Marshall Taylor

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Marshall Taylor is the artistic director at Kusasana Resort, a summer resort in Western Maine that specializes in musical entertainment. Thanks for coming in today.

Marshall Taylor:

Good morning.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So you actually had a little bit of a journey to make it in to visit with us.

Marshall Taylor:

About an hour and a half on 302.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Yeah. But it's like a. It's a strong hour and a half. You can't rush that.

Marshall Taylor:

It depends who you get behind. It wasn't too bad this morning.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Yeah.

Marshall Taylor:

Yeah.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

But you're not originally. You don't live in Maine full time.

Marshall Taylor:

I wasn't gonna tell.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, I mean, we consider you a Mainer anyway because you've been coming here for how many years?

Marshall Taylor:

It's been almost 30. And I feel like a Mainer, certainly all summer long. Yeah. I've been here four months of the year for 30 years. So you do the math.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Yeah.

Marshall Taylor:

It's a few years.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Yeah. I think we'll count it.

Marshall Taylor:

Okay. But I've never seen the winter. I think that's what makes me a damned out a stater, I guess.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Although you live in New York.

Marshall Taylor:

I do. I do.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So you get winter down there, too.

Marshall Taylor:

And I see your snowfall up here and I get a little jealous.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Yeah. And you originally are not from New York.

Marshall Taylor:

No.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You're originally from a snowier place.

Marshall Taylor:

Wisconsin. Yeah. Farm country.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So it's probably smart of you not to move up to Maine full time because you know what the snow is like.

Marshall Taylor:

I think I would like to try it Once.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, anytime you want, we're here.

Marshall Taylor:

Thanks.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You know where to reach us.

Marshall Taylor:

I'm glad I'm welcome. Yeah.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Yes. Tell me about the resort. It's a very unique place.

Marshall Taylor:

It's a very

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

old.

Marshall Taylor:

It's a throwback. Our guests come and stay a week and they've probably been doing it many, many years. Some of our 10 year guests consider themselves as newbies. A lot of people come as children and grow up and bring their own children. And they come a week, they stay the same week, they sit at the same table, they stay in the same cottage, and it's a bit of a home away from home. They can pretend they're Mainers too, I guess. And every night we have entertainment. And that's really my area of involvement. I hire the staff, I audition them and I put together the shows. But they all work jobs too, so I sort of have my finger in the dining room and the maintenance department, the dishwashers, all those people are performers, so I find myself overseeing that too. But you asked about the resort, not about me. It's on a beautiful lake. Lake Kesar is one of those. Fortunately, still very clean, clear bodies of water. It's in the mountains, almost New Hampshire. We're Stephen King's neighbor. We have great food. Ah. What else? The entertainment is often surprising here. I get back to my own area. But I think the guests who come who are new are surprised at the quality. A lot of our kids either have been on Broadway or find themselves working fairly soon after they've been with us, which is a blessing. I often worry, how will we find a cast atop the last year's cast? And fortunately, it's never been a problem.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

When we went out to visit, it was really wonderful to be talking to a very pleasant wait. Member of the wait staff who brought over, I think it was some sort of blueberry dessert. And then not too long after, see them up on stage doing incredible things musically and theatrically.

Marshall Taylor:

Yeah, they can really turn it on. And you mentioned how pleasant they are. That is key. They're really. They are a family for themselves. And for the week that the guests are there, the guests are part of that family as well. It really does extend beyond a service sort of relationship. But once they step on stage, it's kind of unforgettable. And for little people, young people, it makes it even more exciting when they see their friend, their buddy up there singing an opera or something they never dreamt they'd want to see.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

That was something that did surprise me was the opera piece so you're not just doing Broadway show tunes, which is also great. You're doing really a full spectrum of, I guess we'll call it entertainment.

Marshall Taylor:

Yeah, the opera is more traditional to the resort. The Broadway is the part that's grown, that's the new kid in town. The original owner, Ralph Berg, had a music store in Boston, and his friends were classically trained musicians, and they would come up and entertain. And so there was a long heritage of opera and art song. A lot of Boston Conservatory students and alumni would come. And as times have changed a bit and we've gotten our productions to be a bit more lavish. I use that word lightly. The Broadway part is new, but I remain committed to the opera. I have that background myself, and I love to introduce people to that.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So the day that we were there, there was. I think it was interesting because 207 was out taping our local TV show, and you had created. You had brought in different people to represent different types of work that are done throughout the week. And there was a couple that had partnered together to sing opera. And I could have been in Boston, I could have been in New York listening to a really, you know, this. The highest caliber performance. And it was right in this nice little lodge on the shores of a lake.

