THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, March 5, 1996 TAG: 9603050031
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DIANE TENNANT, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 131 lines
``You didn't go to school then? For two days?'' - a line from the play ``A Penny for the Guy''
EVAN BONIFANT made a cameo appearance in his fifth-grade class last week.
He had to show up so he wouldn't violate attendance laws; he had to leave so he could get to work.
Evan has been working for years. That's how it is with child actors. On March 5, he opens in the Virginia Stage Company production of ``A Penny for the Guy.''
It's Evan's first major stage role, although he has film, TV and commercial experience under his 10-year-old belt. But it takes lots of work to make the transition from TV sitcom to stage, and Evan has been rehearsing six days a week for three weeks.
The play runs two hours and 15 minutes. Evan has had to memorize 486 lines plus a one-page monologue, because he is one of the main characters. A week before the play opening, he knew all but two paragraphs.
``He's been working so many hours,'' said his mom, Petie Boni fant. ``He comes home and he's dead. He doesn't get to be a kid very much.''
Evan, a Virginia Beach native, has been home in Pungo for nearly a year now. Last year he was living in Los Angeles, filming a summer replacement sitcom called ``My Wildest Dreams.'' Then there were the years in New York City, where he was a regular on the soap opera ``One Life to Live.''
Life in New York is ``totally different,'' Evan said. ``It's like a concrete jungle there, people say. No grass. This is, like, this is where I was born.''
He jerked a thumb toward his front yard. Two white horses grazed in the field across Indian River Road. Cows ambled around behind the house.
He misses the country life when he moves. Then again, he misses New York when he's in Pungo.
``Like, on the streets of New York, people would say, `I know you.' It was kinda cool having people stop you on the street,'' he said. ``They'd say, `Are you, like, a big star or something?' And I'd say, `No, I'm just an actor.' ''
I knew there was a clever lad behind those brown eyes.'' - A Penny for the Guy
Since the age of 4 months, when he appeared in a commercial for Busch Gardens, Evan has been just an actor. His two older brothers have also had acting roles (although one pretty much specializes now in handling Evan's finances), and his father fits some acting in around his surveying job.
His brother attended Creeds Elementary School, too, but Evan is more used to one-on-one instruction from a teacher on the set. Three hours a day in California, Evan was tutored around TV taping times. So it's not a hardship on him to be doing school work on his kitchen table at home, keeping up with educational requirements three hours a day before popping into Norfolk for rehearsals. In fact, he likes it.
``You have to shove all the work from school into three hours,'' Evan said. ``But you don't have to stop to go to P.E. or assemblies or lunch.''
He closed a school book and pushed it to the side. ``Dream Chasers,'' read the title.
In the play, Evan portrays an abused, abandoned child in 1950s London. The play's director says Evan is thoroughly professional, and the main work he needs is learning to project his voice far enough to be heard throughout the Wells Theater.
The actors had only three weeks to rehearse together, which meant, at times, 12-hour days. Thinking back to Los Angeles, Evan asked his mother, ``Did I work on the weekends?''
``No,'' Petie replied.
``I do now,'' Evan said matter-of-factly.
It's just part of the profession. Evan beat out nine other local actors for the role of Timmy in ``A Penny for the Guy.''
He's very serious during rehearsals, studying his script beforehand, never flustered by a forgotten line. During Thursday's run-through, the director never had to prompt him to speak louder.
It took a moment for Evan to shed his sober stage persona at the end of a successful act. The director applauded. ``Yeeessss,'' Evan enthused, and turned a cartwheel.
Anyone can see by the light in your eye you're a wonderful good lad.'' - A Penny for the Guy
Evan is comfortable around adults, so comfortable that he has a firm handshake, great small talk and long-standing friendships with the elderly folks in the Lower East Side New York apartment building where he used to live.
Asked what he does when he's just being a kid, he had to think for a minute. ``I like to play with my friends,'' he said finally, ``talk to 'em on the phone.''
He asked for a Sega Saturn game at Christmas, and a Peanuts ornament. He got the game, and the whole Peanuts Hallmark collection. ``The only one I really wanted was Snoopy and Charlie Brown,'' he said.
When the play closes, Evan hopes to move on to other acting roles. On Monday, he made a whirlwind trip to New York to audition for three movies - ``Jingle All the Way'' with Arnold Schwarzenegger, ``Great Expectations'' and ``Mommy and Me'' - and a TV show called ``Firehouse.''
But he hasn't let success - or doting adults on the set - spoil him. Friendly, polite, he gets really animated talking about his brothers, the birds at the backyard feeder and his mom.
``He just acts like he's nobody special,'' Petie said.
Evan looked across the table at her. ``I am a normal kid,'' he said. ILLUSTRATION: Color photos by VICKI CRONIS/The Virginian-Pilot
Above: Evan Bonifant snacks during a break in rehearsal for "A Penny
for Guy."
Left: Sitting with co-star Ingrid MacCarthy, Evan relaxes after
checking out the set.
Below left: Evan listens to VSC artistic director Charles Hensley
during a rehearsal.
Photo by Vicki Cronis
Evan Bonifant, 10, shields his eyes from the stage lights as he
tries to see the director.
Graphic
[Fast Fax Box]
FastFacts
What
Where
When
How Much
Call: 627-1234
KEYWORDS: PROFILE by CNB