I’m having a great time directing Robert Macadaeg and Eliot Johnston in Caryl Churchill’s A Number, a tight little thriller about cloning with gorgeous, spare language and unforgettable characters. It’s part of ACT ONE’s Beyond Festival.

These guys are fabulous actors and each is a joy to work with in his own way.  Eliot seems pure sweetness, with an amazing emotional transparency to his characterizations, but his hidden superpower is his spot-on Hannibal Lecter impression.  Robert is usually smooth, sarcastic and intellectual, and then he slips into character and hands you his heart.  Both are smart and bold with the choices they are making on stage.  I’m excited to open next Friday, October 3rd so audiences can finally meet these guys (Eliot plays three people, so there’s a whole little family for you to enjoy).  Visit ACT ONE’s website for information and tickets for A Number.

Then, in late October I start rehearsing “Saving Portsmouth: The Crusades of Miss Dorothy Vaughan” with Kent Stephens’ STAGE FORCE for Strawbery Banke.  I play the title character, who was an eccentric local force who lived to be 99 years old.  Yep, I aint the young romantic lead this time around: 

I will play Dorothy from her young adulthood through her “hag” period (to cite Kent’s script), but somehow I don’t think it’ll come across as glamorous at any stage!  This show starts November 7th, I’ll let you know how it’s going when we get closer. . .

Happy autumn to all!