Man Of Many Hats -- Randy Thompson Gets Things Done In `Stages'

Actor, director, producer, writer, composer and arranger . . .

Considering all the hats he wears, Randy Thompson seems peculiarly composed and unburdened, not at all like someone who's about to see his first feature film get its theatrical premiere in the coming week.

``STagES,'' which opens Friday at the Neptune Theatre, is about the ups and downs of four stand-up comics at varying stages in their career who find themselves on the road together. It was made locally for about $200,000 and stars Thompson, Mayme Paul-Thompson (his wife), Ron Reid and Dan Lishner. All four actors have extensive comedy or roadshow experience.

Paul-Thompson is a Seattle choreographer who performed in a number of touring Broadway productions, including ``A Chorus Line.'' Lishner and Thompson worked together as a comedy duo, Dan & Randy, for five years. Reid is one of the West Coast's best-known comics. Thompson, Lishner and Reid co-wrote the script by pooling insights and anecdotes from the road, which Thompson then structured into a loosely knit story, ``compiling them, editing them, polishing them.''

A determination to capture the ``honest texture'' of the stand-up life guided decisions on story and characters. ``I have a real distaste for gratuitous plot,'' Thompson says. ``I wanted to make an observational comedy; to go with the reality of the situation instead of Hollywoodizing it, stylizing it.''

He also chose to work independently, saying you can shop a script around the Los Angeles studios for the rest of your life and still not see it come to fruition: ``I've always been a doer rather than a talker.''

Hiring a recognizable name actor for one of the roles was briefly considered, but then nixed: partly because of budget, but mostly because ``a big name would have distracted from the story.'' Thompson points out that one of the downfalls of ``Punchline'' was audience reluctance to buy the idea of Sally Fields as a stand-up comic.

All technical crew members were hired in the Puget Sound area, and they and the actors shared tasks. (Paul-Thompson gets credit as hairstylist.) ``Everybody's focus was really sharp,'' Thompson says, ``because they were busy.''

The film was shot in 23 days in Seattle, Redmond, Auburn and Ellensburg, last October and November, a time of year when the skies are notoriously unpredictable. Thompson had such luck in getting the weather he had ``planned'' that the crew began to joke about it being ``a film of the gods.''

Other bits of luck kept production rolling smoothly, too. When they were short an extra in an eccentrically choreographed drive-in bank scene, an old pal of Thompson's turned up by

chance and filled the spot.

Thompson's greatest piece of luck, however, came with the generosity of his co-workers. In the final days of the shoot, when the budget was running out, cast and crew members with credit cards volunteered, ``I've got a thousand-dollar limit - let's get this thing done.''

The film was shot in 35mm and edited on video to show to distributors. When it was accepted at the Seattle International Film Festival earlier this year, a rather fuzzy 16mm print was made: ``a quick fix,'' says Thompson, ``just to get it on screen.'' The film has been trimmed by another three or four minutes since then, and Thompson promises that the new 35mm will look good. (Press screenings were in a video-projection format.)

Thompson, who had directed himself in short comedy segments for Showtime and NBC, reports no trouble working on both sides of the camera in a feature-length project. He was also used to working with his wife. The two met on a commercial audition and have since appeared in other commercials together.

Future projects include a film about two roommates, one gay and one straight, who have no clue as to the other's sexual preference. The theme, says Thompson, is that ``all relationships are the same . . . We all get our hearts broken. We all fall in love.''

``STagES'' will open in Portland two weeks after it opens here, and in Los Angeles early next year. Thompson talks about a difference in East Coast and West Coast tastes, as far as humor and style in film go, and he thinks ``STagES'' is West Coast.

Thompson's taste in films tends toward the mainstream. Recent favorites have been ``Postcards From the Edge,'' ``Field of Dreams'' and ``Driving Miss Daisy.'' He asks that a movie be ``well-made, well-written, well-acted . . . It's important to tell a story and entertain people, without relying on special effects, props, ridiculousness.''

What about the ``special effect'' of the film's eccentrically capitalized multilevel title?

Thompson discloses that there's ``not any real big serious meaning'' behind it. It's a veiled reference to the different levels the four careers have advanced.

But mostly, he shrugs, he ``just liked the way it looked.''