Terrace Review — Wednesday, May 23, 1990 15

a different sort of door opens —
for Terrace theater audiences ©

R 0 C M 44 —_—

by Betty Barton post office, just like Stanley in the

Locally written, directed - and
cast, Room 44 will be performed

Tickets are available at Sight &
Sound.

. Playwright Daniel Bamswell says

"Room 44 is basically a true story.
"It’s based on this guy Stanley. He

May 3] at the R.E.M. Lee Theatre. _

play. He was really crazy with his
gestures. At the time, I was train-
ing as an actor and | wanted to
duplicate his gestures. Later, the
idea came to write. about him in
the form of a play."

Barnswell goes on to explain that
he didn’t think anyone would want
to see Stanley alone on stage... or

was so bizarre. He worked at the

believe what he had to say. So he

THE WORLD PREMIERE of Daniel Barnswell's Room 44 was
seen recently at the Skeena Zone Drama Festival in Prince
' Rupert. The play will be presented in Terrace for the first time

May 31. Actress. Connie Silveira, above, plays The Woman in

added roles. "All the people on
Stage ate parts of the real Stanley."
. . Barnswell clarifies. "The Bella
character: came about because I
cast a female and didn’t have a
role for her." The play now has
five players — Stanley, his two

alter-egos Bill and Bella, the little

girl, and Helen (also the woman in
white). At the recent Skeena Zone
Drama Festival held in. Prince
Rupert Connie Silveira, who
played both Helen and the woman
in white, won best supporting
actress for her roles in Room 44.
Initially, the play consisted of parts
for Stanley, Bill and the little girl,
when Daniel held his first audi-
tions. He had originally written it
six years ago as a 12-page, one-act
play. Connie talked him into dust-
ing it off and reworking it.

Daniel had just finished work-
shopping with some of the young
speech arts participants in this
Spring’s Pacific Northwest Music
Festival, so he’d had a taste of
working with young people. Four
of the five actors are under 20
years of age. Stanley and Bill are
16-year-old highschool students. In
Daniel’s research for the play, he
discovered that schizophrenia
affects teens through mid-twenties
ptimarily, so he felt casting the
two teenagers added realism to the
play. He says the young people
need more direction, but they learn
quickly.

Barnswell explains that he wants
todo yhat theater does so much
better than movies or TV. It’s the

emotions that are so much more
like real-life. It’s the playwright’s

_ chance to. take, people’s emotions

on a roller coaster ride.

Room 44 was originally ’fringe’
material. Now Danie] Barnswell
feels it will appeal to a broader
audience, that’s it’s more commer-
cial and more saleable. Daniel
describes Room 44 as a happy
play, in a sense. Everyone ends up
with what they want. In writing the

play, Barnswell tried to start and .

end each scene (there are eight
scenes) with a bang. "It was fun
and bizarre."

Barnswell further describes
Room 44 as a dark comedy. It’s
humorous and thought-provoking:
"I’m trying io access the common
experience inside everyone; an
inherited memory; the wonder and
awe being passed on. It’s all feel-
ings — and we all feel it."

This is Barnswell’s first full-
length play. He says, "There’s very
little calculation in the way I write.
It’s more a rhythm thing. It’s one
thing to build a dialogue and it’s
another. to add action. When
you're writing, you see and hear
the characters. I babble a lot. My
eyes glaze over and | imagine that
I’m in the actors’ roles. I have a
‘mental tape recorder. And then I
Tush for ihe paper to get it down
before I forget it.

Daniel says he realized the comic
possibilities when dealing with
characteis that the audience can
see but that other actors on the

Stage can’t. He says the gag oppor-
tunities were endless. And from an _
audience point of view, it’s hila-
rious.
The trickiest part, says Barns
well, is making transitions. One or
two lines have to accomplish it. He
says he’s sometimes sat in frustra-
tion trying to synthesize 10 lines
into one. "But that’s part of the
craft — the blend between the
actors, their lines and the techni-
ques." he says philosophically.

Barnsweill also directed this play,
as he did last fall’s production of
The Art of War, and Curse of the
Starving Class. He is also a trained
actor, both locally and in the lower
mainland. He feels that acting
experience has helped his writing.
He says the lines flow and there’s
a natural continuity, The dialogue
is very natural and one sometimes
forgets that actors are saying the
lines.

And where did the title come
from? Room 44 in a Greek hotel in
Vancouver was an address thrown
at Daniel on a downtown
Vancouver street by an old friend.
The’ name struck him as a play
title, one which came to fruition
six years after meeting Stanley.

Room 44 will be presented at the
R.E.M. Lee Theatre on Thursday,
May 31 at 8 p.m. for only one
performance. Don’t miss Terrace’s
debut of this funny and thought-
provoking play by local playwright
and director Daniel Barnswell.

WN

Terrace Little Theatre
presents

hay

Sage
re

White.

The best
from
the stacks

by Harriet Fjaagesund

The Heretic’s Apprentice
by Ellis Peters
Adult fictlon published by
The Mysterious Press

It is the summer of 1143,
Two important visitors arrive
at the Benedictine Abbey of St.
Peter and St. Paul in Shrews-
bury.

Gerbert, a powerful prelate
who embraces blind faith for
the masses, And William of
Lythwood, returned at last
from pilgrimage and accom-
panied by his young attendant
Elave.

Gerbert arrives with all due
pomp and ceremony befitting
7 his office; William arrives in a
veal coffin, having died near the

“| end of his journey.
Elave’s mission is to secure a
’ burial place for his master.on
» the Abbey grounds, even
4 ‘though William was once ac-
, cused of heretical views,

Elave seems to have learned
some of his master’s skepticism
when he rashly denounces some
of the church’s teachings while
in a drunken state.

‘A capital charge is brought
against him by Gerbert. But
when the man who accused him
is murdered, Brother Cadfael is
once again uprooted from his
herbiary.

With the help of. his old
friend Hugh Beringar, the
Sheriff, Cadfael begins to
probe beneath the surface of
the mystery. Added to the puz-
zle is William’s foster
daughter's dowry, an ancient
treasure chest that may hold
the missing clue to the
murderer’s identity.

This is the Sixteenth Chroni-
cle of Brother Cadfael. Like all

_ its predecessors, it’s nearly im-

possible to put down.

Daniel Barnswell’s

directed by
Daniel Barnswel|

“Stanley, open the door!”

One performance only.
Thursday, May 31, 8 p.m.
-  R.E.M. Lee Theatre
Tickets available at
Sight & Sound
$8 advance ticket price
$10 at the door

itustration — Tyler Wallace

production — Wilkinson Business Machines .

‘typography — Terrace Review newspaper. |