The answer arrives with an accompanying this-reply-is-obvious laugh.
"It's fun. That's all I can say. It's just fun," says Dent Gitchel, speaking of the forthcoming Gridiron, a satirical, theatrical spoofing of Arkansas -- and national -- people and politics at the Arkansas Repertory Theatre.
That's why Gitchel, 75 and a retired law professor, says he and about 80 other Arkansas lawyers, judges, clerks, paralegals, wives, husbands and others in the profession's orbit devote their time and energy to the biennial production, which returns Aug. 2-6 to The Rep in downtown Little Rock.
"About halfway through rehearsals -- I think everybody feels this way -- you ask yourself, 'Why did I agree to do this?'" says Gitchel, a Little Rock native and a 1969 graduate of the University of Arkansas School of Law in Fayetteville. "We're all busy. It's not what we do for a living. It uses up all our nights and weekends. And you say, 'Why did I do this? This is my last year.' Then, a couple of weeks after the show is over, you start thinking about the next one in two years.
"I think all lawyers have a little ham in them. Somewhere. A lot of us are frustrated musicians or frustrated actors, and that's why we love to get up in front of people in a courtroom."
Started in 1916, Gridiron is, as Gitchel says, "a musical comedy show where a group of lawyers and other people associated with the legal profession somehow ... make sport of people in important positions who sometimes have a tendency to become self-important as well as important. It has become far more than just a little skit. It's professionally produced."
With a cast of amateurs, Pulaski County Circuit Judge Mary McGowan serves as the producer, as she has since 1996. Longtime Little Rock dance instructor Jana Beard is the director and choreographer. And local theater music director Lori Isner fulfills the same role with Gridiron.
Gitchel, who taught for 20 years at the W.H. Bowen School of Law at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock before retiring in 2004, first got involved in Gridiron in 1970 as a performer. He has missed a few performances here and there, but not many, and now serves as chairman of the board of Gridiron Productions Inc., the 501(c)(3) nonprofit that oversees the show and the disbursal of its profits in the form of donations to law-related groups and the arts.
McGowan describes Gitchel as "an inspiration" to her and other members of Gridiron, noting his longtime involvement and dedication to the shows, but also his love of life, sense of humor and musical talents. Gitchel plays guitar and sings, and has played professionally in bands at Riverfest.
"He sort of personifies Gridiron, I think in a lot of ways, from a performer perspective," she says. "Because he gets it. He knows his lines. He knows his songs. He doesn't miss rehearsal. ... He can handle the intensity of it, and always with a smile and a sense of humor.
"I think people just tend to gravitate toward him. ... He really is like Mr. Gridiron."
Gitchel, for his part, is modest when discussing his role. He deflects praise and mentions the work of others, but he performs a lot of tasks offstage, such as serving informally as Gridiron's historian. It was Gitchel who organized the records of longtime Gridiron producer and Little Rock lawyer Griffin Smith Sr. after his death and donated them to the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies.
The Butler Center records include audiotapes of the shows from 1968 to 1980, and video recordings of the shows from 1982 on. Gitchel calls the collection a "valuable public record of what was happening politically all through the years."
This year's performance -- celebrating the 100th year of the Gridiron -- will likewise satirize the movers and shakers of Arkansas, the nation and the world, although the script is sealed, to steal a line from courtroom speak.
As always, there's lots of material to work with, Gitchel says. "It doesn't take a lot of creativity to write the script in some instances."
In Arkansas, becoming a Gridiron spoofing target means a politician has arrived on the big-time political stage, McGowan says.
And inclusion in a skit also means having your name dropped in a "really professional, funny, clever show," Gitchel says, filled with singing, dancing and music -- "a great night of entertainment."
"If you're a politician, it's a compliment," he says. "It's all in good fun. Sometimes we hit a little hard. There have been a few people who have gotten their feelings hurt. But even if they don't like it, they have to play like they do because they don't want anybody to know what a bad sport they are. For the most part, the politicians really like it.
"We don't do anything with ill will. We try to spoof them and bring a few of them down to size. Get their shirt collars back down to normal size, but nothing really damaging."
Besides all the laughs and raising money, Gridiron serves another purpose: bringing the law profession in Arkansas closer together, Gitchel says.
"A lot of people don't realize it, but practicing law is sort of an adversarial thing," he says. "Lawsuits are not fun things. But lawyers have to remain above the fray. ... It's an entirely different experience dealing with another lawyer on the other side of a lawsuit in an adversarial situation when you have met each other out in another context and you know each other and have become friends. Maybe you've had a drink together and been in something like Gridiron. It is one of the best ways I know to promote professionalism in the profession."
The Arkansas Repertory Theatre presents Gridiron 2016: Bake America's Cake Again Aug. 2-6. Showtimes are 8 p.m. Aug. 2 (with a reception featuring light bites and complimentary wine and beer beforehand), 7 p.m. Aug. 3-4 and 8 p.m. Aug. 5-6.
For pricing and tickets, call the Rep's Box Office at (501) 378-0405 or visit therep.org.
High Profile on 07/24/2016