theater
Slapstick
at the
Pocket
Playhouse
“You see a guy walk through here
with a shotgun,” asked the campus
security officer.
“Nope.”
“The dressing room’s back there,”
further questioned the patrolman.
“Yeah.”
“Oh God, I better get back there,”
said director Bill Gary.
And off rushed Gary to find out what
devious events were transpiring
backstage.
As it turned out, the uproar was over
an actor in “Charlie,” the play Gary’s
directing. Lance Cooley was seen
trooping across campus with the gun
and someone called in security.
(Said Cooley of the matter, “We use
the gun in the play but we can’t leave it
at the theater because somebody will
rip it off. So someone brings it to
rehearsal each time. Going across
campus, people were looking at me
then trying to ignore that I had a gun.
So I got into it, playing a little bit. You
know, I stood up straight and started
marching.”)
“Rehearsal isn’t always like this,”
assured Gary, “this is the biggest
scandal we’ve had.”
Rehearsal is for “Charlie,” to be
presented in the Pocket Playhouse
Tuesday and Wednesday at 8 p.m.
Besides Cooley, who plays the
grandson, Martin Treat, the oculist,
and David Pellman, the grandpa, are in
the production.
“Charlie,” a recent play by Slawomir
Mrozek, is, according to Gary, “a
farce. It’s farcical and slapstick but is
actually a serious social satire.”
A short work lasting only 30 minutes,
“Charlie” deals with .an oculist who is
visited by two patients, grandson and
grandpa. Simply, the latter wants
glasses so he can pursue what has been
a family tradition—shooting.
Gary is doing “Charlie” in con
junction with a seminar in play
direction. But while this is his first
directorial effort, he has collected a
fine cast.
Treat has appeared in numerous
University productions, including the
play “Cyrano.” Currently working on
his Masters in fine arts, Treat recently
auditioned before the Theater Con
ference Group.
Though he’s worked in productions of
much more stature, Treat doesn’t mind
working with a student director like
Gary. “It’s not who is doing the play or
where it’s going to play, it’s the nature
of the task and not too many other
considerations. As for the nature of this
task it’s the script. It’s a good script. It
doesn’t matter it’s being dime in the
Pocket Playhouse, I like the smaller
scale, the smaller stage. It’s more
intimate.”
At the other extreme is Cooley in wily
his second role. “I’m a novice, but it’s
just a matter of knowing what you’re
doing. I think I do, so I don’t anticipate
being any more nervous than anyone
else. I don’t expect to have a coronary. I
hope not.”
“Yeah, he’s new,” said Gary, “but I
think he has a lot of potential. In the
flyers we’re billing Martin, David and
then saying ‘and introducing Lance
Cooley’.”
With only three actors and few props
to contend with, Gary plans on taking
“Charlie” “on the road. We plan to do it
in other places than the Pocket
Playhouse. Scarbourough Faire for
one. Christ, we’d do it at Autzen
Stadium or at McArthur Court at
halftime if the athletic department
would let us. Wherever we do it, we’re
going to charge for admission.”
For the moment, though, there is no
admission charge.
Alan Wood as Jimmy Perry Ph°'° By Pc,er Gran
Dinner theater at
the Eugene Hotel
Something new will be added to
Eugene’s theater spectrum tonight
dinner theater.
The Theater-at-Large at the Eugene
Hotel will be performing “The
Gingerbread Lady,” an adult comedy
by Neil Simon tonight through Sunday
and again next Friday through Sunday.
Dinner theater is a fixture on the east
coast, but fairly rare in the west. The
Eugene Hotel’s group will be the first
such venture in Eugene.
The TAL production is directed by
Lou Salerni.
Doors open for the productions at 5
p.m. Sundays, with dinner at 5:30 and
the curtain at 6:30 p.m. All other nights,
doors open at 7 p.m., dinner is at 7:30
p.m. and curtain is at 8:30.
Cocktails and wine cart are
available.
The night’s menu will include tossed
green salad with baby shrimp, London
roast, baked potato and sour cream,
peas and pearl onions, dinner rolls and
ice cream parfait.
Tickets are available at the hotel’s
main desk, 344-1461, for $7 each.
Persons driving to the play can park
in the hotel’s lot at Broadway and High
Fractured
fairy tale
at VLT
“Once Upon a Mattress,” a lively and wacky
musical comedy based on the old fairy tale about
the princess and the pea, is currently playing at
the Very Little Theatre.
Director Ed Chambers sees his production as
a “fractured fairy tale” version of the story in
volving the princess who may swim the moat to
gain entrance to a castle rather than wait
demurely, the prince who may not be the ideal
virile young man and the king and queen who may
be less than benevolent.
The show revolves around the kingdom’s se
arch for a wife for the prince, due to an edict that
nobody can get married until the prince does.
Sheila Johnson stars as Winifred, the tomboy
princess, while Don Sutton plays Prince Daun
tless. A small orchestra directed by Doug A
nderson backs up the musical numbers which
Chambers describes as ranging from “the big,
exciting numbers to the soft, tender moments that
can actually bring a tear to the eye.”
Jennifer Pashkowski has directed the cast of
24 in choreography and Tom Durnell has designed
the set.
“Mattress” will run tonight through Saturday,
plus Feb. 6 through 10. Tickets ($2) are available
at the VLT box office, 2350 Hilyard St., Eugene,
from noon to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday,
and between 7 and 8:30 on performance nights.
Curtain is at 8:15.
„ . „ , _ Photo by Bruce Landrey
Prince Dauntless and Princess Winifred