Below: Brad Morris drives a costumed cast including (from left) Jan Simpson, Sarah Alfred and Sue Sinor in Heller Theater’s upcoming play ‘‘MARCUS IS WALKING: Scenes from the Road.’’
Photos by JOHN CLANTON / Tulsa World

Heller show features vignettes about America's love affair with the car

Take one step inside and you're at the box office/concession stand. From there, take two steps to the right and you're inside the 50-seat theater, a black box with a small stage from which Heller's players present theater-in-your-lap productions.

So when one considers that Heller offers space equivalent to a large two-car garage, you know the crew's not going to get a car in there for "Marcus Is Walking: Scenes From the Road," a comedy featuring 11 vignettes that examine our relationships with, in and around our automobiles.

So those in attendance will have to imagine that there's a car in the theater, even though they may only see two chairs. Maybe four chairs, if there's a back seat.

"It's an actor's challenge, in that it's done in a black box, and the central character or unspoken actor in the play is the car itself," said David Gray, who's directing Joan Ackermann's play for Heller. "What we've got is not a car per se; it's a suggestion of a car.

"So everything that happens onstage is whatever you bring on stage as an actor. The car is never really referred to. Just every once in a while it's mentioned, and it's never the same car (among the 11 episodes). It's not like we're driving a Dodge, or a Chevrolet. It's a car."

No imagination will be necessary, however, when it comes to the vignettes, Gray said, as they use possibly the most American of symbols to take a humorous look at our culture.

"Oh, we've all been there. The first scene -- there's not a man alive who won't recognize it. It's a man and a wife in a car trying to go somewhere. She's got the direc tions, and he doesn't. And of course you know how that goes: Why don't you ever ask directions? Well, if you'd written the directions down right, yada yada yada. There's not a man alive who won't recognize it."

The same can likely be said of the scene with a couple making out in the back seat. Or the scene about a large family on a road trip in New England, looking at leaves as the fall colors change.

"They're all things that people can relate to," Gray said. "Another scene has a husband taking a child around at Halloween, and every time he stops to let the kid out of the car, he has to pick up the phone and do a play-by-play (for his wife) as to what the heck is going on. Several of us have said, 'I think I know that guy.' "

Gray returns to directing at Heller Theater for the first time in more than a decade. The cast for this production, portraying more than 20 characters in the 11 scenes, includes Sara Alfred, Veronica Combs, Kurt Harris, Brad Morris, Jan Simpson, Thomas Watts and Sue Sinor, who also stage manages.

Michael Smith, World entertainment writer, can be reached at 581-8344 or via e-mail at michael.smith@tulsaworld.com.

THEATER

When: 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday; also 8 p.m. Oct. 24-26

Where: Heller Theater, 5328 S. Wheeling Ave.

Tickets: $5-$7, general admission seating may be reserved by calling 746-5065