What's cooking for Rabbit Hole

Everyone behind the scenes at Everyman has had the pleasure of enjoying Associate Production Manager Mandy Hall's baking, from cakes for birthday celebrations to fruit crumble just because she had fresh-picked blueberries.

But for this season's opening production of Rabbit Hole, Mandy is stepping outside of her usual role. She will spend the next five weeks as Everyman's Resident Chef, baking all of the items that appear on stage.

Rabbit Hole follows the journey of a family grieving the death of their young son. Food is featured in many scenes, and the eating isn't something that happens coincidentally in the background as the actors deliver their lines. It's an important part of the scenery, enhancing the warm and homey environment.

The preparation of the food also serves as a coping mechanism for Becca, a stay-at-home mom who suddenly finds herself with a lot of time on her hands. For her, the baking is both a distraction and an integral part of the healing process, a way to focus her energy and keep up appearances as her family drifts further apart.

For the Baltimore premiere of David Lindsay-Abaire's Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Everyman's designers have created the kind of comfortable, modern kitchen you'd expect to see in any well-to-do home in the suburbs. There are stainless steel appliances purchased from Sears, running water and a refrigerator that will actually keep all of the food fresh throughout the show's run. Which is a good thing, because if it wasn't hidden in the on-set refrigerator, it would likely be eaten by Everyman's staff and production crew before it could reach the actors' lips!

With a script that focuses so heavily on the consumption of specific types of food, and given Everyman's intimate performance space, the artistic team knew that using fake food or substitutes just wouldn't do. As a self-described "foodie," Everyman Artistic Director (and director of Rabbit Hole) Vincent Lancisi wanted to make sure that the food was made with as much detail as any other piece of scenery or prop. With the nearest audience member just a few feet from the Corbetts' kitchen, Vinny didn't want anyone to be distracted by food that didn't look real.

The prospect of buying enough fresh baked goods to sustain the cast through eight shows a week was too expensive, so Mandy volunteered to do the baking. It's been one of her favorite things to do since she was a teenager, she said. Once she tried it, she realized she had a natural talent for it- and that there was nothing more rewarding than the compliments she received after baking something everyone loved.

For the duration of Rabbit Hole, Mandy must keep the refrigerator stocked with creme caramel fresh enough to ooze onto the plate when Becca serves it. She's also preparing apple tortes, lemon squares, zucchini bread, chocolate chip cookies and birthday cake. To save money and make the experience as delicious as possible for all of the cast members, she's baking everything from scratch: peeling and slicing the apples for the tortes and rolling out fresh pie crusts. Everything she has to prepare for the show takes over an hour to bake in the oven.

It's just one of the many strange things she's had to do during her fifteen years with Everyman Theatre. She recalls one particular experience, during Everyman's production of Lonely Planet in the 1997-98 season, when she had to drag 180 chairs off the stage every night and restack them for each performance. At the end of each night, she was covered in bruises, Mandy said.

Her role in Rabbit Hole should prove to be a lot more enjoyable- both for Mandy and for the lucky actors who get to reap the rewards eight times a week.