Marshall Taylor:

Right. We were very lucky to get that couple. They came as a. As a package deal. Jeremy, the tenor had worked for us last year and did the tenor lead in Carmen. And he met Samantha, and she wanted to come back this summer. And we were thrilled to have them. Their home is New Jersey. So I was going to say you might even have been in New Jersey hearing that opera. It's nice to have people of that age level, too. Younger singers, college age kids are just not as developed. They're wonderful. But we've sort of found a niche of young, emerging performers who are beyond college and beyond the young artist programs. And they also need to have experience and make some money.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So the way that I understand that it works is throughout the course of the season, you are offering a different type of performance every night, every night of the week. So the beginning of the season, you start the practicing and the performing of a certain performance, say, on a Monday, and by the end of the season, you're still performing that same thing on a Monday.

Marshall Taylor:

Every Monday, we're a repertory. So every Monday night is our musical. Every Tuesday is our piano concert. Our opera night is Wednesday. We have about 10 days of rehearsal before our first guests come. And those are crazy days. We have to get the resort ready. So everyone's working their day job until 10:15 when they have to run to rehearsal and learn some choreography or some French aria. And then they have lunch and they are back to twigging and raking until their next rehearsal is scheduled or costume fitting or whatever is on the docket for the day.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

In addition to being the artistic director, you actually have other multiple day jobs. You run the gift shop.

Marshall Taylor:

I have a little gift shop. I do all the things that an artistic actor might do. I'm not a designer, but I have my hand in the cabins and picking the fabrics. And I worked with the. The owner, our current owner, Jane Orans, for a long time on trying to upgrade the cabins when I, before I was artistic director. And I've sort of kept that in my, in my bag of tricks as I've gone on.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

When we had lunch with the current owner, she told us that you, you spent a significant amount of time buying for the gift shop.

Marshall Taylor:

Yeah, that's the great fun. The winter is my slow season and I can scout out things in shops and I go to gift shows. There's a New England made show that is in the spring up here, but at this time of the year it's down in mass. And I may go down to that because I do like to have local artisans represented. It's a luxury to have that kind of time because the store is only open for 10 weeks. So I'm not in it year round like some shopkeepers have to be.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

When you were growing up in Wisconsin, did you ever think that this would be your job and your life? I mean, it seems like a pretty nice combination of things that enable you to do things that you love.

Marshall Taylor:

You know, when you grow up and you want to be a performer, there are so few pictures of what, what success are you imagine yourself as a big star or working on Broadway or. You know, I think originally I wanted to be a country singer, but I'll let that go for now. No, I didn't imagine this. And I can't imagine a better balance for myself because I do get to do a lot of things. I run the payroll. You know, that doesn't fit with an artistic profile in any way, in my estimation. But I love to do it and I love to interview the kids and hire them and I love the guests. I spend a lot of time, A lot of my days during the season are just spent listening and talking with them and finding out what their year has been like, keeping them in the family and letting them know what the new kids are up to. And what their backgrounds are in case that would spark an interest. So, yeah, it's a great fit for me. I guess I have a short attention span.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And family is very important to you because the owners, the current owners of the resort, they're a family.

Marshall Taylor:

They are a family. They are the Orans family. I am not an Orans, but, you know, family are the friends you make along the way. They adopted me a few years after I started there. I felt very much like part of the family. Jane has one son who works there fully, but most of the guests, I think, assume I'm her son as well. Yeah, it's a family.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

It's an incredible thing to think about her story because she was a young woman when her husband died and she had children. And this. This resort that they had been coming to up here in Maine, and she was a preschool teacher.

Marshall Taylor:

Right? It was. She had no experience at all. And what I never realized when I was the busboy there all those years ago was how frightened she was. She had been doing it just a few years and really didn't seem to think she knew what she was doing. But from my point of view, she had all the answers. She was very firm about her opinions. She started out with several partners, and little by little, they sort of fell to the side and she emerged as the one. But it became her life when she needed it most, and it kept her going, and she kept it going as well. The place wouldn't be there without her. It's a bittersweet time of year because it was right after their week at Quizzasana, the last week of August, when he went home, and her husband died very shortly thereafter. So the summer ending brings a lot of feelings for her.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I'm sure she's a pretty strong lady.

