Lone Star' state of mind for TWN
By Marli Guzzetta + Independent Arts Editor
The past is never far in "Lone Star Grace" - a big-haired, Texas dramedy kicking off the Theatre Workshop of Nantucket's summer season next Wednesday, June 13.

From left: Susan Beaumont, Susan McGinnis, Laurel Devaney and Ciaran Byrne

Directed by Giovanna Sardelli, the show stars Susan McGinnis as Barbie Ann, a lingerie saleswoman who begins the New Year - and a new life - in a diner off Texas Highway 59. There, Barbie Ann waits on the cusp of her transformation with a bottomless cup of personal revelations, warmed up by the diner's mild-mannered, sweet proprietor, Persephone (played by Laurel Devaney) and Kenneth, an Irishman in a cowboy hat, on his own "quest for self-discovery." Susan Beaumont plays the sister who brings Barbie Anne a plate of reality from home.

Sardelli and the show's playwright, Suzanne Bradbeer, met three years ago at the Lark Play Development Center in Manhattan, where the two are both members. "Since then, I've seen every play she's written that's had a production, and she's seen every one I've directed," Sardelli said. "I've been wanting to do something with Suzanne's work for a while now. Her writing has a charm, an intelligence, a gentleness to it - even though her characters tend to be larger than life. … There is always a lot of heart in her plays. … She'll kill me for saying this, but I'd compare her to a new Beth Henley."

Bradbeer hitched a ride to Nantucket with the director and was able to talk a bit with the cast before rehearsals began. She even re-wrote the character of Kenneth, originally a cowboy all a-twang, for broguish Nantucket actor Ciaran Byrne.

"For some of these actors, it was the first time they'd been able to work with the playwright," Sardelli said, "which was exciting for them, that she could tweak it to be alive and of the moment."

The script resulted from a creative writing workshop exercise that prompted Bradbeer and her classmates to write a scene based on a newspaper article.

"The blurb I found was that Nicole Miller was designing clothes for Barbie, and she was in Texas, and some woman drove 200 miles to have her Barbie signed. I thought, 'What kind of a person drives 200 miles to have her Barbie signed?' "

That person became the play's lead, Barbie Ann, who "sprang full-fledged" into Bradbeer's head, like a reverse Athena. The Manhattan-based playwright finished the play after making pilgrimage herself to the South by Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas with her gay neighbors, who were playing the festival as a group called Y'all.

This is the third consecutive summer that the TWN has invited Sardelli to direct a summer show.

"I'm very fond of Giovanna and her work," said TWN Artistic Director Jane Karakula. "Giovanna suggested this script. I read it and thought it was fun. First, it's kind of whacky and weird, and you don't know where it's going, and then all of a sudden, it takes a big shift." Sardelli, who gets regular work as director in Manhattan and also serves on the dance faculty at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, said she keeps returning to Nantucket "because I love the people I've met here."

Like the other plays Sardelli has directed on island, "Lone Star Grace" runs without a set change, occurring in one room. "I like a play that doesn't get interrupted by tech aspects, because think we give over to it more naturally," Sardelli said. "Even though the set doesn't move, the story moves. Barbie Ann is all about moving, about changing

her life." I

When:Wed. - Sat., June 13-16

8:30 p.m. "Lone Star Grace"

Where: TWN Main Stage, down

stairs at the United Methodist

Church, 2 Centre St.

Cost: $25 (There's also an opening

night party before the first show, from 7 p.m. to 8:15 p.m. upstairs at the Brotherhood; $50 includes

cocktails and admission

to the show.)

For more information, please call

228-4305 or go to theatreworkshop. org, where you can also buy tickets.