“Madman” director heads Pentacle Theatre’s first play of the year

Scott Ramp is known as the “madman” among the cast of Pentacle Theatre’s new play, “You Can’t Take It With You.” 

Ramp is the director of Pentacle’s production of the classic Broadway comedy, set in 1936 Manhattan. The show is the first of the 2026 season, opening Friday, Jan. 30, at 7:30 p.m. 

The nickname was bestowed affectionately upon Ramp, who has taken on several responsibilities in the development of the play, including director, set decorator, prop maker, hair stylist and makeup artist. 

“I don’t stop,” Ramp said. “Like yesterday, I spent the whole day having to make a prop newspaper from 1936.”

The play centers on an offbeat “quirky” family, headed by a snake-collecting, dart-playing grandfather. Chaos ensues when the family is introduced to his “normal” granddaughter’s equally normal boyfriend and his parents. Ramp compared the show to family-centered comedies like “The Addams Family” and “Meet the Parents.”

Ramp’s handiwork is evident in almost every level of the production. 

He is the only person doing makeup and hair backstage, dedicating about an hour to it each show. In that time, he does one actor’s makeup to age him up, helps style era-appropriate hair and applies fake mustaches. 

Ramp co-decorated the set, spending some 20 hours hand painting each individual “wood” panel on the floor of the stage. He also painted the green stage walls, put up the yellow wallpaper and did some construction work. 

He pitched directing the play because he likes to start the theater season off with a classic. He also wanted to lift people’s spirits with comedy.

“It’s really fun to do a comedy and make people laugh, especially nowadays, we need it,” Ramp said. “Our winters here can be kind of … bleak for a while. And so having somewhere to go and something to laugh about is always a good start to a season.”

Ramp first came to Pentacle as an actor in the late 1970s. He moved to Los Angeles in 1981, where he worked in the entertainment industry as an actor, a makeup artist, and a makeup and acting teacher.

He moved back to the area in 2020 and returned to Pentacle Theatre. 

“(Pentacle is) kind of what got me started in the entertainment industry in the first place as a young person, and so coming back to it has been really full circle,” Ramp said.

This is the third play he has directed at the theater, along with some acting and hair and makeup work.

The cast includes 19 people, five crew members and two Maine Coon kittens. The kittens, named Walter and Gladys, are featured in the first act of the show, where they are kept stationary by actors holding them. They play Harpo and Groucho.

Ramp cast the show in mid-November, and they have been rehearsing about four days a week since, with breaks over the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday.

“This cast, without a doubt, without a fail, has just fallen in love with each other. They’re just having so much fun and it really does read on stage. You can just tell that everybody’s enjoying themselves,” he said.

As is his ongoing tradition as a director, Ramp asked his actors to bring a personal belonging of theirs to incorporate into the set. He does this “to make my actors feel like they have a real investment in the show,” and make the stage feel like home.

About half of the cast brought pictures of their loved ones, some of whom are deceased. Others brought small statues, frames and knick-knacks.

Have a news tip? Contact reporter Hailey Cook: [email protected] .

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