Julie Harris Returns To The Stage At Monomoy

by Tim Wood

            After a four-year absence, Chatham resident and award-winning stage and screen actress Julie Harris will return to the boards next week in the Ohio University Players’ production of “The Effects of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds” at the Monomoy Theatre.    

Chatham resident and legendary actress Julie Harris, left, will appear at the Monomoy Theatre next week in “The Effects of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds.”  Directing the play is Francesca James, center, and Nora Chester plays the key role of Beatrice. TIM WOOD PHOTO

        Although her role is small — she plays a boarder named Nanny and has no lines — her presence at the downtown Chatham theater has great symbolic weight.  For the students who make up the theater company, having the opportunity to watch the Tony and Emmy award-winning actress work is the highlight of the summer.

            “Personally, it’s really such a delight, thrill and honor to be on stage with Julie Harris,” said Nora Chester, who plays Beatrice.

            Harris has long been a supporter of the Monomoy Theatre and attends summer shows every Wednesday night.  New York director and actress Francesca James, who is directing “Gamma Rays,” sometimes accompanies Harris to Monomoy.

            “She’s the greatest supporter of theater I’ve met in my entire life,” said James.  “There is no one she’d rather have at her table than another actor.”  The three woman took a break from rehearsals last Friday to talk about the show, which opens Tuesday, Aug. 19.

            “I cry all the time,” Harris said of her attendance at the theater. “And laugh, too.”

            Paul Zindel’s play, which won a Pulitzer Prize, Obie Award and New York Drama Critic’s Circle Award, focuses on Beatrice and her two daughters, Ruth and Tillie, and the family’s dysfunctional relationships.  The play is about the human spirit’s ability to rise about repressive circumstances, said James.

            “It’s a crippling love story,” she said. “But at the end, one child finds her dream, and manages to come out of this.”

            “The situation just rings very true,” added Chester.

            Harris’ character is “just there for one week as a boarder,” she said, further burdening Beatrice.  The character is described “as being ancient,” James said, and is mostly blind and deaf.  “In a way, she’s Beatrice’s greatest fear,” she said.

            This is James’ first experience working at Monomoy, and she admitted that her head was “sort of spinning at with speed” with which productions are mounted at the theater, where two plays are usually in rehearsal while another is on stage.  After just a few days, the play had already been blocked.  “It has a lot to do with the talent of the people” at Monomoy, she said.  The company mounts eight plays during the 12-week summer season, “an actor’s gym.”

            Chester, on the other hand, is a Monomoy veteran, appearing for her 17^th consecutive summer.  She credits Artistic Director Alan Rust with giving her “great roles to do” over the years.  James echoed the plaudits for Rust, calling him a “miracle” who’s been able to sustain the quality of the Ohio University summer theater program for 37 years.

            Harris’ last appearance on the Monomoy stage was in “The Man Who Came to Dinner” in 2004.  Her only other recent local appearance was in the locally filmed “Chatham,” in which she also did not speak.  A stroke several years ago left her with some speech difficulties, although it did not impact her ability to act.  Although she’s never appeared in “Gamma Rays” before, she was in the original Broadway cast of Zindel’s “And Miss Reardon Drinks A Little.”

            “It’s just so lovely to have Julie with us,” James said.

            “The Effects of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds” runs through Aug. 23.  For tickets, call the Monomoy Theatre box office at 508-945-1589.

8/14/08