Doctoring up sets

Paul Saitowitz

Will Luke end up with Skye? Will Laura find out? ... da, da, da-da

... and what’s up with Sonny Corinthos? Ah, “General Hospital.”

In its 41-year run on the small screen -- the second-longest

tenure on the tube -- the interesting, bizarre and oft-ridiculous

characters that inhabit the medical building in Port Charles, N.Y.,

have weaved their way into the zeitgeist of American pop culture.

The glitz and glamour you see on TV might be what you remember,

but behind all the adultery, back stabbing and other entertaining

character flaws is a hard-working, Emmy-winning directing crew --

five directors, six associate directors and two stage managers. One

of those hard-working stage managers -- 7 a.m. until at least 10 p.m.

four days a week -- is two-time Emmy winner Kathy Ladd.

Ladd, a Costa Mesa resident, has been working the daily grind of

the series -- about 250 shows a year -- for the last seven years. She

started on the show part time in 1992, and before that she had stints

on several game shows and an ill-fated late-night program.

“I was working on ‘Into the Night’ with Rick Dees, and I was lucky

that when that show ended a contact from ‘General Hospital’ told me

that they could use me,” she said.

Unlike most shows, soap operas offer no hiatus, so the only way to

get time off is to shoot more than one show in a day.

“I really love what I am doing and I feel fortunate to be at this

point in my career,” Ladd said from the set of the show. “It’s a lot

of work, but the people I work with are so great and it makes it

worthwhile.”

Her journey to work begins on Sunday evenings, when she leaves her

husband and Eastside abode to haul her way up the Golden State

Freeway to a small room she rents in a house in Los Feliz.

“Working such long hours and getting out so late made it pretty

much impossible to make the commute from Orange County,” she said.

From there she goes through a script -- already broken down shot

for shot by the director -- for the next day of shooting. Sometimes

she will get scripts a few days in advance, but those are usually

subject to change.

“It’s basically like my homework,” she said. “It takes me about an

hour and a half and I have to know everything from the blocking for

the actors to the order of the shots.”

That “everything” also encompasses making sure every set is

perfect and ready to go, all the costumes are right, every camera and

light is set up just as the director wants it and any other

intangible thing that could go wrong does not go wrong.

For Ladd, winning an Emmy for her efforts was “stupefying,” but

not validation.

“When I heard ‘General Hospital’ called I just let out a loud

scream ... I was so excited,” she said. “But even in the years we

don’t win or we aren’t nominated, we are still working just as hard

and doing just as good of a job.”