THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, December 31, 1994 TAG: 9412300096
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: By TERESA ANNAS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 92 lines
DAVID McCANN speaks in many tongues - French Canadian, Australian, Jamaican, English.
In January, the versatile actor will add more accents to his repertoire. For the Virginia Stage Company production of Gardner McKay's ``Sea Marks,'' a bittersweet romance opening this week, McCann will assume the vocal rhythms of his Irish kin.
When rehearsals begin for the company's next show - Terrence McNally's ``A Perfect Ganesh,'' opening in February - he'll be slaving at Indian and Japanese accents, too. McCann will play the Hindu god Ganesha.
``I think I'm going to be a little schizophrenic,'' McCann said, laughing.
The thought of such contrasting, overlapping roles does not leave him tongue-tied. ``This is an actor's dream,'' he said. ``You spend so much time looking for jobs. Then to get two extraordinary roles back to back.''
While being interviewed earlier this week, McCann was creak-creak-creaking away in a wooden rocking chair in a mirror-lined rehearsal hall. ``This chair has ended up being my comfortable place, both in rehearsal and in the show,'' said McCann, clutching the curved wooden arms. ``I'm getting very used to this chair. I'm going to want to take it with me.''
McCann, a Michigan native, moved to Norfolk nine months ago, after appearing in the stage company's production of ``Sleuth.''
``I love the sense of community,'' he said. ``I think that's one of the reasons a lot of us go into theater. Even though it seems like there's not a lot of security in it, you do belong to a community.''
Reluctance to leave a community is a theme of ``Sea Marks,'' a play written by a former TV star and theater critic and produced off-Broadway in 1981.
McCann's character, Colm Primrose, is an unschooled fisherman who has never ventured beyond the waters around his tiny island off the west coast of Ireland. At a wedding, he meets Timothea, a young publisher's assistant from Liverpool. He woos her with poetic letters:
``Dear Miss Stiles, today was not like any other day. The MacAfee and I were out past the channel and one moment we look up to see that the sky is suddenly black at the west and the clouds are like great black cats crouched at the edge of the horizon.''
Colm then is lured to Liverpool, where he is surprised - not altogether happily - to learn that his letters have been published as ``Sea Sonnets.''
Though Colm loves Timothea, he is not eager to give up his home place and life ways. Timothea, reared on a Welsh farm, loves city life and her job. While she adores Colm, she can't fathom going back to the country.
``It's such a beautiful love story,'' stressed McCann, his Irish eyes misting with the romance of it all. ``These are two adults who know what they can give up and what they can't. I believe it speaks to all of us who feel the pull of two loves. And that's a lot of people today.''
For his part, McCann grew up along the St. Lawrence River in Michigan, where he loved to sail, swim and fish. He lived in Detroit within a two-mile radius of his Irish-Catholic kin. Here's one accent he's learned by recollection rather than instructional tapes.
``I'm spending a lot of time remembering me relatives,'' he said, slipping into a lilting brogue. ``The relatives are McCann, Cavanaugh, Shannon, McCullough. . . .''
The script calls for the actor playing Colm to state his true age. And McCann's birthday is Jan. 3. ``So, for the first preview, I'll be 38. And in the second preview, I'll say I'm 39.''
Like Colm, he's a writer, having penned a few plays and kept a ``diary'' since age 10. These days, it's more fashionable to say ``journal.''
``I don't like many `now' words. They don't sit right with me,'' he said. ``Another reason I like this play is it seems like it's from another time. Even though it's not.
``To see two people court each other in this way,'' he said, rocking away, and looking out the window past the Norfolk skyline to sea birds circling above. Rocking away, like a diehard fisherman still moving with the waves in the bitter months off water. MEMO: STAGE DIRECTIONS
What: Gardner McKay's ``Sea Marks,'' a romance between a poetic Irish
fisherman and a lady from Liverpool.
Where: Wells Theater, Monticello Avenue and Tazewell Street, Norfolk
When: Sunday at 7 p.m. is ``pay-what-you-can'' dress rehearsal.
Previews: Tuesday through Thursday at 8 p.m. Opens Friday at 8 p.m. and
continues with daily shows (except Mondays) through Jan. 22.
How much: $10 to $30
Call: 627-1234
Sunday Discussion: After the 2 p.m. show Jan. 8, actors and other
theater artists will meet with the audience. You do not have to be at
this performance to attend this free event.
Signed show for the hearing-impaired: At 9 p.m. Jan. 9 ILLUSTRATION: ANDREW CARNEY photo
David McCann draws on his Irish ancestry to play a fisherman in
``Sea Marks.''
by CNB