Marshall Taylor:

Yeah, yeah. You know, refiner's fire. She's had to struggle through a lot, but. But she's always able to keep giving. You know, she doesn't take anything for granted. And she loves the staff. She is so concerned about their experience for the summer. In her mind, it's a lot like going to summer camp. Even though they're working, she wants them to make the most of it and have a personally great summer. And each year, she manages to make it even a better experience for them. The living conditions are better. The work is probably a little less hard. The money is better. And each year we sort of have a better group who are more cohesive and can foster each other in a better way. And that's all her doing. She's made that the priority,

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

you go to various places around the country to find the people who work at the resort with you. And most of these places are places that you actually have a personal connection to.

Marshall Taylor:

It's true. I go back to my alma maters. It's nice to have a connection at a school so I can find out a bit more about each student that I'd like to hire. That's not saying I won't hire someone that I can't investigate that way. But it's a great advantage when I can speak to their teachers as my colleagues and friends. And I also go to schools where some of our alumni have gone on to teach, which is. It's great. And they're a good school. Cincinnati Conservatory. It's very nice. My alumni or my alma maters aren't so illustrious, but I'm loyal.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

What do you look for in a performer when you're auditioning for someone to come who's really going to play again? Multiple roles. They may be there raking up the waterfront, or maybe they're lifeguarding, or maybe they're waitstaff. But they're also going to be singing opera or performing Broadway show tunes or. What do you look for?

Marshall Taylor:

You have to see the talent first, otherwise the door isn't open at all. But close behind the talent is the person. And they have to be flexible. They can't take themselves too seriously. Obviously they have to be very friendly. Somehow I've developed a sense I'm not always right, but. But I do manage to get a lot of kids who are pretty perfect for us. That sounds like I'm full of it. But they. Either they come to quissi with a great attitude or it's in the atmosphere and that's set by their peers. I mean, everyone knows that they're not above picking up trash or picking up sticks or washing dishes. There's no job that's too low. Well, I'll go back to Jane. There were many years when she and I cleaned cabins together and she insisted on doing the bathrooms. She said that was her department. And when the management or when the owner is setting a tone like that, it's hard for the staff not to pick up on. So in auditions, you. I find myself trying to picture this person who probably is dressed to the nines because it's an audition. Can I picture them in a uniform? Or can I picture them with a rake or worse? So I am looking for all of that. But if they don't have the talent, we never even get to that step.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Now, I don't want to make Jane uncomfortable or out her in any way, but she's got some years.

Marshall Taylor:

81. She'll be 82 very shortly. Yeah.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So when we were out there and she said, hey, hop on this golf cart and I'll show you around, it was impressive because she was taking her time out of her busy schedule and driving us all around and showing us the place. And she's a pretty funny lady.

Marshall Taylor:

She's very funny. I think the Globe, Boston Globe called her, referred to her as salty wit or something like that. I'm just glad you were in her golf cart, not her car. That can get scary.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, she didn't offer us that. So she did say she was stealing the golf cart, I think from her granddaughter.

Marshall Taylor:

Right, right. That makes sense.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

It's not normally her golf cart to

Marshall Taylor:

show us around, but she loves to show the place off. And, you know, it's her baby. She's created it. Even though it has a long tradition, I think anyone would admit that she's had a huge impact. The lake in the mountains she won't take credit for, but everything else. Yeah.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And now her son and her daughter in law are there along with you full time, Right. For the entire summer?

Marshall Taylor:

They are indeed. You know, it's her life. I don't know what she'd do in the morning. Even 12 months of the year, she wakes up thinking Kwis Hasana. And the office in the winter is in her home outside of New York City. And the phone rings and it's Good morning Kwisasana. Every day of her life. It takes that kind of dedication, I guess any family business, but I'm not sure how many others would have stuck it out because I don't think there's much money coming in, not as much as goes out.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So it really is a labor of love.

Marshall Taylor:

It is. Yeah. Yeah. She said, I don't buy jewelry, I don't buy fancy clothes. This is my hobby.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Her son and her daughter in law actually met.

