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By Carol A. Mellow
“She was sitting there and she was smiling the entire time. She had a very enigmatic, playful look to her … and I didn’t know who she was, this woman watching me as I auditioned,” said Alec Signorino.
“I just walked in and read,” said Lynda Dickson. “I didn’t really look online to see who she was because I didn’t want to know.”
That women was none other than Louise Lasser, who is co-directing the first run of Professor Dennis Russo’s original play “Is Anyone Bowling?” scheduled to debut at RVCC on Nov. 15.
Lasser is known for her work in such Woody Allen classics as “Take the Money and Run,” “Bananas” and “Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex But Were Afraid To Ask.” Her other credits include the title role in TV show “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman” and guest spots on various shows throughout the ‘80s and ‘90s such as “Taxi” and “Empty Nest.”
Russo and Lasser met at the Actors Studio in New York City, where both are members. She fell in love with his first playwriting effort “Saving the Theatre” and agreed to direct readings of this play in several venues. Thus began their collaboration.
This summer, after completing “Is Anyone Bowling?” Russo asked Lasser to co-direct the play. He believes that as directors they are “on the same page with so many things”, Lasser said, “I love his (Russo’s) writing because it is richly funny yet poignantly sad. It has undertones which are sadly poetic that dip to my heart. I am touched in that place where I like to live. His characters are adults that respond like children,” and this play is “fancifully ticklish.”
The student actors are enthusiastic about having the opportunity to be coached by Lasser. Lynda Dickson, who plays the role of Meg, a bright young girl, said, “She has her own directing sense. If we are staring at her with a blank face … Dennis will get her to say it in a different way. When we finally understand what she is saying, we realize that she has a good point.”
Alec Signorino, who plays the lead male role of Jackie, said Lasser “usually knows what she wants to hear and will keep on telling you until she gets it. She can make you do the scene five or six times until she hears what she wants, and it’s very hard but it needs to be done.”
Mike Patierno, who plays the supporting role of Santa Clause l, said, that “She doesn’t just pay a lot of attention to the main characters in whatever scene we are in; she gives the same enthusiasm and attention to every single person.”
“She brings us up to a professional level,” said Dickson. Patierno completed the thought, saying “even though we are not professionals, we are not yanking her down—she is pulling us up. I feel kind of flattered that she assumes that we are on her level. Her enthusiasm is amazing.”
Signorino, Patierno and Dickson also feel privileged to be acting in Russo’s original first-run play. With his hands gesturing and his voice excited, Patierno said “When you get your script, it’s the first time anyone has seen it other than the writer … it’s fresh and new to everyone. It’s kind of interesting that I could be the person who molds a role.”
Entering Welpe is like entering into the internal recesses of a theater. It is a rectangular space with black walls and a flat floor, devoid of a raised stage and fixed seating. The placard on the wall tells us that the room’s capacity is 395, but when fully prepared for a play it will only be able to accommodate from 100 to 150 people, depending upon the size of the sets and the amount of lighting and equipment. This makes for a very intimate setting with the focus on the writing, the story and, most of all, the performances.
This venue is known as a black-box theater, which came into being in the ‘60s and ‘70. “A black-box is so quaint,” said Dickson. “The stage is thrust out where the audience is on three sides of you, and it’s awesome just to be able to talk one-on-one with (the audience)… I love the intimacy.”
As rehearsals press on toward opening night, both co-directors are anxiously waiting to see how the piece plays out through the actors’ interpretation and the audience reaction.
“At this point,” said Russo, “I feel better about this playwriting effort than the first one.” Both co-directors said they “don’t know what to expect,” and expressed anticipation that “the play will reveal itself to us.”
“We are already being surprised,” said Lasser, as the actors bring life to the words on the page. The next step is to present the work to an audience and see if “the play takes on a life of its own.”
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