An actor hopes for improvisational magic as he takes on the role in a one-man show, Chesapeake, less than two weeks before opening night.
By JOHN FLEMING
Published April 1, 2004
[Photo: American Stage]
Ned Averill-Snell steps in on short notice to star in Chesapeake, by Lee Blessing.
ST. PETERSBURG - It was a theater's nightmare. Less than two weeks before a one-man show was to open at American Stage, the cast dropped out.
Chesapeake by Lee Blessing was the play, and the solo actor was Paul Potenza, who had been rehearsing for three weeks when he decided he couldn't go on because of health concerns.
Ned Averill-Snell, an actor who also is American Stage's prop master, came to the theater on March 22 prepared for work as usual in the scene shop. When the day was done he had accepted artistic director Todd Olson's offer to step in for Potenza in the production that is opening tonight.
"Am I crazy or what?" Averill-Snell said a few days later. "Absolutely. But how can you not do it? It's such an exciting challenge."
In Chesapeake, a performance artist named Kerr recounts a tale involving a right-wing U.S. senator and the senator's entourage, including his dog. It's Olson's pet project, an effort to provide an edgy alternative to American Stage's annual Shakespeare in the Park production, which opens in two weeks on the downtown St. Petersburg waterfront with Much Ado About Nothing.
"Chesapeake isn't like anything we have had on our current season," said Olson, who is in his first full season as artistic director. "We always wanted Chesapeake to showcase an exceptional local actor. We lost Paul, but we gained Ned. If anyone can pull this off, Ned can."
Jeff Norton, director of Chesapeake, wasn't so sure. At first, he thought the production should be canceled, in part because he hoped that Potenza might be able to do it another time. Potenza has given notable performances in one-man shows by Eric Bogosian and was looking forward to making his debut at American Stage.
"I was reluctant to go forward with a different actor," Norton said. "It was nothing against the company and nothing against Ned, but I knew how much Paul wanted to do this. I was bothered by the fact that us going ahead would preclude him doing it at a later time."
Norton said that when Potenza started suffering chest pains and was having trouble sleeping at night, the actor went to a doctor for tests and eventually decided to withdraw from the show.
Coincidentally, Averill-Snell and Potenza had been in Jobsite Theatre's production of American Buffalo by David Mamet in February.
"From the beginning Chesapeake was very much a Paul Potenza project," Averill-Snell said. "It's, to me, heartbreaking at some level that it's not still a Paul Potenza project, because I know he would have been magnificent in it. But Paul will be back; Paul will be back onstage. It would be a tremendous loss to not have Paul onstage in this town."
In an e-mail, Potenza said he was on the mend but, naturally, disappointed. "I'm looking forward to future projects and I know there will be some great ones ahead of me, so that helps," he wrote. "I do feel fortunate that the play is in the hands of two great people - Ned and Jeff. They are good friends of mine and I know that they will succeed."
When Norton was undecided about continuing with the newly cast production, the theater moved to have T. Scott Wooten direct. But soon the original director was back on board, with Wooten as assistant director, for rehearsals with Averill-Snell.
"After working with Paul, that first day looking at Ned kind of twisted my whole brain around 180 degrees," Norton said. "It becomes an entirely different play, depending on who's doing it."
Averill-Snell, who played James Tyrone in O'Neill's A Moon for the Misbegotten at American Stage last fall, has been in one other one-man show, his own about the author . . ., which he wrote and performed in 2001.
If nothing else, he faced a formidable task in memorizing the 49-page Chesapeake script. "I certainly have many failings as an actor that I will admit to," Averill-Snell said. "But the one thing I can do is learn lines. It is my only true talent. I learn lines pretty damn quickly."
With only a week for rehearsal, instead of the optimum four weeks, Averill-Snell had to take some artistic shortcuts. "What you lose is development time," he said. "You lose time to experiment. There's not a lot of time to play around."
On the other hand, the actor is hoping to bring an improvisational spirit to the role that could spark some magic.
"What's exciting about this for me is the opportunity to use an awful lot of instinct, because I don't have any time to do anything else," he said. "I've got to feel my way through this play and let it do its work on me and see what comes out. And that's exciting. That's seat-of-your-pants theater. That's fun."
Certainly, Chesapeake's subject matter is close to his heart. Inspired by the 1990s flap over National Endowment for the Arts funding of provocative performance artists such as Tim Miller and Karen Finley, the play argues for the necessity of art in a time when it has been devalued.
"It's not about arts funding per se," Averill-Snell said. "It's about the role of art as a catalyst in society. I think it's going to make people think about the value of art. This is a play that tells us art is not optional, it's not recreational. It is fundamental to our culture."
Norton sees similarities between Chesapeake and the one-man show that he wrote and performed in 1992, Keith Haring: Radiant Child.
"Both pieces are about an artist talking to an audience very passionately about art and life and such," he said. "It's got to be coming from a very personal place; it can't be a character on the stage. You're talking as yourself to the audience, and if that's not happening, the play would crash and burn very quickly."
Chesapeake, premiered in 1999, represented something of a departure in subject matter for Blessing, best known for A Walk in the Woods, his 1987 play about two statesmen in disarmament talks. The title does not refer to the bay in Maryland. It refers to a Chesapeake Bay retriever that plays a part in the narrative.
"It is going to make people think about dogs, and that's part of why it's so fun," Averill-Snell said. "It's a doggy play. It's quite clear that the playwright has an enormous affection for and affinity with dogs."
PREVIEW
Chesapeake by Lee Blessing opens tonight and runs through May 8 at American Stage, 211 Third St. S, St. Petersburg. Performances at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday; 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 4 p.m. Sunday. $20-$27. 727 823-7529; www.americanstage.org
