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When Ann Scholberg appears in a stage play, which she does with some regularity in Ottawa, her son and his family make a point of attending. But as far as the seventysomething actor knows, her teenage grandsons won’t be in the audience on March 29 when she sets foot on Ottawa Little Theatre’s stage for the opening-night of Calendar Girls, nor at any show during its 19-day run.
“I said to them, ‘You’ll come to my play? I get naked on the stage,’” says Scholberg, a lawyer who recently retired after 30 years of litigation practice. “And their reaction, which was immediate, was ‘That’s gross!’ and so far they’re absolutely refusing to come.”
Still, the boys will have numerous opportunities to accidentally catch their grandmother in the nuddy. For apart from the brief unadorned scenes in the play, the cast and crew of OLT’s production have, in a case of life imitating art imitating life, posed naked for an 18-month calendar to raise funds for cancer and leukemia research, as well as OLT.
Scholberg understands their squeamishness. Her first reaction when she heard the play was being produced was, “There’s no way on God’s good earth I’m going to get on stage naked in front of everyone. No way.”
And yet, there was no shortage of women who auditioned for the play, which author Tim Firth adapted from his screenplay of the film of the same name. An ensemble piece, it revolves around a group of middle-aged Women’s Institute members who, following the death of the husband of one, pose naked for a calendar to raise money to buy a sofa for a hospital family room. The story was inspired by true events in Yorkshire, England, and OLT’s production counts at least three cancer survivors in its cast.
Jane Morris, one of the cast members in Ottawa Little Theatre’s production of Calendar Girls.
Scholberg says the calendar shoot she and other cast members took part in helped ease any worries she might have had about acting in the buff.
“During the day leading up to the calendar shoot, I was in a slight state of anxiety, but it was so pleasant and nicely done.
“I’m not worried about the performance anymore, in terms of body image and that sort of thing. But right at the beginning I was thinking about this, because we still worry about our bodies, but as older women about different things, like wrinkles and varicose veins. So I think we will have various anxieties, but they will not be the same ones we would have had at 20. And we get over it more easily.”
Fellow actor Rosemarie Dawson-Hill, who plays Annie, the woman who loses her husband to leukemia, says she was drawn to the role before considering she’d be doing it au naturel.
“When I read the play, I fell in love with the character. Then when I was told, ‘Well, you realize you have to take your clothes off?’ I was already in because I wanted to do this.”
Nor is there any awkwardness surrounding Dawson-Hill’s close familial connections in the play: her daughter, Venetia Lawless, is directing, while Lawless’s partner, Jeff Gruson, plays Annie’s husband.
“I grew up watching her do farce,” Lawless says, “so from the tender age of six, seven, eight, she was always in a bra and tap pants on stage. To me, that’s just what theatre is. You just do it.”
Rosemarie Dawson-Hill, one of the cast members in Ottawa Little Theatre’s production of Calendar Girls.
Jane Morris, who plays Annie’s best friend, Chris (and who confesses to keeping her socks on for the photo shoot), says it was important to stage Calendar Girls. As chair of OLT’s season-planning committee, she was among those who decided to put on the play.
“One of the reasons that this play attracted our attention was that it has great roles for women, and that’s not that easy to find, especially for middle-aged ones.
“It’s also a very real play about real people,” she adds. “The mix of comedy and poignancy is ideal. It’s not easy finding plays like that. People will have a laugh and probably leave at the end feeling pretty good.”
She and the other actors will be relying on blocking and other logistics of the production to ensure that strategically placed props will allow them to maintain some modesty. Acting naked in front of a live audience, after all, with sight lines of nearly 180 degrees, is far more technically challenging that posing for a single camera.
“In terms of being nervous,” says Morris, “I get nervous as hell before performing anyway, so I don’t think I could be more nervous just because I’m going to be nude for a small portion of the play.”
Still, she confesses to occasional bouts of sleeplessness: “I picture whipping off my dressing gown and things not being in place, and all of a sudden there I am…”
Being naked on stage, says director Lawless, is the actor’s universal nightmare. “So these guys are just going to live the nightmare.”
