For ‘Comedy,’ they cut costs but not creativity

By that, Dmetrius Conley-Williams meant 1996, the first year that Maler’s Commonwealth Shakespeare Company staged the Bard outdoors. Conley-Williams, then 24, played Lysander in the inaugural show, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.’’ This summer he’ll play Duke Solinus in “The Comedy of Errors,’’ with 17 performances from July 31 to Aug. 16 on the Parkman Bandstand.

“That first year, there were some old veterans, but mostly there was young, fresh talent,’’ said Conley-Williams. “And there was this anticipation of not knowing what was going to happen. I feel that this year.’’

Maybe that’s because this summer, for the first time since 2002, Maler is staging the production without the help of the Citi Performing Arts Center, formerly the Wang Center for the Performing Arts. After Commonwealth Shakespeare signed a deal to join the Center in 2003, the production’s budget grew from $570,414 in 2004 to nearly $1 million in 2007. But the relationship eventually soured, and Citi Center officials severed ties with Maler and the show after last summer’s “As You Like It.’’

With Maler on his own during an economic collapse, many wondered whether the tradition could keep going.

“Did I think he couldn’t do it? Of course,’’ said actor Larry Coen, a veteran of three Shakespeare on the Common productions. “But from the first time I talked to Steve, it was clear he was determined.’’

Last week, in a hall on the sixth floor of the Tremont Temple Baptist Church, just a block from the Common, Coen and six other actors dove into rehearsal for “The Comedy of Errors,’’ a farce about two pairs of identical twins - two masters and their servants, separated at birth - and the mishaps they experience when they are mistaken for each other.

Maler has set his “Comedy’’ in Miami’s South Beach in the 1930s, complete with musical and dance interludes driven by Latin music. So there were beach balls in the corners of the rehearsal room, meant to eventually be thrown into the crowd. Sitting on a table was a model of the set: a board walk backed by angled blue walls made of steel and plexiglass, with an Art Deco look inspired by the South Beach skyline.

“Start with the donkey,’’ said Maler, who was moving slowly, having hurt his back just before rehearsals started.

Josh Stamell, playing Antipholus of Ephesus, one of the twins, opened the scene, at one point holding his hands up behind his head to simulate a donkey’s ears as he mocked his servant, Dromio of Ephesus, played by veteran American Repertory Theater actor Remo Airaldi.

Coen, playing the servant Dromio of Syracuse, delivered a series of sharp put-downs as he guarded a house. Then Airaldi stomped across the floor, shouting and charging at the house’s imaginary door.

“Is that too loud?’’ Airaldi asked when his over-the-top performance cracked up the others.

The road to this production began last year, when Maler revived Commonwealth Shakespeare as an independent nonprofit. The company’s founding artistic director, Maler assembled a new board made up of former supporters and new faces, including former lieutenant governor Kerry Healey and Steve Grossman, the former chairman of the Democratic National Committee who recently announced he will be running for state treasurer. Grossman pushed him hard to come up with a workable plan.

“I said, Steve, the most important thing you need to do is to lay out the absolute, bare-bones budget that you would need to put this on and still do it in a distinguished way,’’ recounted Grossman recently by phone.

Maler started by picking “The Comedy of Errors,’’ an ensemble-based piece, which meant he wouldn’t have to bring in a big star to carry the show. Because of its relative simplicity, “Comedy’’ could be done with fewer rehearsals. And Maler planned a less elaborate staging than, say, the company’s 2006 “Taming of the Shrew,’’ whose set, depicting a North End streetscape, cost about $100,000 - four times the cost of this year’s set.

Then Maler went to work raising money. At one point, in January and February, he considered postponing the production until 2010. He decided to stop drawing his $45,000 salary in February, surviving with help from savings and the support of his partner, Anthony Liquori, who owns a local salon and spa. Then the money began to trickle in.

A spring fund-raiser brought in $35,000, and the Boston Foundation provided a $25,000 grant, as did a second, anonymous foundation. Other money came from Cabot Corp. and Distrigas, a natural gas company. Commonwealth Shakespeare’s board provided about $50,000.

As of this week, the company has raised $300,000 of the $350,000 it needs to break even for the year. Maler’s counting on donations at the show, merchandise sales, and chair rentals to help make up the difference. He’s glad he didn’t cancel the run.

“Our fear was not being out there would have spelled the end of the company,’’ said Maler. “I just think you can so easily fall off of people’s roster. It’s so hard to keep donors on your list, and then if you can’t deliver the product they lose confidence in your ability going forward.’’

Putting on the production for $350,000 - far less than in the Citi Center years - meant no luxuries. There wouldn’t be money to house such out-of-town headliners as Anthony Rapp, Fred Weller, and Jeffrey Donovan. This year’s cast is all local. The top salaries for this production are $350 a week; in the past, some leads made twice that. Rehearsals were cut from the normal month-plus to three weeks. The show won’t travel (“As You Like It’’ went to Springfield last summer.) And the stage won’t have moving elements or feature expensive flourishes such as the pool of water used in 2005’s “Hamlet.’’

Coen, though, says he isn’t sure the bean-counting is such a bad thing.

“ ‘Taming of the Shrew’ had a huge budget,’’ he said. “I was playing an idiot servant, and I had four costumes. It was also produced on the scale of opera - beautiful and glorious. We had a street there that was two or three stories.’’

Coen thinks “The Comedy of Errors’’ can impress audiences without that kind of spending.

“You are filling up a huge natural space in the middle of the city, so you can’t just erect a folding card table and charm everybody wearing mom’s pantyhose and something you bought at the Renaissance fair,’’ Coen said. “But the core of what makes the production work on Boston Common doesn’t require the ‘Taming of the Shrew’ kind of luxury.’’

What does it require? A good sound system, lighting, and costumes, said Maler, “and you have to have a wonderful group of actors who are enthralled with the opportunity to celebrate Boston.’’

The director wonders, as he works toward this year’s run, what he’ll be able to stage in the future. Could he do “Othello’’ or “King Lear’’? Those plays are a major challenge.

For now, he’s pleased with what he sees in the rehearsal hall and from his set designers, New City Scenic in Easthampton. The set, built off-site, should be completely installed by today.

“ Comedy’ aligns with productions we did in the early phase of the company, when we were by ourselves,’’ said Maler. “And those were fantastic productions. I actually look at the set model we did for this year, and I don’t think the audience is going to look at it and say, ‘That set looks cheap.’ The costumes are fantastic. So are our actors.’’

Geoff Edgers can be reached at gedgers@globe.com.