THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, July 17, 1996 TAG: 9607160137
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 12 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY NANCY LEWIS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 122 lines
Like a picture's frame, Kent Collins' career in the military serves as a boundary for his creative spirit and lets his theatrical talent flow as freely as paint onto a canvas.
When he's not working on the propulsion plants of nuclear-powered submarines and aircraft, this 32-year-old Navy lieutenant likes to spend his time singing, acting, choreographing and directing.
This week, Collins directs ``Eat Your Heart,'' a drama written by Virginia Beach playwright Bob Boehler, that opens tonight and runs through Sunday at the Generic Theater in Ghent. Curtain time is 8 p.m. through Saturday, and Sunday's matinee is at 2 p.m. It's one of five productions in the experimental theater's third annual ``New Plays for Dog Days'' summer festival, a monthlong event.
Collins said that his 10-year stint in the Navy has provided the structure that has set his artistic spirit free.
``If you've never been penned in, you don't realize the joy of creativity,'' he said during a recent rehearsal of the two-act play. ``When you're out at sea, your 24-hour day is completely regimented, technical, rigid. The schedule made me realize how nice it is to pursue this.''
For three weeks, the cast honed its lines nightly in a large room at Atlantic Entertainment studios a few blocks from the theater.
Collins settled into an easy chair, flipped open his worn copy of the script and started giving specific stage directions to David Cross and Tim Kircher, who play ``Binge'' and ``Stub'' respectively in the production.
The two fictional characters are basically nice guys who just never amounted to much. As they approach middle age, their lives revolve around smuggling cigarettes to Canada, fishing and playing softball.
``Remember the blocking?'' Collins admonished gently, and his actors repositioned themselves at the center of the room. Collins adjusted his glasses and checked the notes he had made in the margins of the script.
The scene opened with the men fishing and drinking beer while sitting back-to-back in an imaginary rowboat.
``We'd have to get $100 a fish, maybe more, if we ever figured out what we spent,'' quipped Binge, casting his line out onto imaginary water.
Director Collins said the characters are ``great big teens who engage in a wonderful banter, like the trickle of a river running by. They could be anybody's ex.''
The theater billed the play as a ``slice-of-life drama ... heart-warming tale of reckoning.''
Boehler's script was one of five selected from more than 100 submitted to the theater for consideration this season. Other plays chosen for performance were written by playwrights from Chicago, Los Angeles and New York.
Boehler 55, teaches math and science at Birdneck Elementary School. He has been writing plays for about 10 years and has had one other produced - ``Love In Low Gear,'' an ``unromantic'' comedy done by the Buffalo Ensemble Theater in New York.
Boehler, who is back in New York this summer, said, ``Buffalo has a waterfront tradition like the Tidewater area, but of course it's not as old or as big as Tidewater.
``The people in the play started out as people that I know, that I've fished with and played ball with and drank soda with. You can find people like them in any waterfront bar along the Niagara. They're called river rats. Down here, I think you call them good old boys . . . They started out as people I know, but then they began saying things and doing things on their own. And I imagine that's the difference between reporting and creating.''
Lt. Kent Collins has show biz in his soul. He played his first part at the age of 8 in a production of ``Mame.''
He grew up in the small South Carolina town of Sumter in a family that just oozed showmanship. His father, an Air Force career man, sang and acted, and his mother, an English teacher by profession, was a choreographer and dancer at heart and in her spare time.
Kent Collins attended the Naval Academy in Annapolis, where he majored in English. He moved to Norfolk two years ago from the Seattle area. His wife, Erin Collins, a professional photographer, plays a part in the production.
So far, the rehearsal of Scene One was flawless, and Cross and Kircher were joined by Jessmyne Dizon in a dry run of the cafe scene. Dizon, 30, of Norfolk, is a hotel reservationist in her real-life role and plays several parts in the production. In this particular scene, she's ``Wang,'' a waitress, but she also appears as the restaurant's owner and as ``Woo,'' an illegal immigrant Binge and Stub have smuggled across the Canadian border into the United States.
Collins watched and listened intently, ad-libbing a few sound effects and promptly prompting his actors and actresses when they stumbled over their lines, although such mistakes were infrequent.
Cross, who plays Binge, is a 52-year-old retired steel company employee who lives in Virginia Beach. Kircher, alias Stub, is 31 and lives in Norfolk. In the real world, he's an industrial manager.
Erin Collins plays ``Sonya,'' Binge's friend, a young divorced mother who likes to party. Anne Morton, a 31-year-old professional actress from Norfolk, plays ``Renee,'' Stub's romantic interest - at least for a few hours - after the two meet at the hospital where she works as a nurse.
The festival runs through Aug. 10. During the final week, all productions will be done for a panel of judges who will award two prizes. The ``Top Dog'' award goes to the best overall production and the ``Pick of the Litter'' prize goes to the best new script.
The challenge for Collins and his cast will be to create a memorable experience for the audience in the ``low budget'' production, Collins said. A ``black box'' approach will be used - a black-curtained stage with slides used to set the scene. ``Minimal set - content rather than flash and flair,'' said Collins.
Kent Collins credits his Navy life for providing the structure he needed to let his creativity blossom.
``I was good on the stage when I was young, but not really good until after I'd had six or seven years of Navy training,'' he said. ``If all you ever know is freedom, no boundaries, if you're raised that way, you don't realize how valuable the structure is.''
The Generic Theater is at 912 W. 21st St. The summer festival project is made possible in part through sponsorship by the City of Norfolk and the Norfolk Commission on the Arts and Humanities.
Other upcoming productions in the series are ``Clown Speak'' by Nikki Harmon and ``A Mother's Death Wish'' by Jay Folb. Individual tickets are $6, and a festival pass is $18. For more information and reservations, call 441-2160. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by GARY KNAPP
Navy Lt. Kent Collins, left, who is directing ``Eat Your Heart'' at
the Generic Theater, works with Tim Kircher of Norfolk, who plays
``Stub'' and David Cross of Virginia Beach, who plays ``Binge.''
Virginia Beach playwright Bob Boehler's script for ``Eat Your
Heart'' was one of five selected from more than 100 submitted to the
theater for consideration this season. by CNB