Marcia sits at the end of her bed, legs curled under, chain smoking, passionately telling the story of her favorite film, Rashomon. It’s a frame by frame description of the Samurai, his bride, the bandit and the woodsman. Because she loves this film so much, she wants me to love it too. Everything depends on point of view, perspective, we see things differently. It’s the Rashomon effect. She’s in awe of the Japanese filmmaker, Kurosawa. All summer long, she elaborates on the film. She searches in vain for an art theater in the area that might screen the film. She’s desperate for me to see it. She wants to watch me, watch the tale of the Samurai.
Marcia of San Diego and The Old Globe Theatre. She hates to miss the summer Shakespeare Festival in Balboa Park, but she’s on an East Coast adventure.
Marcia of the enormous trunk. It takes up more than half our room. Tufts Arena Summer Theatre has arranged rooms in a dorm on the University campus for the company members. We are roommates. Her trunk reminds me of those steamer trunks in films of the forties, when the star escapes one of life’s traumas by sailing the seas, in an enormous ocean liner, a la Bette Davis in Now Voyager. Marcia and her trunk will be traveling to New York City when our season ends. The majority of our company is east coast actors. The two Californians are Marcia from San Diego and Stacy Keach from Los Angeles.
Marcia is shocked when I tell her I’ve never heard of Rashomon. But words cannot describe the amazed look on her face, when I say I’ve never heard of Stacy Keach. Her whole body shakes in disbelief. She fills me in on the family details. Stacy’s father, Stacy Keach Sr., is an icon in Hollywood. He’s in the TV series, Colt 45 and counts the role of Machine Gun Kelly in the FBI Story among his many credits. I admit I’m naive, but I’m learning a lot, the ins and outs of California, foreign films and the famed Old Globe abbreviated productions of Shakespeare.
Tufts Arena Theatre in Bedford, Massachusetts, is one of the oldest arena’s in the Eastern United States. The stage is an impressive oval. My first experience performing surrounded by the audience. The summer program includes:The Prodigal by Jack Richardson, recent Drama Desk and Obie winner, Camille an adaptation of the Alexandre Dumas drama, and Right You Are If You Think You Are by Luigi Pirandello. Our days are busy with rehearsals…our nights with performances. We worry about getting our make-up, Texas Dirt, even so we look like tanned Greeks in The Prodigal. We worry about having enough breath to speak our lines while waltzing around the edge of magnificent oval stage in Camille. We worry about controlling our giggles as Signora Cini and Signora Ninni, the town gossips in Right You Are If You Think You Are.
We are as different as the east is from the west, but we are the same in our dedication to the craft of acting and our love of theatre. Suddenly the summer is over. Marcia and her trunk are off to New York City. I’m headed back to Cleveland to finish my Masters. We promise to meet in New York City.
And we do, many times, many cups of coffee in many coffee shops, over many years. Marcia and the love of her life, Teddy, director Ted Mornel are the darlings of the Caffe Cino set. They introduce me to the world of theatre in the Village storefronts, basement and backroom performance spaces, off-off Broadway, and Cornelia Street.
Her last performance was the portrayal of Edith Piaf in Apres Midi by Donald Kvares. Teddy directed. The New York Times said, “…an extraordinary performance, the power of voice and gesture”.
Rashomon received an Honorary Oscar in 1951 and is credited with creating the Best Foreign Film Category.
