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Diamond Head Theatre sets
By Burl Burlingame
the stage, stereotypes and all,
in 'Jackie: An American Life'
Star-BulletinJACKIE OH! As in real life - THAT phrase will keep popping up in "Jackie: An American Life." Gip Hoppe's Broadway-bio of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis imagines the former first lady as the calm center of a hurricane, buffeted by fate and circumstance. She's the ring in a one-ring circus.
There are so many juicy characters and real-life characterizations called upon to people the arc of "Jackie's" life, "we'd need a cast of 50 people, plus puppets," sighed Diamond Head Theatre's guest director Stephanie Conching. "So everyone -- except whoever plays Jackie, who's in every scene -- will have to play four or five roles. Plus the puppets, who are more like marionettes, anyway."
And these aren't just characters. These are real-life people that (we think) we know, because they've been centerstage in American life for the last half a century, part of our extended tribe. And they're also larger-than-life, near-mythological archetypes: Jack Kennedy. Marilyn Monroe. Bobby Kennedy. Black Jack Bouvier. Frank Sinatra. Truman Capote. Aristotle Onassis. Dozens of others."We're going to embrace the stereotypes!" laughed Conching. "Except for Jackie. She's treated with tremendous respect. Even if she hadn't married John F. Kennedy, a man destined for the presidency, she would have been famous or notable in some way."
"Destined to be famous," said DHT artistic director John Rampage. "What makes it hard is that some of these characters ARE larger than life, so everyone already has a pre-formed impression of the person.
Conching and Rampage held auditions this weekend for the production that will run March 31 through April 16. Despite "the cocker spaniel that pooped on the floor and the psycho lady that the police took away" the actors who showed up seemed fascinated by the people they were trying to portray. As one line-up of hopefuls on Sunday put it:Lisa Young: "I dreamed about Jackie Kennedy, so I came down."
Delta Lightner: "Jackie had this magic glow."
Liz George: "I've always been intrigued by Marilyn Monroe."
Monica Kong: "I'm completely fascinated by Jackie O."
Paul Niiyama: "I'm just happy it's not a musical."
Callbacks will begin tomorrow, and Rampage says, "Everyone's been great so far. It's getting harder to cast plays these days, because everyone has three or four jobs to get by - but the only distressing thing is that some of the these actors have never heard of these real-life people, so they have nothing to go on."
Diamond Head Theatre grabbed the rights to "Jackie: An American Life" as soon as they were available. Margaret Colin played the part on Broadway.
"People are always asking for more contemporary, newer works, but frankly, most contemporary plays have SOMETHING in them that will offend SOMEONE," said Rampage. "'Jackie' was perfect as our nonmusical offering this season."In case you're wondering, "Jackie" was placed in the DHT season before John Kennedy Jr. was lost in a plane crash last year. They kept the work on the schedule because tragedy is part of the Kennedy mystique.
"One of the fascinating things about this is that in most shows the actors have to dig deep to discover something about their subjects, but every moment of Jackie's life was recorded," said Conching. "We know her so well. That look! That voice!"
And yet, much of the show deals with Jackie's passion for privacy. In the opening monologue, Jackie says that "just because you know a few details about a person doesn't mean you know them," and she closes the play by observing that "while you're down on the street looking up at me, I'm looking back at you."
Rampage and Conching had Young, Lightner, George, Kong and Niiyama try a variety of roles and accents, including one in which the Kennedys are introduced to head cheese by a coalition of pig farmers. The local actors couldn't pull off the Boston accent."Try it snootier, like Auntie Mame in the musical," suggested Conching.
"No ..." said Rampage.
"No?" said Conching.
"'Mame' was the musical," corrected Rampage.
Conching then tried to read Bobby Kennedy's lines as the actors worked, but kept getting engrossed in the various shadings and missing her lines. Other scenes included some miners talking about Jackie - "That Jackie is a treat on the eyes, especially after four years of Mame Eisenhower," Freudian-slipped one actor - and another in which Jack asks Jackie out on a movie date, and she wants to see an Ingmar Bergman film, even though Bergman's breakthrough "Smiles of a Summer Night" is still several years off in the future.
And then there were those trifling details, like Niiyama revealing that he's going off on his honeymoon and would miss rehearsals, but still, he hoped, something could be worked out.
Cried Conching, "Honeymoon, schmoneymoon!"
They called in Dion Donohue, an actor who possesses the world's droopiest trousers. They tried several scenes in which Donohue portrayed Jack Kennedy being pitched woo by various actresses limning Marilyn Monroe. Marilyn complains about Frank Sinatra dumping champagne in the swimming pool, messing up its flirtation system.
Flirtation system?
"That's the way it's written; what a hoot!" said Conching. "That's the magic of words!"
Erin Sweeney and Young then tried a scene in which two Hamptons debs discuss Black Jack Bouvier's swoony charms, and ended with moans of pleasure.
"Again!" said Conching. "I want to see those orgasms AGAIN!"
"My mother would be proud," predicted Sweeney.
"I wanna try Nixon," said Donohue.
"I love a man who knows what he wants," said Conching. "In the meantime, though, do Truman Capote."
"Oh, of courttthhh, dahling" simpered Donohue.
"HA!" boomed Rampage. "Ha ha ha! It's Truman! A lot of this isn't acting, it's more like impersonation. BECOME the person. Come on, scare me with Nixon."
And Donohue did.
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