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Suzanne Dean and Matthew Brenher rehearse Edward Albee's "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf." (Photo by Stephanie A. Coltrin) |
Suzanne Dean and Matthew Brenher spent Saturday afternoon discussing alcohol - or more to the point, they chatted about the effects of consuming copious amounts of booze.
And then the pair vivisected each other until their innermost emotions were exposed to the world.
Rehearsals for any play can be strenuous, but there's no respite for those who tackle the 20th century's most famous carping couple - George and Martha from Edward Albee's "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"
Albee's masterpiece premiered on Broadway 47 years ago this week, where it ran for 664 performances and picked up a Tony Award. It was denied a Pulitzer Prize for drama because it was deemed profane by the Pulitzer advisory board.
Civic Light Opera of South Bay Cities and director Stephanie A. Coltrin is tackling the three-hour, four-character epic. The revival begins previews Tuesday and opens Oct. 16 at the Hermosa Beach Playhouse, starring Dean, Brenher, Meredith Rensa and Dane Biren.
The three-act tale concerns a late-night, alcohol-soaked gathering between George and Martha - a university associate history professor and the daughter of the university's president - and a young biology professor and his wife, Nick and Honey. The evening's activities center around cruel psychological games George and Martha play with each other.
Many of the experiences Albee creates are fueled by alcohol, a challenge for actors who must maintain a sense of reality by not over- or underacting. In a recent rehearsal, Coltrin discussed with the cast the alcohol the characters consume and the effects it would have on them.
"We went over every scene, discussing how drunk they are, and when they are more sober," Coltrin said. "You don't want it to turn into a drunken mess."
The process of directing "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" begins with a major hurdle, Coltrin discovered. The 81-year-old Albee insists on casting approval for all major productions.
"You need experienced, well-trained actors with great instincts for this play," Coltrin said. "So we gathered our list of people we most wanted, sent them to Albee's agent to get approval, and Albee said yes to all of them."
Dean, a founding member of San Pedro's Little Fish Theatre Company, appeared in the theater's production of "Betrayal" earlier this year, which also featured Brenher, a British actor with 20 Shakespeare productions to his credit.
"Matthew and I have done two shows together so we have a familiarity that other actors don't have going into a project," Dean said. "We trust each other, and we know how each other works."
Dean has never seen a production of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" which she says gives her a blank slate from which to build the character, unencumbered by seminal performances.
Brenher was first introduced to the play when he saw a production starring Patrick Stewart, and he considers it one of his favorites.
"It's packed with conflict and every kind of emotion that an actor would want to explore," said Brenher, who compared the play's timeless quality to the works of Shakespeare. "What this couple goes through is not a unique situation. All relationships have some degree of pain, and people can relate in some manner to these experiences."
Coltrin concurred. "It's groundbreaking," she said. "He wrote it kind of about his experiences in the 1950s and about the concept of the great American family dream of the 1950s and whether it ever really existed. And it's like Matthew said, this relationship isn't that unusual, only a heightened reality.
"He was talking about a truth that people didn't want to talk about then," Coltrin continued. "And even with all the progress we've made, and even though there are plays with strong language in them now, it's still true to human behavior. That's why it's still relevant."
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
When: Previews at 8 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday; opens Oct. 16 and plays at 8 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, 2 and 7 p.m. Sunday through Oct. 25.
Where: Hermosa Beach Playhouse, 710 Pier Ave.
Tickets: $35 to $45.
Information: 310-372-4477
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