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Actor eases into role for Little Lake's 'Moonlight and Magnolias'
Chris Bondi would do almost anything for a decent part, though, and if a director tells him "I need to see less of you and more of the character," he accepts the challenge. You might remember him at Little Lake Theatre playing an impertinent child in "The Turn of the Screw," a lab monkey in "All in the Timing," a furry Abominable Snowman in "On the Verge" and a woman - wig, dress, make up, high heels and all - in "Sylvia."
Preparing to star as movie producer David O. Selznick in Little Lake's soon-to-open "Moonlight and Magnolias" must have been comparatively easy for Bondi, I thought, and it was.
With his newly darkened locks, "I'll at least look a bit like Selznick," said the actor. "Actually, he was a bigger guy than I am. Even if I tried the DeNiro thing and gained 20 or 30 pounds, I don't think the pace would have allowed me to keep the weight on for three weeks. That's the thing about this play. It's a rocket shot right from the get-go, and it really never lets up."
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Coincidentally, Warnick hasn't watched "Gone With the Wind" since his childhood, "and aside from the famous scenes, all I remember is how sexy Vivien Leigh looked in the red velvet dress, and the size of Clark Gable's ears," he said. To him, Hutchinson's comedy "transports the audience to one important moment in the golden age of moviemaking."
Before rehearsals started, the cast kept busy by thoroughly researching into the lives of Selznick, Fleming and Hecht. Fleming, Bryant learned, "had the unique ability to find the heartbeat of a movie and make it thrive."
If the director was a hard task master who had little tolerance for people that wasted time on the set, he earned the respect of his actors and was, Bryant added, "always able to get the performances he wanted. I've tried to incorporate these many aspects into my playing of Victor."
"Moonlight and Magnolias" opens Thursday night.
Sophisticated fare
Michael McGovern recruited a top-notch cast for the first public reading of his play "The One That Got Away" at the Pittsburgh Playhouse next weekend.
Camera Chatham Bartolotta, Zeva Barzell, Richard Eckman, Debra Humphrey, Pat Cena Samreny and Richard Schiff are scheduled to appear in what the author describes as "a comedy of cocktails and romance," which immediately sets it apart from most of the entertainment on tap elsewhere nowadays. Or would you rather sit through "MacGruber"?
Not long ago, McGovern submitted a copy of "The One That Got Away" to AboutFace Theater in Chicago hoping the play would qualify for the company's XYZ Festival. It didn't make the final cut, but a representative sent this encouraging note: "Some wordplay in the dialogue was witty. The play at times enjoyably mimicked the rhythm of an Oscar Wilde piece or a 1930s comedy ..."
McGovern got a kick out of the compliment, saying "Oscar Wilde? Me? Who knew? Perhaps I'll start being quoted."
On June 6, the reading at the Pittsburgh Playhouse begins at 1 p.m. For more information, call the box office at 412-621-4445.
On the nose
If I remember correctly, director Linda Haston was the one who encouraged Ginny and Hans Gruenert to end their third season at Off the Wall Theater with "The Club."
Well, now I'm hearing that the public's response to this little-known, all-female, tongue-in-cheek musical more than justified Haston's enthusiasm. "The Club" did so well at the box office during its three-week run that it broke the attendance record set earlier this season by "The Mercy Seat" and also brought a few non-regulars to Off the Wall's door.
But you know how theater works. One show closes, another show opens. Visit InsideOfftheWall.com for news about the plays Ginny and Hans have on the calendar for their fourth season, beginning in October with Marsha Norman's powerful " 'night, Mother."
Doug Shanaberger covers theater for the Observer-Reporter. He can be reached at ds7f@andrew.cmu.edu
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