There´s not much that Virginia Mae Schmitt hasn´t done on stage.
At 93, she is the grand dame of Birmingham theater, having performed Shakespeare, Sondheim, Tennessee Williams and much, much more in her more than six decades of acting.
Share But she wasn´t quite sure she wanted to give it another go when director Ellise Mayor offered her a role in Birmingham Festival Theatre´s “Almost, Maine,’ which opens Thursday.
“I wasn´t at all sure I should try it,’ Schmitt says. “I had a pretty rough year in 2009 and the beginning of 2010. I´m still kind of shaky, kind of wobbly.’
But with the help of a cane, and the blessing of her doctor, Schmitt will make her BFT debut, 69 years after “Ladies in Retirement,’ the 1941 show that was her first with the Little Theatre.
That led to other roles with the Little Theatre in the 1940s, followed by Town and Gown Theatre through the late ´90s, the Seasoned Performers after that and, interspersed along the way, appearances with most of Birmingham´s major theater troupes.
“One time, I was doing a play at UAB, and (director) Ward Haarbauer said it was so good to see me there,’ Schmitt recalls. “I said, ‘Ward, you should know by now that if they ask me to do it, I´m going to do it.´
“I haven´t turned down many offers,’ she adds. “Some of them I was not at all sure about the role, but I just said, ‘What the heck.´’
More than 100 of those roles were played on the stage that is now the Virginia Samford Theatre. She was with Town and Gown from the beginning.
“I started with the second Town and Gown production, ‘The Trial of Mary Dugan,´ with Mary Badham, the mother of Mary Badham in ‘To Kill a Mockingbird,´’ Schmitt says.
That was the first of many productions Schmitt would do with the often temperamental director James Hatcher.
“He always said that I was proof that he wasn´t impossible to work with,’ she says with a laugh.
Schmitt´s last major theater appearance was “Driving Miss Daisy’ for the Little Theatre Players six years ago, although she continued her work with the Seasoned Performers, a troupe of older actors who do readings and plays around the state.
Mayor, artistic director for the Seasoned Performers, thought of Schmitt immediately when BFT asked her to direct “Almost, Maine.’
“It´s a series of vignettes of people in this town in Maine, all set at 9 o´clock on the same January night,’ she says. “We peek in on the residents of this community as they have different encounters having to do with love.’
The play doesn´t specify ages, and Mayor thought one of the vignettes would be good for two older actors — Schmitt and 85-year-old Marsh Adams.
“I don´t think audiences get to see enough of our senior adult actors, especially working in scenes with other senior adult actors,’ Mayor says. “A play may have a grandmother here or a grandfather there, but rarely are they working with each other.’
So Mayor approached Schmitt, who had not been on stage for 18 months, dealing with health problems, the death of her longtime companion, JoAnne Ault, and a fire that destroyed her church, Woodlawn Methodist.
“Physically, mentally and emotionally it was difficult, but I made it through it,’ Schmitt says.
She credits her theater work for keeping her sharp well into her 90s.
“Mentally, I´m still fine,’ Schmitt says. “The body kind of fell apart in several ways.’
But not before she starred in productions over nearly seven decades. And she says not to be surprised if you see her pop up on stage again.
“It may be tiring physically, but you sort of forget it when you´re on the stage,’ Schmitt says. “It´s a chance to get away from my own troubles. Sometimes, it´s nice to take on a set of somebody else´s.’
© 2010 Alabama Live LLC.
What's the opposite of summer in Alabama? How about winter in northern Maine? This is the setting of John Cariani's play Almost, Maine. It's a series of vignettes about love, and falling in and out of it. Ellise Mayor directs the play for Birmingham Festival Theatre. She tells WBHM's Bradley George that a small New England town in the dead of winter is an ideal place to explore the themes of love.
Interview with Ellise Mayor...
Almost, Maine is at Birmingham Festival Theatre from June 10-26.
Copyright © 2010 WBHMAlmost, but not quite.
Share Birmingham Festival Theatre´s production of John Cariani´s whimsical “Almost, Maine’ has its charms, but it´s weighed down by the length of some of its vignettes. Just when you think to yourself, “Awww, this is so cute,’ it keeps going, and going, and going.
The play is set in the middle of nowhere in Maine at 9 p.m. on a Friday night in January. We meet a number of couples, all experiencing their own versions of love.
Director Ellise Mayor has populated her “Almost, Maine’ with a mix of veterans and new faces, and it works in most every case. Among the highlights: Marsh Adams and Virginia Mae Schmitt charm as an elderly couple who meet by chance; Jennifer Price and Ty Taylor as a dating couple at a crossroads; and Shawn Castle and Phillip Kirschberg in multiple roles that show off some fantastic comic timing.
The rest of the cast — Stephen Tsimpedes, Olivia Hayes, Amanda Maddox, Michele Santiago, Rita Cowell, Stephen Mangina and Kimberly Kirklin — is strong, too, although there is one curious bit of casting.
Beware, a spoiler lurks ahead: In a vignette called “Story of Hope,’ a woman return to find her true love, whom she hasn´t seen in years. She meets a man whom she doesn´t recognize, and, of course, he ends up being the man she´s looking for. Trouble is, in this production, the man is played by Christophe Nicolet, who has a French accent that would have otherwise been delightful. Surely, though, there are not that many people in Almost, Maine, who talk like him — seems like she would have recognized him right away. Nicolet would have been fine in any other role.
Nicolet also is set designer, and his set is among the most clever we´ve seen. A stark white backdrop is transformed vignette by vignette with a computer drawing a rendering of where the action is taking place.
There are lots of reasons to see “Almost, Maine.’ Some people may find it romantic and hopeful, others might find it just a little too sweet. But at well over two hours, a contingent will certainly agree that it´s way too long.
Bottom line: Review gets three out of five stars
© 2010 Alabama Live LLC.