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Son Stage: At Heller, just actors and Mamet
Tulsa World (Final Home Edition), Page D3 of Arts
By KAREN SHADE World Scene Writer
12/19/2005

With its stage lights off, Heller Theatre's black box stage is just a small room painted completely black. Introduce a director, a few actors, and a challenging script, however, and the outlines of a parlor and the women who live there begin to emerge.

The opening was still more than six weeks away when Devin Meadows began rehearsals of Heller's next show, "Boston Marriage." Kristi Bush, Monica Barczak and Kaycee Johnson already had read through the David Mamet script together a few times, but on this occasion, Meadows gave them free rein over the stage. He wanted to see them read on their feet as he figured movements for the characters.

Director Devin Meadows watches as actresses Kaycee Johnson and Kristi Bush do a standing read of the second act of “Boston Marriage” at the Heller Theatre.
MICHAEL WYKE / Tulsa World

Reviews and synopses often state that the characters of Claire and Anna are uncharacteristic for the playwright of such works as "Glengarry Glen Ross," "American Buffalo" and "Speed-the-Plow." Many of his works have been noted for both a proliferation of profanity and outstanding roles for men. In this play, "you can count the swear words on one hand," Meadows said with a laugh. "This is a non-Mamet Mamet play."

"BOSTON MARRIAGE" is about two scheming women on the fringes of upper-class society. Anna (played by Bush) has just become a wealthy man's mistress, sporting a necklace with a giant emerald.

"She calls her necklace large and once says, 'I wear it should I be summoned on the instant to choke a horse,'" Meadows said. "That is my kind of dialogue -- I love that."

In character, Bush and Barczak felt their way around the stage, reading with scripts in hand.

"There should be a massive difference between this and what you see later," Meadows said.

Initially a little uneasy about allowing an outsider to view the work at such an early stage when the performers are "stumbling their way" through, Meadows put his mind to the work. If he was nervous about an early review, he hid it well.

Although Bush and Barczak said they both felt as if they were still only reading the play rather than pulling out the details of personality and behavior, Anna's and Claire's essential characters are written into the text in such lines as when Anna states that she has not lost her good taste, just her virtue.

"This is very stylized language and it's very important to get it right," Meadows said. "It's almost in verse, iambic pentameter, which is something that Mamet sort of does.

"The moment you say this is truly iambic pentameter, well (you find) there's something that doesn't quite fit the pattern. He writes very close to verse. This is certainly a nod toward Oscar Wilde. It's David Mamet -- pretending to be Oscar Wilde."

Bush said that when she auditioned for the role, she was struck by the language.

"Oh my Lord! This is quite a role to come into my first time back (acting) after a while. I picked a doozy," she said.

Barczak took note when she saw the playwright's name.

"I was just intrigued by it be ing a David Mamet play because I really do like how it sounds," she said.

It may take a few weeks for the cast and director to feel completely comfortable with the rolling dialogue and its lexicon, but their head start should help.

If the early rehearsals are any indication of what we'll see on opening night, I think audiences can expect a wickedly funny treat in the new year.

"BOSTON MARRIAGE" opens Jan. 19 at Heller Theatre, 5328 S. Wheeling Ave. For more information, call 746-5065 or go online to www.hellertheatre.com.

This site sponsored by Heller Theatre Council.
To contact the webmaster e-mail alb74066@aol.com or Heller Theatre at Parktheater@ci.tulsa.ok.us

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