Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 12, 1992 TAG: 9203120392
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: E1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ALMENA HUGHES NORTH CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
They're in the same homeroom and the same drama class. They share the role of Maretha, the daughter in the play "The Piano Lesson" at Mill Mountain Theatre. And they're as different from each other as night is from day.
"I really wanted to get into dancing," Briggs says, flashing a shy grin. Sitting still and erect, books neatly at her side, she explains, "But when I put down performance arts on my application last year, they thought I was getting prepared for acting. So I acted."
"For me it started way, way back when I was in preschool," Delaney pipes up. "I just happened to be the second little pig in `The Three Little Pigs.' I liked it so much I wanted to do some more."
She joined an acting club in the first grade and stayed in it while attending elementary school in California.
Briggs, an only child, has appeared in five plays - including "Cinderella," "One Eyes, Two Eyes" and "Secretary" - besides "The Piano Lesson".
Delaney played Lucy in "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown," in a company that toured California schools. She says she's encouraged by her older sister, Antoinette, who takes drama at William Fleming High School. "My little sister [Angelique] just lies on me in a dramatic way."
When the role of Maretha came up for casting, both girls found out about it through drama class. But they approached it differently.
"I wasn't really interested at first. But my [drama] teacher Mrs. [Rebecca] Mushko said I should try out for it," Briggs says. "She called my mom and recommended me."
"Well, she didn't recommend me," says Delaney. "But she wrote the number on the board and I wrote it down. I must have called it five times before they called me back. Finally I got an interview. Then they talked to my mom. About a week later they said I got the part. I was jumping around the house screaming and everything, then."
In the play, which is set in 1936, the girls portray the daughter of Berniece, the leading woman. They are scheduled to alternate performances. Even though they're not on stage the entire time, they must get to the theatre and into costume and stay at the theatre through the three hours that the play runs. On school nights, it makes for a long day.
"I'm trying to catch up with my sleep now," Briggs groans after performing the night before her interview. "I come in [to school after a performance] and buy a soda for the caffeine to keep me awake. As soon as I get home, I'm asleep."
"I'm a night person. I stay up all night anyway, like one of those vampires," Delaney leers. "My trouble is getting up. That's why I'm late getting here this morning."
Although on stage during several scenes, Maretha doesn't have too many lines. The role still required learning the entire play, though. Briggs learned her part "by reading it over and over again until I could comprehend it and remember it." Delaney read over the script and, while eating or taking a bath, would have her mother cue her.
"I thought I'd never do it. But one day we sat down, she read me the lines, and I got my part all right," she says.
The young actresses memorized their lines in two weeks. Unfortunately, the skill doesn't readily carry over to schoolwork.
"I make A's and B's. But I have to read the chapters and write down notes. Every other night I have to do double homework to make up for the nights that I miss when I'm in the play," says Briggs.
"I never do my homework," Delaney asserts. "Well, I do my science teacher's homework. But the teachers give too much. Homework every day. Quizzes every day. It just tires me out."
Neither girl thinks she's anything like the quiet, obedient character in the play. Delaney says she's obedient sometimes. "But I'm never quiet because I've always got something to say."
Briggs says her mother calls her "a whole lot of talk. People think I'm quiet and obedient. But I'm really not. They just haven't seen me in action."
The actresses say that a few hazards lurk behind the scenes.
"Twice, my play mom has stepped on my shoe and made it come off," Briggs giggles. Since she does not wear her glasses while in character, she also has trouble seeing the stairs, the piano keys and finding her way around the darkened stage during scene changes.
"And don't forget the water," Delaney says.
At one point, the leading man flings water about. "It comes all the way up over the set and onto us standing backstage. It's small back there, so you can't get out of the way. But you can't go off stage because then you can't hear your cue because the audience is laughing."
Yes, they say, you can see out into the audience.
No, they don't have to belong to a union to perform.
Yes, they have seen the entire play with each other performing.
No, their friends and classmates aren't treating them any differently.
Maybe they're getting paid. They say they aren't sure about that. "But I definitely think we should," says Briggs with unexpected ferocity.
The play will run through Sunday, then it will be back to business as usual: School, dance classes, maybe a little running track.
For the future, Briggs says: "I want to finish high school and take dance and a foreign language for three years. I want to take ROTC and keep up the drama. In college I want to major in dance and psychology."
Delaney says: "My aunt's already making plans for me to go to acting college in New York. She's also setting some things up so I can be in commercials. My mom and my aunt are going to be my agents. I'm going to take drama this year and in high school."
For the present, there are parts in Ruffner drama class plays.
"It's a stupid play," Delaney says about one production. "I don't like my role."
"Well, I don't think it's stupid," Briggs counters. "We just see it differently."
by CNB