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BRT Branches Out with Unusual Plays

L-R: Cathy Behrens, Heather Morrison, Gail Connelly, Amanda Warman, Sherri Morancie, Shanda Reynolds and Mary McDowell rehearse a scene from "Chamber Music"

BRANCH River Theatre opens its 2002-03 season with two highly unusual one-act plays on Sept. 26-29 at The Community House on Rte. 101 in Marlborough, NH. Wendy McGrath directs “Chamber Music” by Arthur Kopit and Carol Ann Edscorn directs “The Typists” by Murray Schisgal. Sherman Morrison is the producer.

IMAGINE having Susan B. Anthony, Amelia Earhart, Joan of Arc, Mozart’s wife, Gertrude Stein and a few other women of that caliber all in the same room at the same time. That’s just what we have in Kopit’s “Chamber Music” which has been billed as the female version of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” The setting is the female ward of a mental institution where the main characters—eight delusional women with various assumed identities—plot to protect themselves from imagined dangers. The result is a dark comedy/thriller that will entertain, delight and shock you. The play’s cast includes some familiar faces, as well as a couple of newcomers to the BRT stage. Gail Connelly, Carol Ann Edscorn, Karen Levitt, Mary McDowell, Sherry Morancie, Heather Morrison, Shanda Reynolds and Amanda Warman fearlessly take on the assumed identities. Catherine Behrens plays an attendant—the only sane person in the bunch.

A member of the Dramatists Guild, playwright Arthur Kopit is the author of numerous plays, including “Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mamma’s Hung You in the Closet and I’m Feelin’ So Sad”; “Indians”; “Wings”; and “Road to Nirvana”. More recent projects include “Discovery of America”, a play based on the journals of the Spanish explorer Cabeza de Vaca and an original musical, “Tom Swift and the Secrets of the Universe.” Among his numerous awards are a Shaw Traveling Fellowship, a Guggenheim, a Rockefeller grant, and an Award in Literature from the American Institute of Arts and Letters.

NOW imagine a dreary data processing office in the big city. In Schisgal’s “Typists,” we view the all too familiar ordinary lives of a man and a woman working side by side over a thirty-year span. Actors Wendy McGrath and Ken McGovern deftly take us through their characters’ stages of life, revealing their hopes, dreams and ambitions, as well as their successes and failures in the process. The result is both humorous and painful.

ORIGINALLY partnered with “The Tiger” in its long-run, off Broadway production, this “brilliantly ironic” play shared in the Vernon Rice and outer Circle Awards. New York World-Telegram and Sun called it a “resounding, uproarious success” and the New York Herald Tribune said “we have in Mr. Schisgal a perceptive, advanced and coherent satirist.” According to the Dramatists Play Service, when the two characters finally “dodder off with a friendly ‘good night’ to their unseen employer, we have witnessed a cycle of life complete with the humor, sadness, self-delusion and reconciliation which underlie and infuse the human condition.”

AT a recent rehearsal I watched the actors in both plays run through their lines while working on character development, blocking, pace and costumes. McGrath confides that she agreed to direct “Chamber Music” because she found it fun and interesting and because of the opportunity it provides to work with such a talented group of women. She has discovered, however, that this particular play is much more complex than she initially recognized, full of non sequiturs, multiple personalities and other challenges, such as, with so many characters and so much interaction, some real blocking nightmares. Then, in addition to directing this piece, McGrath took on the role of Sylvia in “The Typist” thinking that since it is just a one-act, it shouldn’t be too difficult. However, because there are only two characters in the play, there are a lot of lines to learn and, therefore, the role has turned out to be much more demanding and time consuming than she had anticipated.

AS it turns out Carol Ann Edscorn, well-known and admired for her work with Actors Circle Theatre in Peterborough, is also directing one and acting in the other, but without quite so many lines to learn. They both have their work cut out for themselves and we wish them both the best of luck. With their combined skill and talent, we are confident, however, that they can pull off this double dramatic feat with aplomb.

JUST to make sure, I plan to be in the audience at the Marlborough Community House on Rte. 101 when the play opens. Performances are at 8 p.m. on Thurs.-Sat., Sept. 26-28 and 2 p.m. Sun., Sept. 29. Tickets, available at the door, are $8.00 general admission and $5.00 for seniors and children.

— VESTA HORNBECK