“Hey, Molly! Wanna see the plans for my new invention? Got ‘em right here in the hall closet.”
“No, Dearie! Don’t open that closet, you know what happens.”
It happens, all right: the mighty crash of pots, pans, buckets, balls and all sorts of clattering kitchen objects, tied with a string and cut loose from a stepladder by the lady doing the sound effects.
It’s just a normal night for the Ad Hoc Touring Company, a local group of old-time radio devotees who enjoy nothing more than performing the classic shows from the golden age of radio.
“Fibber McGee and Molly” is a perennial favorite, largely because the scripts remain sharp and funny 60 years after their first airings on NBC. And the lady at the sound effects table who causes all that closet clatter always gets the biggest laugh of all.
She’s Delaware native Nita Gary, who, like that Woody Allen character, Zelig, seems to be everywhere on the local theatrical scene: onstage, in the wings, even serving drinks at intermission in the Possum Point lobby.
Thousands have laughed at her sparkling performances in parts that suit her affinity for comedy, music and dance. She had major parts in “The Music Man,” “Butterflies are Free,” and “Moon Over Buffalo,” all at Possum Point. She is an equally familiar presence at Milton Theatre, where she delighted audiences in “The Drunkard” and in “Shirley, You Jest,” a rollicking farce she authored. Her play was first runner-up in this year’s “One Acts III” production in Milton.
Having taken up virtual residency at the Milton Theatre, she’s now in rehearsal for another classic comedy, “Bell, Book and Candle,” in a part that could have been written for her: the madcap and somewhat ditzy Aunt Queenie, part of a family of witches living in New York. Director George Spillane calls her take on Queenie “terrifically witchy.”
Nita’s love of the theater has its roots in the radio shows of the 1940s. She devoured those old soaps like “Young Widder Brown” and “The Romance of Helen Trent.” School became an unwelcome intrusion on her radio listening.
Her work with the Ad Hoc Radio group enables her to return to her first great theatrical love, especially when she’s responsible for the sound effects. While other members of the group are setting up microphones and plugging in cables, Nita is emptying the large trunk in which she packs her wooden door, telephone, dinner bells, gongs, metal sheet (for making thunder sounds), a pistol with a box or two of blanks, and, of course all the contents of Fibber’s closet. It is by necessity a very large trunk, mounted on rollers and nearly as big as she is.
There’s always a moment of concern during a show that requires gunshots. In some programs, like “Suspense” and “Laura,” a major part of the story might involve someone getting shot. So far, the pistol has always fired on cue. Nita has never had to shout out: “Bang, bang, you’re dead!”
Some years ago, Gary won kudos for playing an elderly Polish lady in a locally produced independent film. “It was fun and interesting,” she says, “and it convinced me that there’s nothing like the stage.” She recently turned 75 and has no plans to quit or slow down her busy pace.
“Remember,” she says, “what the great actress Ruth Gordon asked: ‘How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you were?’” Gordon, incidentally, was still performing at the age of 91.
By the way, you can catch Nita Gary, as Witch Queenie, casting her spell in Milton toward the end of October in “Bell, Book and Candle,” right when Halloween is upon us. For dates and ticket information: www.Miltontheatre.org.
