Don’t expect to call in the night before the final performance and be able to get the best seats on the final night.

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Paula’s Directing Credits:

1977 An Evening Of One Acts IMPROMPTU. We later took this to Festival.
1978 The Imaginary Invalid
1980 The Mad Woman Of Chaillot
1981 Yes, My Darling Daughter
1987 The Mousetrap
1993 Rumors
1992 Daisy Pulls It Off
1999 The Hollow
2000 A Partridge In A Pear Tree
2001 Cabaret (Replaced director who had to withdraw)
2002 Appointment With Death
2004 No, No, Nanette
You also directed Kind Lady for Van Buren’s King Opera House Players.

Paula’s Acting Credits

Lorene 1974 The Time of Your Life
Angela 1975 Enter Laughing
Gloria 1975 Bye Bye Birdie
A Woman 1975 A Man For All Seasons
Karen Andre 1976 The Night Of January 16th
Miriam 1976 The Women
Singer 1977 The Magic Of Musical Broadway
Louise 1978 Private Lives
Mary 1979 Vanities
Kitty Dean 1979 The Royal Family
Faye Medwick 1980 Chapter Two
Molly Malloy 1982 The Front Page
Hermia 1983 A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Shirley Fuller 1984 Ladies At The Alamo
Meg Magrath 1985 Crimes Of The Heart
Ruffiana 1986 A Company Of Wayward Saints
Shy 1986 The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas
Hannah Jalkes 1987 The Night Of The Iguana
1989 The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940
Rose 1989 Stepping Out
Sally Talley 1990 Talley’s Folly
Katy Cooper 1990 Finishing Touches
Stella Mae 1991 Come Back To The Five And Dime Jimmy Dean Jimmy Dean
Kathy 1992 True Crimes
Reader 1992 Fort Smith Fights AIDS
Dancer 1994 Christmas On Broadway
Betsy 1996 The Octette Bridge Club
1997 Dancing At Lughnasa
Valerie Vickers 1998 Murder On The Rerun
Barbara 1999 Run For Your Wife
Reader 2001 Because It’s Christmas
Mrs. Cordelia ffoliet-ffolkes 2002 A Dickens’ Christmas Carol
Catherine Lynch 2003 All The Way Home

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