“I’m very grateful for having these two theater experiences,” she says.
Like many community theaters, Bremerton is staffed by volunteers. Out of necessity, Dr. Tan was asked to help with set design and also costuming. To boost interest in the arts and ticket sales, the theater also established a club for children between ages 6 and 18. It produced one show, but the youth program wasn’t well-organized and soon fizzled. Simultaneously, Dr. Tan wrote an adaption of Little Red Riding Hood, which revived the program and was chosen for the summer play in 2007.
Since then, she has directed 15 more plays, including Sleeping Beauty, The Little Mermaid, and A Seussified Christmas Carol. She says her favorite, however, was a spoof on the Law & Order television show called Law & Order: Fairy Tale Unit.
Confidence and Coyotes
Each play at the community theater may involve up to 50 cast members, including children.
Rana Tan, MD, performs.
“We have children who are incredibly shy, you can’t hear them on stage, and they run to sit next to their parents,” she says. “Sometimes, by the end of the audition process, their voices are stronger and they’re more confident because we audition in groups. By the end of the rehearsal process, they’re not clinging to their parents anymore.”
As a director, she has never yelled or raised her voice to any child actor. When she needs children to be quiet to listen to her rules or instructions, she uses a hand signal called “Quiet Coyote.” (Touch your thumb to your third and fourth fingers and raise your index finger and pinkie to resemble a coyote’s head.) She says they immediately stop talking and start listening.
One of her favorite youth theater memories happened several years ago, when one parent said that her six-year-old daughter wanted to dress up as Dr. Tan for Halloween by styling her hair in a bun, wearing glasses, and carrying a clipboard.
“Even though I may be exhausted at the end of the day, I still head straight to the theater,” Dr. Tan says, adding that her husband, Eric Spencer, a professional actor, is the theater’s technical director.
“Every heaviness that I have on my shoulders from the hospital is now gone. It resets me and puts me in a different place. For that, I will always be grateful.” TH
Carol Patton is a freelance writer in Las Vegas.