"Tiballi (Sally Applewhite/Mary Hatch Bailey) — who’s known locally for her strong musical performances, most recently in JCC CenterStage’s Working —seemed to struggle with her character development. The role of a 1940s radio starlet eclipsed the well-loved nature of Mary Hatch Bailey until the seductive looks, eye rolls thrown (too often) to the audience and coquettish tones completely marred the emotional gravity Tiballi could’ve grasped with such an iconic role."
<Rise above... rise above...>
I just have a few things to say (big surprise there- of course I do).
1) I am not Donna Reed. If you are coming to this show expecting to see people mimic the movie, you will be sorely disappointed.
2) Emotional gravity in the Mary Hatch Bailey role? As I see it, Mary is one of the least emotional characters in the piece. She is the rock that keeps George steady- it's HIS story, it's HIS struggle, it's HIS journey. She is there as the counterpoint, the one that quietly steps in throughout his arc, doing what she can to smooth the bumps along the way (offering the money from their wedding to bail out the Building & Loan, finding a place for them to live and making it a home, collecting money when Uncle Billy loses the $8,000). Was she expecting me to burst into tears? Mary isn't extreme like that- she can't be- that's not who that character is and none of her lines support that kind of emotional swing. Mary Bailey is playful and sassy ("He's making violent love to me, Mother", "Oooh why don't you just go home??" and her "to keep from being an old maid" response when George asks why she married him). I played the playfulness and sass where I felt it was appropriate for Mary Bailey while trying to make sure she was still a character that was lovable and good.
3) There are at least three stretches in"It's A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play" where I don't do anything for at least 10 pages. No lines. But I have to be onstage the entire time. And in a play of this format, it would be very easy to just do your thing at the microphone when you've got lines and then just go sit down on one of the cane-backed chairs and zone out until it's time for you to have some more lines. How boring! No thank you!
 |
| Sit like an effing lady |
4) This is a radio play and our characters are actors who are playing these "iconic roles". How uninteresting would it be if Sally Applewhite (my "1940s actress" character) was the exact same thing as Mary Hatch Bailey (the character Sally is playing in the radio show)? So I made the decision (you know, back in the first rehearsals when I was working on said character development... that I supposedly struggled with) that Mary Bailey would be playful and sweet and lovable and good, but Sally Applewhite would be something else entirely. Using the clues given to me in the script (because that's what actors do when they develop their characters- I learned that when I was majoring in theatre at college), I decided that Sally Applewhite, as a former beauty queen, would be very aware of the audience, and would therefore be very presentational in front of them. This would affect her posture (rules of ettiquette of the era were researched for this role-- straight back when sitting, chin up, hands clasped in your lap, legs never crossed but rather ankles crossed and tucked to one side), her appearance (heavy on the makeup- which was also researched for the time period), and her gestures (right down to the positioning of the pinky finger or the point of a toe- usually in a beveled position- while standing flirtaciously). Sally, as a young actress from Ohio who is now riding the wave of fame that came with her recent Hollywood feature "Dottie Goes Bananas", would have figured out that flirtation gets you everywhere in this business. She's the next hot young thing and she knows it (which perhaps explains a little bit of the tension and competition she feels toward Linda's character, an older and more established female star). Maybe she's eager to demonstrate this newfound tactic for getting attention, so she flirts with the audience-- why wouldn't she? She already knows that they're watching her- why not toss them a little something? She's no dummy- even though she's lending her voice to the radio, she's keenly aware that there's a studio audience to play with at the same time. In theatre, we talk about making strong choices. I thought it was more interesting and actually important for Sally and Mary to be completely different characters- it's more exciting for the audience, it's more fun for me as an actor (especially since I am one of the actors who doesn't get to play a bunch of different characters within the play). So I made that strong choice to provide a contrast between the character that I am (Sally) and the character that Sally was playing (Mary). Apparently, Leah didn't like that choice on how to play Sally (I think Leah wanted me to be Mary Hatch Bailey the entire time). Well, sorry but that's who Sally is- she's a seductive coquette, just like I wanted her to be. There's a part of me that's smugly satisfied that Leah used those specific words to criticize her because that's EXACTLY WHAT I WAS GOING FOR. Miss Stacy may not have agreed with my choice, but I succeeded in realizing that choice. You don't "struggle with character development" when you make strong choices- you struggle with it when you don't.
The most shocking part of all of this is that Miss Stacy is a fellow redhead. Shame on you, Miss Stacy- you know we have to stick together. You have betrayed the Sisterhood. I shun you for this, the most personal betrayal of all, for surely you should know better.
To read the entire review, click here. To purchase your tickets to the show so you can see what I'm talking about, click here.
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