Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 8, 1995 TAG: 9511080055
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHRIS HENSON SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
``I'm going to recite the last few stanzas of Edgar Allen Poe's `The Tell-Tale Heart,`'' she says.
``I'm going to mess up,'' she adds, her voice quivering.
Four grownups sit at a table facing her. One of them is Jere Hodgin, Mill Mountain Theatre's executive and artistic director. Another is Nancy Ruth Patterson, Roanoke author and teacher.
They are casting a production of Patterson's book, ``The Christmas Cup,'' for Mill Mountain's Theatre B and they need several child actors. Mary wants to be one of them. She wipes away a tear and locks her ankles together.
``I'm sorry,'' she says.
Theatre B is silent for a beat.
``Mary, do you know what?" asks Patterson finally.
``What?"
``None of us at this table have ever made a mistake,'' she says, smiling warmly.
``That's right,'' adds Hodgin, his grin widening. ``We're all perfect. Well, most of us.''
Mary smiles, too. ``Okay,'' she says. She's calmer now. She recites her poem and does pretty well, balking over only a few tough words.
The four grown-ups applaud.
``You've got a great voice,'' says Hodgin. ``Good focus.''
Mary smiles again, bows and leaves. The next time she auditions she won't be quite so nervous.
``The Christmas Cup'' opened this week in Mill Mountain's Theatre B. Hodgin has adapted the 70-page book into an hour-long play. It's an uncommonly simple story, being done on a minimal stage. The audience is encouraged to use its imagination, picturing a small town in an earlier time.
``The Christmas Cup'' is the story of a bright young girl named Ann Megan McCallie, or ``Little M.'' She lives in the small Missouri town of Mount Aire. After earning $5 selling lemonade, she decides to spend it all on a rusty old milkshake cup. She's embarrassed when she realizes she's wasted her money. But, her grandmother, Nannie, has an idea. They'll secretly fill the cup with spare change and, by the time Christmas comes around, Little M will have enough to buy a gift for a special someone.
It's a story about the relationships between adults and children, and about the prejudices even good people can have. But Hodgin doesn't see it as just a kid's story.
``I think of a lot of children's theater as being hypo-glycemic,'' he says. ``One more hour of it and you're ready for an insulin shot. I don't believe this novel is like that. I think the lessons for adults in this play are just as valid.''
Theatre B has movable seating around a low stage. The setting is very intimate. Hodgin is using the audience to give the illusion of a classroom to the people on the opposite side of the stage.
``I knew from the get-go that there was no way we were going to be able to create Mount Aire, Missouri, in Theatre B,'' he says. ``So I wanted to create suggestions of it. The audience will be separated from the stage by a picket fence. This is about a small town, with the houses close together, like how they are when you're a kid and your block is everything...We're just suggesting the outline of a house. We'll bring a table out and that will be a kitchen.''
The production stars Jayne Heller as Nannie and Kathryn Temple as Little M. Temple has played in several Mill Mountain productions.
``The first thing that impressed me was her sensitivity,'' says Patterson, who saw the young actress in the theater's recent production of ``The King and I.'' ``She was surrounded by little kids who were pulling on her the whole time, and she never broke character.''
Temple, 12, is taking her newfound stardom in stride.
``I've never had this many lines before,'' she says. How many lines are there? She can answer that one quickly. ``105.''
``I don't have half as many lines as she has,'' says Matt Russo, 11, who plays Little M's friend, Willis. He takes credit for coming up with a line or two himself.
``Sometimes, I'll mess up a line and [Hodgin] will say, `Wait! I like it better like that!'''
``I've learned how to memorize my lines and match them all up to what I'm doing,'' says Temple. ``Sometimes, when you mix up your lines, and it makes no sense whatsoever, it's kind of funny.''
Hodgin obviously relishes the opportunity to work with Patterson.
``She and I both realized an immediate connection,'' he says of their first meeting. ``We find now that we're almost talking in shorthand. I admire her for trusting the process. I wish more playwrights were like that.''
Putting these two creative minds together has definitely drawn some attention.
``We sold out the school matinees before I had even finished the first draft of the script,'' Hodgin says. ``It's a wonderful position to be in. Who knows? This may become a perennial thing.''
For her part, Patterson is content.
``My mother has always said, two of the greatest gifts you can give children are roots and wings,'' she says. ``Well, I gave `The Christmas Cup' roots. And now it's time to let someone else give it wings.
``It's Jere's vision now,'' she adds. ``If I had known enough about the theater it would have been my vision, too.''
After a rehearsal on Halloween night, two of the girls in the play are talking excitedly about their parts. ``...and I've got this line,'' says one, "where I say, `Nobody ever feels like throwing rocks...blah, blah, blah....'''
Nancy Ruth Patterson overhears this and smiles. Did she ever imagine her first novel could be edited down to blah, blah, blah?
``Maybe it's better that way,'' she laughs. ``It's more universal.''
"The Christmas Cup" Through Nov. 26 in Mill Mountain Theatre's Theatre B at 20 E. Church Ave. General admission seating at $6 for adults and $3 for children under 12. Calls are advised because sellouts are frequent. 342-5740.
by CNB