CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARBULLETIN.COM
Eric Nemoto, left, and Frankie Enos tango in front of the Yellow Brick Studio, where they will perform in the play "The Guys," beginning tomorrow.
"The Guys" -- a play about
firefighters lost on 9/11 --
is "no work for wimps,"
says the star of the
TAG production
Just three months after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, brought the monumental World Trade Center towers crashing to earth, Frankie Enos found herself at Ground Zero, marveling at the experience of standing on such hallowed ground.
'The Guys'
Presented by the Actors GroupOn stage: 7:30 p.m. Thursdays to Saturdays, and 4 p.m. Sundays tomorrow through Sept. 28
Place: Yellow Brick Studio, 625 Keawe St.
Tickets: $10
Call: 722-6941
"You couldn't see much into the site because there was a barrier, but there was still a huge crowd of people," remembers the managing director of TAG, the Actors Group, and one-half of the moving post-9/11 play "The Guys," which opens tomorrow at Yellow Brick Studio in Kakaako.
While visiting her daughter at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., Enos met up with old friends who once resided in Manhattan. They suggested a quick tour of New York City and a walk about the revered site.
"What impressed me was just being there. There were buildings all around and just this big, gaping hole in the sky. Police were so respectful and quiet and ushering people along and talking with them. Some people were weeping, others were just quietly looking at the site. Some of them were New Yorkers, some of them were tourists.
"It was just extraordinary to be at such a historic and powerful place, but a place that was already symbolizing rebirth, hope, the American spirit and, even broader than that, the human spirit."
"The Guys" provides the opportunity to relive some of those stirring memories through Enos' work with the Actors Group. The play tells the story of Nick, a fire captain who enlists the help of a journalist named Joan to draft eulogies for several of his firefighters who were lost in the 9/11 tragedy. The script is based on the real experiences of Columbia University journalism professor Anne Nelson, who, like Joan, was entrusted with helping a fire captain compose a proper written tribute to his men.
An encounter with Honolulu native Jim Simpson, artistic director and founder of New York's Flea Theater, a small, off-Broadway playhouse that stood virtually in the shadow of the World Trade Center, spurred Nelson to pen "The Guys," which debuted at the Flea Theater in December 2001. Its first run featured Simpson's real-life wife, Sigourney Weaver, and Bill Murray, and played to sold-out audiences for more than a year. A film version starring Weaver and Anthony LaPaglia was released the following year.
FOCUS
Anthony LaPaglia and Sigourney Weaver starred in the film version of "The Guys" last year.
"Her writing is very crisp, very clean, with not a lot of extraneous words," says Enos. "But within those crisp, clean lines, she taps into a lot of emotions. I think what's going to hold the audience is the power of her words and hopefully, if we do our jobs well, our passion and our delivery. When a play is written well, you can really do a lot with it."
At an hour and 45 minutes in length, the two-person, two-act play includes five monologues for Enos alone and can be taxing on its cast, who must see the play through, beginning to end.
"This is no work for wimps," she says with a giggle. On stage, Enos will be joined by Eric Nemoto as Nick, and aided by a dutiful crew which includes director Brad Powell, stage manager Liz Kane, technician Helen Rapozo, award-winning set designer Paul Guncheon, lighting designer Brenda Lee Hillebrenner and costume designer Peggy Krock.
"It is a special challenge, but it's what we choose to do and it's our way of contributing to the arts."
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