Marshall Taylor:

Yes. Natalie started as a soprano, she's still a soprano, in the early mid-90s. And her first job was in the office and she was a bubbly little, little thing in college at Hartford, Connecticut, in their school of music and an opera singer. Although at her age she found herself mostly in the musical theater stuff for a while. And she and Sam hit it off right away and they had a long engagement, but I believe in 2000. Yes. They got married at the end of the summer at Kwisasana and now have two great kids.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So one of the Things that I think is really nice about the location of the resort is the sense of openness and also this lack of wireless access. So you go there and your phone probably isn't going to work and you can get onto the Internet, but you have to go to the main lodge.

Marshall Taylor:

There's only a few places. Yeah, right. Even then it's. I would say it's not the world's fastest system. I think when cell phones were new, it seemed just awful to everyone that they couldn't get on their cell phone and call out. But we're going so far in the direction that you can't hide anywhere that it feels better and better as the years go by to find a place where you can unplug for real. There's no tv. There's a TV in the lodge, but there's no TV in the cabins. There are no telephones in the cabins. And the last thing you want to do is hear somebody standing next to you having one of those loud conversations. So we're lucky we don't have to make the announcements before the shows. Make sure your cell phones are turned off.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And in fact, I think it was only pretty recently that you even had air conditioning.

Marshall Taylor:

That's very true. The nights used to be cooler, I'm afraid. But at some point, after watching somebody like me on stage sweating, they decided to put the air conditioning in. It was the public areas, the dining room, the theater area. And then one year, Sam just said, we've got to put it in all the cabins. The only downside is people close their windows at night and don't hear the loons. They often say to me, I don't hear the loons anymore, what's happened, but they're still there.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And it also used to be that people would bring their boats to the edge of the water.

Marshall Taylor:

Right. We do close the windows in the hall now, and we've lost part of our public audience. It was quite a tradition. You knew which people loved which kind of music because you'd see their boats out there every night. That was a real sight. And if it got boring, you knew when they left.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So after you've been doing this. How old were you when you started as a busboy?

Marshall Taylor:

I turned 25 my first summer.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So this has really been.

Marshall Taylor:

This is my life.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Your life?

Marshall Taylor:

Yeah.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And you keep doing it year after year.

Marshall Taylor:

Because it's my life. For a long time I had an off season job. Things that were more on the school calendar. And as my process at KWICI evolved, I don't have to I have a full, full time employment by them now, which is a blessing. But, you know, I'm in my early 50s and I've had one job, which I. I'm so lucky. But I think who would look at a resume when it has one job for all that time? It. That's not the world. I guess I'm a throwback, too.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, I mean, I think that there are people who do things for that amount of time, and maybe not as many nowadays, but I don't think it's a bad thing.

Marshall Taylor:

No, no, I don't think it's a bad thing either. I think it's a wonderful thing. It's just not the norm and it doesn't make for great cocktail party conversation.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

What was your favorite performance this summer?

Marshall Taylor:

Oh, we did a wonderful children's piece called Dear Edwina, A musical. I have a real love for children's theater and music, I think, because I didn't have that as a kid. I mean, literally my music classes were on the radio because we were so remote in Wisconsin. So I think it's so special to reach kids. And we had this, like I said, Dear Edwina, and there's moments of truth and it was a question and answer. People were asking her advice and it's all musical. It just has a sweetness and an innocence that always captured me. And the cast was incredible. So, yeah, that was my favorite for the summer. Thrilling moments in other things. We did Sondheim into the woods and we had some great voices in our operetta. But my heart always was won by that first Monday morning every week.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Do you know what you're going to be doing next year, or is that still in the works?

Marshall Taylor:

Oh, that's still in the works. I take all the fall to listen. I do consider things that are a little bit far afield, you know, try to stretch myself and think, would that work? Would that work? And then I listen to the former cast members to see what they're thinking about for the next summer. Because I do like to have a few aces in the hole when it comes to casting. I don't commit until January 1st every year now I put it on Facebook. Soon thereafter, we send a postcard to the guests. So I have a bit of time to consider it.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, I appreciate your taking the time out of your schedule to come in and talk. As we're speaking, the resort has just finished up and you're still there for a few more weeks before you head back to your other home. I've been speaking with Marshall Taylor, who is the artistic director at Kwisisana Resort, a summer resort in Western Maine that specializes in musical entertainment. Thank you for bringing this wonderful joy into the world.

Marshall Taylor:

Well, thank you so much for spreading the joy. It's been a pleasure.