Tragic: Local Actor Trills Lips So Fast He Flies Away

by Elanna White. @ewelannawhite.

WILLIAMSTOWN, MA - Summer stock patrons and performers alike were flummoxed this week when local actor and A Midsummer Night’s Dream star Gary Traen flewaway during the lip trill portion of his pre-show warm up routine. It has not yet been reported if the actor has returned. 

“I’ve never seen anything like it before,” said Company Manager Andie Caldwell hauntedly, encumbered by a large sack of fairy wings. “Our Bottom, Gary, was just out there on the green doing his lip trills, and next thing we knew, his feet were lifting off the ground and up and away he went. It was right as the first camp group drove up for the invited dress. Middle schoolers were bursting into tears. It was chaos, their first introduction to Shakespeare ruined forever. Midsummer is supposed to be a comedy, not a tragedy!”

Eight-time BroadwayWorld Regional Award nominated director Mel Harris had a less sympathetic take on the ordeal.

“It’s unprofessional is what it is,” Harris said in between barking at the lighting booth. “Every actor knows that tech week is the most important part of a play’s process. If he was not equipped to handle that particular warm up, then he should have refrained. Now he's up in the sky. He just keeps going higher.

He continued, "It reminds me of my very first year as an assistant director doing Carousel at Merry-Go-Round Playhouse the summer of ‘82. Our Billy Bigelow got stuck during the human knot the first week of rehearsals. It took him nine days to unravel. But to think Gary just propelled up into the clouds. I mean it’s hell week, not HEAVEN week for crying out loud!” 

The actor playing Puck naturally took a rogue-ish approach to the situation.

“Well, it is very Bottom of him after all, isn’t it?” the method actor asked, not revealing their name and instead insisting to be addressed as Robin. “Very peculiar that this would happen during this production of this exact play to this exact actor. Seems like Dionysus just had to add some errors to this comedy. Oh, what fools these mortals be after all. But no, I hope he comes down. He has kids.”

Though the incident invoked some unwanted chaos onto the opening of the production, critics agree that one thing has been made abundantly clear: That’s one actor with fantastic breath control.