Diane Feller never sought “stage center” in theatrical productions while attending Pine Bush High School. “I loved enabling the actors to perform,” recalls the company manager of the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival now in progress at Boscobel House and Gardens in Garrison.
Despite the fact that the festival does not officially begin every year until June, Feller”™s work starts in February with setting up auditions that extend into March. “I sit in on the auditions with Terrence O”™Brien, the artistic director,” she says.
For its current 25th anniversary year, auditions were for a trio of productions ”“ “Hamlet,” “Around the World in 80 Days” and “The Comedy of Errors.” Auditions are followed by contract signings. “Many actors are in a union, so my work involves contract negotiations with the unions.”
Then follows a series of rigorous rehearsals from mid-April through June. This year”™s festival will run through Sept. 4, with performances every evening except Mondays. All three productions are staggered to be staged throughout the summer. Some are held in combination with wine tastings.
Feller”™s primary responsibility involves the actors. She arranges for transportation and housing, including moving furniture owned by the company into its rented quarters. She also sees that the actors are comfortable and safe on the Boscobel premises. The show goes on, rain or shine, with the large tent housing the performances and a smaller tent used as a dressing room.
The tents withstand rain, but are not tornado or hurricane-proof. Now in her fifth year on the job, Feller recalls only one close call on weather, a threatened hurricane. She hustled the actors into one of Boscobel”™s nearby underground facilities in an agreement that the company has with Boscobel.
Another responsibility is transporting actors to and from Boscobel daily. “This past year we purchased a white 12-passenger van to accommodate the growing cast size. As we all piled into the van for the first time, myself behind the wheel and my dearest friends and co-workers in the back, we began laughing at what a ridiculous sight this must be and bonded over our experiences with the festival. The van was nicknamed Moby Dick, the great white whale.”
Feller grew up in Pine Bush with two older brothers. Her father, Walter Feller, was born and raised in Cold Spring.
“My grandparents lived on Pine Street in Cold Spring.” Her father, a Vietnam War veteran, has been a police officer for more than 30 years in Orange County communities. Her mother, Jean, teaches in the Pine Bush Central School District and is caregiver for her daughter”™s dog, Katie, “whom I miss terribly when on tour,” Feller says. “My goldfish, Fishy, does travel with me.”
Feller recalls her early love of Shakespearean literature. She earned a bachelor”™s degree in public relations and business administration from the State University of New York at New Paltz while saturating herself with electives in the Theatre Department and managing its shows.
“In my senior year at New Paltz, the college received a call seeking an intern for the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival,” she says. “I was recommended.”
Off-season she remains in theater management, recently touring with the Radio City Rockettes. Last year she traveled the country on a bus tour with the Fox television show “So You Think You Can Dance.” “We visited 40 cities in nine weeks, staying up until 2 and 3 a.m. signing autographs.”
But, her heart belongs to the Shakespeare Festival. “It”™s nonprofit and I feel I have purpose,” she says with satisfaction.
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Challenging Careers focuses on the exciting and unusual business lives of Hudson Valley residents. Comments or suggestions may be e-mailed to Catherine Portman-Laux at cplaux@optonline.net.