Calendar Girls runs from March 29 to April 16. Visit ottawalittletheatre.com for more information.
bdeachman@postmedia.com
查看原文...
“I said to them, ‘You’ll come to my play? I get naked on the stage,’” says Scholberg, a lawyer who recently retired after 30 years of litigation practice. “And their reaction, which was immediate, was ‘That’s gross!’ and so far they’re absolutely refusing to come.”
Still, the boys will have numerous opportunities to accidentally catch their grandmother in the nuddy. For apart from the brief unadorned scenes in the play, the cast and crew of OLT’s production have, in a case of life imitating art imitating life, posed naked for an 18-month calendar to raise funds for cancer and leukemia research, as well as OLT.
Scholberg understands their squeamishness. Her first reaction when she heard the play was being produced was, “There’s no way on God’s good earth I’m going to get on stage naked in front of everyone. No way.”
And yet, there was no shortage of women who auditioned for the play, which author Tim Firth adapted from his screenplay of the film of the same name. An ensemble piece, it revolves around a group of middle-aged Women’s Institute members who, following the death of the husband of one, pose naked for a calendar to raise money to buy a sofa for a hospital family room. The story was inspired by true events in Yorkshire, England, and OLT’s production counts at least three cancer survivors in its cast.
Jane Morris, one of the cast members in Ottawa Little Theatre’s production of Calendar Girls.
Scholberg says the calendar shoot she and other cast members took part in helped ease any worries she might have had about acting in the buff.
“During the day leading up to the calendar shoot, I was in a slight state of anxiety, but it was so pleasant and nicely done.
“I’m not worried about the performance anymore, in terms of body image and that sort of thing. But right at the beginning I was thinking about this, because we still worry about our bodies, but as older women about different things, like wrinkles and varicose veins. So I think we will have various anxieties, but they will not be the same ones we would have had at 20. And we get over it more easily.”
Fellow actor Rosemarie Dawson-Hill, who plays Annie, the woman who loses her husband to leukemia, says she was drawn to the role before considering she’d be doing it au naturel.
“When I read the play, I fell in love with the character. Then when I was told, ‘Well, you realize you have to take your clothes off?’ I was already in because I wanted to do this.”
Nor is there any awkwardness surrounding Dawson-Hill’s close familial connections in the play: her daughter, Venetia Lawless, is directing, while Lawless’s partner, Jeff Gruson, plays Annie’s husband.
“I grew up watching her do farce,” Lawless says, “so from the tender age of six, seven, eight, she was always in a bra and tap pants on stage. To me, that’s just what theatre is. You just do it.”
Rosemarie Dawson-Hill, one of the cast members in Ottawa Little Theatre’s production of Calendar Girls.
Jane Morris, who plays Annie’s best friend, Chris (and who confesses to keeping her socks on for the photo shoot), says it was important to stage Calendar Girls. As chair of OLT’s season-planning committee, she was among those who decided to put on the play.
“One of the reasons that this play attracted our attention was that it has great roles for women, and that’s not that easy to find, especially for middle-aged ones.
“It’s also a very real play about real people,” she adds. “The mix of comedy and poignancy is ideal. It’s not easy finding plays like that. People will have a laugh and probably leave at the end feeling pretty good.”
She and the other actors will be relying on blocking and other logistics of the production to ensure that strategically placed props will allow them to maintain some modesty. Acting naked in front of a live audience, after all, with sight lines of nearly 180 degrees, is far more technically challenging that posing for a single camera.
“In terms of being nervous,” says Morris, “I get nervous as hell before performing anyway, so I don’t think I could be more nervous just because I’m going to be nude for a small portion of the play.”
Still, she confesses to occasional bouts of sleeplessness: “I picture whipping off my dressing gown and things not being in place, and all of a sudden there I am…”
Being naked on stage, says director Lawless, is the actor’s universal nightmare. “So these guys are just going to live the nightmare.”
Calendar Girls runs from March 29 to April 16. Visit ottawalittletheatre.com for more information.
bdeachman@postmedia.com
查看原文...
