THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, December 5, 1995 TAG: 9512050038
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TERESA ANNAS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 112 lines
FOR BROADWAY star Vanita Harbour, it's the same old story: Girl leaves home for the city, pursuing a dream.
Harbour has the central role of Ti Moune in the Virginia Stage Company holiday production of ``Once on This Island,'' a colorful, fast-paced, Caribbean-flavored musical at Norfolk's Wells Theater.
The character's actions have become a familiar refrain for this actress, who often has portrayed strong-willed girls driven to risky adventures. Ti Moune is an island peasant girl who races to town after an aristocratic boy. A wide-eyed innocent, she believes she will find and then marry him.
For the audience, the show can come across like a live version of the Disney animated film ``The Little Mermaid'' - though for adults as much as children. In ``Little Mermaid,'' land and sea divides the lovers. In ``Once on This Island,'' racial and economic factors come between.
It's enough to give Harbour recurring nightmares.
``I take it home with me a lot of times,'' Harbour said. ``I don't shake it off. I shake it off easier than I did on Broadway. But I still have dreams about being left behind. And being attacked. Unfortunately, in my dreams I never get to the point of a joyous end. It just kind of leaves me in limbo.''
She portrayed Ti Moune near the end of the show's Broadway run (1990-1991) and continued in the role for the 1992 national tour.
Other strong-willed, dash-to-the-city characters she has played since then include the title character in a new Ntozake Shange play, ``Nomathemba,'' scheduled for a spring production at the Kennedy Center, and ``The Girl'' in ``Blues in the Night,'' a revue.
En route to Broadway, Harbour had her own long journey - as arduous as the thunderstorms Ti Moune endures on her way to the town side of the island.
At age 12, Harbour decided she wanted to be an actress. Her parents saw it as an ill-advised fantasy and were concerned for her future. But she tricked her dad into signing her up for dance lessons. Then she pushed for acting and singing lessons. Three years later, she was accepted into the Cleveland School for the Arts in her hometown.
There's a heart-rending scene in ``Once on This Island'' where Ti Moune's adopted parents fret over her decision to traipse after the rich boy.
``They're saying: `It's not going to work. Listen, I'm older than you. I know how this outcome is going to be.' It's very easy for me to get into that scene,'' Harbour said. ``I can understand. They're coming from a place of love. And I can hear that.''
But nobody can tell you of the heartache to come, she said.
``You have to experience it to believe it,'' she said. ``And I am very much that way. I learn the hard way.''
In high school, Harbour sacrificed a social life for the arts. ``I didn't have any friends, really,'' she said. ``I had a boyfriend, but I didn't see him often.''
At Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, she was a music-theater major. She worked from 8 a.m. to midnight and sometimes found herself in line for rehearsal space at 3 a.m.
``I think I was put in the hospital three times for exhaustion,'' she said. ``It was ridiculous. People didn't have time to eat. People starved, or passed out. The philosophy was, `If you can't take it here, you can't take it in the real world.'
``In my experience, nothing out there has been as hard as that.''
That's even counting the six months or so she worked 12-hour days on the soaps, then raced to Broadway for an 8 p.m. curtain.
After earning her undergraduate degree in 1990, she landed a featured role on the ABC-TV daytime soap ``One Life to Live.'' She portrayed Rika Price - ``a girl who wants to do what she wants to do.''
Meanwhile, she got cast in ``Island'' as a ``cover'' for various roles. One night she arrived late at the theater to learn that in 20 minutes she would go on as the character Andrea.
She had had three days of rehearsal for Andrea and didn't yet know the part. But the regular actress was on vacation, and the main understudy was sick.
``I just stood there reading my name five times. `It's a mistake. Has to be a mistake,' '' Harbour recalled.
A nightmare? ``It was OK. Everybody was so nice and supportive. If I was in the wrong spot, they'd nudge me.''
Her biggest challenge with the character Ti Moune has been learning to pace herself, to not spend all of her physical and vocal energy early in the show.
``My energy has to be up the entire time, and that takes a toll. I really take this role to heart. It's not something I did a lot of homework on. It's a gut feeling for me: to want something so much, and to know in your gut it's going to happen.
``And then to have someone turn their back and walk away. It breaks my heart every time.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]
KEN QUEMAN
Vanita Harbour, foreground, plays a girl pursuing her dream of love
in "Once on This Island."
Gary Knapp
The Virginian-Pilot
Vanita Harbour as Ti Moune, center, with her adopted parents in
Virginia Stage Company's production of ``Once on This Island.''
THEATER FACTS
What: ``Once on This Island,'' with music by Stephen Flaherty,
book and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens. A Virginia Stage Company show
Where: Wells Theater, Monticello Avenue and Tazewell Street,
Norfolk
When: 8 tonight. Continues through Dec. 17 with daily
performances, except Mondays.
How much: $11 to $32; discounts available
Call: 627-1234
Discussion: After the 2 p.m. show Sunday, an informal discussion
among actors and audience will take place in the theater. It is not
necessary to see the show that day to attend this event, which is
free.
by CNB