‘Pandora-monium’
comes to Max’s
See Page 4B
Friday, February 2fl, 19BB
Arts and Entertainment
Oregon Daily Emerald
Grant McKemie, head of the University
speech department; appears suddenly
/from the back of Robinson Theatre, 10
minutes before rehearsal. He’s wearing a
•brown wig, white -skirt, high heels and
foam-rubber ?.breasts the size of
hprieydew melons. Everyone cracks. up
as he darts into a side exit with a flurry of
j,
quick,; dainty hand gestures; muttering
all the while in a British accent, *>•;
lip on th«f *lMKiV/»t:rbr"pioiug'C'!hau*pvv spiesrMcker
nie cnthing up the wing and l.i*efs its Mckernie flits by
'•'Wheftj ya' beeh'ail my - life., baby?.'’ ‘ jut inquires.
up andseeme la-tab/'- Mckernie. shoots -•
back witlra- haughty ^toHs' <if his- Hoad; . • . . / *
Along with Mckernie. several actors are wanning .
up onstage in light blue foam appendages that
transform their figures into cartoon caricatures; In a few
minutes, amiable director Jack Watson cues the players
into the first act of Kit hard Sheridan's 18th-century
classic. "The Rivals." ; •
The klea to costume the actors in exaggerated body,
forms was conceived by the director and costume
designer Alexandra bonds during the initial planning
of the play, a University production that opens tonight
at the University's Robinson Theatre '
"It was lrased on an idea that we got from looking
at editorial cartoons from the period They had all these
caricatures of people, which is kind of how the script is
written — people being exaggerations of certain
characteristics.” says bonds, an associate professor of
theater arts. . ' “ /
Bonds says her designs for "The Rivals" were in
spired by 18th-century political cartoonists |ames
(iilray and Thomas Rowlandson, whose works she
tracked down with the help of reference librarian
Richard Hainzkill.
bonds received an award from the IhS. Institute for
Theatre Technology for her costuming of Moliere's
"Tartuffe" last season. „
The actual task of creating' her design* fqr "The
Rivals" proved an interesting challenge for her and the
costume shop crew, but Bonds says she's reluctant to
ever tackle a job this tricky again.
"To have to make a coat for someone that big (she
points to an enormous foam structure for the figure of a
character named Sir l.ucius O'Trigger) is really a
challenge to figure out how to cut it so it still looks like
a person." she explains. "The shape of it is so outsized
and distorted; you’ve got all these different bumps and
curves to shape around.
"The point is to let people know that we’re doing it
to stress the comedy of the show It’s going to be pretty
funny, and pretty spectacular too. Iiecause this is a real
unusual approach."
The actors have been rehearsing in the body forms
for over a month, and Bonds says they have found them
comfortable to work in. At least one actor, however, has
different views on the subject.
"U»t me tell you that wearing a corset and high
heels five hours a day is destroying my spine.” McKer
nle laments. "As you know, 1 have this huge bust. And
it means I can’t see my feet, so I can’t see where I’m
walking. The corset is pulling me at the center and then
I have a huge dress and there's a train at the back of the
dress of two feet more, and put me in high heels i— it’s a
recipe for tragedy.”
But if McKernie is in pain when he's in costume,
he certainly covers it up well, During rehearsal he
moves gracefully in his outfit, even though the role of
Mrs. Mala prop demands a manic performance.
"I’ve wanted to be in one of Sandy Bonds'
costumes ever since I've met her." McKernie says.
"This one is a little bigger than I anticipated,
however."
"The Rivals" is a satirical comedy about romantic
entanglements of the aristocratic class at the English
resort of Bath. The script involved the use of three dif
ferent accents and costume shop manager Nancy julian,
Exaggeration
is the key to fun
in ‘The Rivals’
Dustin Hoffman, look out — your “Tootsie” is about to be upstaged. Waiting in the wings is Grant Mckernie
(far left). University speech department head, who portrays Mrs. Malaprop in “The Rivals." Pictured with
Mckernie are (standing) Kim Anderson as Julia and Barbara Pitts as Lydia. Richard Sheridan’s classic play
opens at 8 tonight in Robinson Theatre.
who had studied acting and vocal training in London,
was hired as vocal coach for the actors.
‘‘The people have worked hard and done what they
can accomplish in a short amount of time, because real
ly I'm asking them to do things that take nine months or
a year to master,” )ulian says.
Watson is confident, however, that the audience
will find the actors' accents more than satisfactory.
‘‘We're still honing (the accents). I don’t think
we’ll be flawless, but we'll be good,” he says.
Of all the people involved with “The Rivals.”
perhaps none has felt the impact of the play on his or
her life more than McKernie. In the process of prepar
ing for a female role, he found it impossible to achieve a
credible performance unless he actually lived the part
to some extent. After an intense study of performances
by English actresses Maggie Smith and Dame Edith
Evans, from whom he picked up the many delicate
hand gestures that he uses for the Malaprop character.
McKernie went out and bought himself a wig and
several articles of modern female attire. He learned the
art of applying make-up and started going to rehearsals
dressed as his own version of Tootsie.
“That was very scary. Very, very frightening.”
McKernie states emphatically. “But it was also really
helpful, and 1 think the director would agree that that
was probably the time when the character really started
to grow.
"1 have spent more time preparing for this role
than I have, 1 think, in any role that I have done for at
least 10 years. It’s very important for me to be honest to
the character and who she is so that it's really meant.”
"Everywhere l go these days 1 watch how women
move, how they talk and how they think,” McKernie
says, “ so that 1 can hopefully integrate some of that in
to the character.”
It will probably surprise no one to learn that
McKernie often has trouble keeping Mrs. Malaprop
under wraps during his offstage role as associate pro
fessor of speech.
"It’s terrible,” he says with both mortification and
amusement. "A couple of people who are working on
the production are also in one of my classes and just
yesterday they came out of class giggling because 1 now
am doing some of my hand gestures in my lectures.
Even the accent is beginning to creep in.”
And then, McKernie says, there are those strange
metaphysical moments during rehearsal when he finds
himself wondering if the men around him find him at
tractive. "Then 1 think — wait a minute, what am I do
ing this for? It doesn’t make any sense.”
Despite the identity problems the role has occa
sionally precipitated, McKernie admits he’s having the
time of his life playing Mrs. Malaprop.
"I adore her. She’s hysterical, she’s funny and
she’s perversely witty. 1 suspect that a month from now
when it’s all over, I’m going to miss her a great deal.”
“The Rivals" opens at 8 tonight in the University’s
Robinson Theatre. Tickets are $5.50 for the general
public. $4.50 for seniors and students, and $3.50 for
University students. Tickets may be ordered by calling
The Robinson Theatre box office at 686-4191 from noon
to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday. "The Rivals” will
continue its run March 1, 6-8, 14. and 15.
Story by Patrick Low
Photo by Maria Corvallis