Almost, Maine packs some laughs but will also steal a tear
Tyler Grezaffi shares a kiss with Courtney Murphy in a scene from Almost, Maine.
You anticipate the hug, you hope for it, almost pray for it.
When it finally happens, it’s big enough to melt the snow in Almost, Maine, and warm all of the hearts in Baton Rouge Little Theater’s audience, as well.
And generate a few romantic tears.
“I can’t help it,” Kelly Martin said. She wipes her eyes. “It gets me every time,” she continued.
She’s the stage manager for Baton Rouge Little Theater’s production of John Cariam’s romantic comedy, Almost, Maine. The play opens Friday, Jan. 27, and is the third Main Stage production in the season’s 2011-12 Season of Love and Laughter.
And Martin isn’t exaggerating when she says, “Every time.” As stage manager, she’s attended every rehearsal, and she’s seen “the hug” again and again.
And she cries each time.
“I’m a hopeless romantic,” she said, shrugging.
“And this play is for hopeless romantics,” Keith Dixon said. “It’s the perfect date night play, which is why we decided to stage it three weeks before Valentine’s Day.”
Dixon is the theater’s managing artistic director and director of this play set in a little Maine town called Almost.
“It’s called Almost because they never quite got around to becoming a town,” he said. “And it’s part of what makes this play so funny.”
Almost, Maine is composed of nine short plays that explore love and loss in a remote, mythical place.
That’s a key word in this story, mythical. Magical might be better. Dixon uses “magical” a lot when describing the characters and their situations. Each story deals with a relationship, and is equipped with a certain charm and sweetness.
The characters are all different in nature, which poses a challenge for the four actors who play them. Because the challenge isn’t found in four actors playing four parts but four actors playing 19 parts.
“You can cast this play any way you like,” Dixon said. “You can cast it with four actors, six actors, 10 actors or even 19 actors. It’s how the director sees the play.”
Dixon decided to stick with four. “I started looking for who would work well together in different situations,” he said. “We put together a great cast for this.”
This run will mark the first time Baton Rouge Little Theater has performed Almost, Maine. It premiered at the Portland Stage Company in Portland, Maine, then moved to the off Broadway Daryl Roth Theatre on Jan. 12, 2006, and closed exactly a month later.
Whereas it was a hit in Maine, it flopped in New York. Yet it continues to be popular in both professional and nonprofessional theater companies throughout the nation.
Dixon first saw it in Wisconsin. “And I absolutely fell in love with it,” he said.
Which is a great response, really, because Cariam’s intention was creating a love-filled story, one with which audiences could relate and, well, maybe fall in love.
The play opens on a cold, clear, moonless night in the middle of winter. All is not quite what it seems in Almost, Maine.
As the northern lights hover in the star-filled sky above, Almost’s residents find themselves falling in and out of love in unexpected and often hilarious ways.
Knees are bruised. Hearts are broken. But the bruises heal, and the hearts mend — almost — in this midwinter night’s dream.
“Anyone who has ever been in a relationship will relate to this,” Dixon said. “There are so many situations that we know and are familiar with. And the characters are just magical.”
Cast member Courtney Murphy, meantime, feels close to the play. Though she wasn’t one of the stars, she worked with a production of the play in her college days at Northwestern State University in Natchitoches. “I absolutely loved it,” she said. “So, I’m excited to have a chance to be in the play now.” She sits next to one of her co-stars, Tyler Grezaffi. Both wait for rehearsal to begin in the empty theater. Now, it’s important to mention that the theater is warm despite the icy, snow-filled scene on stage.
And maybe the cold winter in this play is a special effect of sorts. Those familiar with the late director Stanley Kubrick’s films will recall that he always used theme music that was opposite of the scenes.
Johann Strauss’ 19th century “Blue Danube” waltz, for instance, served as the background music for the spaceships in Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. The idea was that the polar opposite presented by the music would sharpen the viewer’s focus on the scene.
And the freezing temperatures of Maine serve the same purpose here, pushing audience members to cling even tighter to the warmth generated by couples falling in love on stage.
Grezaffi plays four characters who fall in love along the way. One is a gruff, older gentleman, another is a smart, yet naive young man.
“I go from one character to another by doing a single gesture,” he said. “For the gruff man, I just sort of growl.”
He demonstrates, hunching his shoulders, then letting out a “harrumph.” Now he’s in the right state of mind. And he becomes the naive young man by casting a dazed look.
“I know it sounds simple, but it works for me,” he said.
And Murphy? Well, she, too, plays four characters, but her situation is different.
“One is not really a separate character, but a character who is different at different ages,” she said.
And Grezaffi and Murphy play the characters that could be called the string that ties Almost, Maine in a neat package.
Here’s a hint: wait for the hug.
It’s magical.
Cast: Brigette Burhoe, Courtney Murphy, Tyler Grezaffi and Jeff Johnson.
Artistic staff: Keith Dixon, director; Chris Adams, set design; Emily Coley, light design; Kelly Martin, stage manager.