Prop: Guns
Appearing in: Boxer Rebellion’s “Assassins”
Though it’s a Stephen Sondheim musical, there’s a reason you probably haven’t seen “Assassins.” Primarily, the protagonists–the men and women who have killed (or attempted to kill) U.S. presidents–make people squeamish. But the little-produced show also carries logistical hurdles, especially for a small theater company like the Boxer Rebellion Ensemble in Rogers Park. A unique problem: How to assemble an inexpensive but convincing collection of firearms from different eras?
Enter actor Wes Clark. Director Michael S. Pieper invited him to audition because Clark plays guitar, a requirement for playing John Hinckley. Clark got the part–and Pieper also got a defacto firearms consultant. “I really lucked out,” Pieper said.
“My father and stepfather were both in the military and my father was a cop, so I’ve been around guns my whole life,” Clark said.
Clark obtained guns both real and fake. He bought items online from companies in Florida and San Francisco; he also went to Schaumburg. “The gun that I use is a starter pistol I got in the suburbs,” he said. “Apparently there are ordinances against selling them in Chicago.”
The historical weapons were the trickiest. “I wanted something that was comparable to what the actual killers used,” Clark said. “The most accurate would be [John Wilkes] Booth’s .44-caliber, one-shot Derringer. What we got is just a replica. It won’t fire anything, but it makes a nice click in `The Gun Song.’
“I ordered the gun for [Charles] Guiteau [who killed James Garfield] from the same place, Collector’s Armory. That was a compromise: It’s a Civil-War era pocket pistol,” about 20 years too early, Clark said. “But it’s probably the fanciest-looking gun we have, and it fits Guiteau’s character, because the gun bought by the real Guiteau was a silver-handled revolver. He wanted it to look good in a museum.”
Clark describes the show as “intense” but also “funny–though I wouldn’t call it a comedy.” Audience response has been varied but positive, he says. Even when all the assassins aim their guns in a certain direction at once? “That has quite an interesting effect,” he said.
———-
“Assassins,” Boxer Rebellion Theater, 1257 W. Loyola Ave., through Saturday. Tickets: $15. 773-465-7325.