A stage full of somebodies

Jennifer K Mahal

o7 “I’m nobody! Who are you? Are you nobody, too?”

f7 -- Emily Dickinson

It was to be a 14-character play about a rather obscure female

American poet. But Charles Luce’s “Belle of Amherst” turned out to be a

one-person play that helped give the poet in question, Emily Dickinson,

name-recognition around the world.

Actress Julie Harris and director Charles Nelson Reilly will speak

about “the Belle,” on stage through Oct. 8 at the Laguna Playhouse, at 7

p.m. Monday in the Newport Beach Central Library’s Friends Meeting Room.

Harris -- known for work as diverse as Sally Bowles in “I am a Camera”

and her seven-year stint on “Knots Landing” -- has not been Emily since

1987, when she did two performances at the Laguna Playhouse.

For the 74-year-old actress, performing the Belle is like returning to

an old friend after a long journey. Harris originated the role and won a

Tony for her portrayal in 1977. Then, as now, Nelson Reilly directed her.

When asked why she likes the spinster poet who was never published in

her lifetime, Harris has no pat answer.

“Why do you like Van Gogh? Or why do you like Beethoven or Mozart,”

Harris queries. “I just like Emily Dickinson. I think her life is

fascinating, and I think she, as a messenger of love, has a lot to give

people.”

Harris’ understanding of Dickinson and her poetry has grown over time,

said Don Gregory, a Newport Beach arts commissioner who produced the play

in 1976.

“In the beginning, she used to come out with black cake and say ‘This

is my introduction. Black cake.’ She use to do this all as one piece,”

Gregory said. “Now she thinks about being frightened. She pauses and

makes an internal and barely perceptible sound as if having a stranger to

tea, which she is. She says the same lines, but she thinks about it more,

she feels more.”

Gregory, who will moderate Monday, talks of the actress and the Belle

with warmth in his voice. The play, which has been translated into 21

languages, is his favorite of the ones he has helped bring to the stage.

“I just think it’s a miracle,” Gregory said. “Taking what in 1976 was

an obscure poet and making her entertaining and come to life ... We used

to say that Miss Emily was watching the production and giving it her

love.”

The Newport Beach resident became involved with the play after meeting

Nelson Reilly at Sardi’s in New York City.

“I heard, ‘You’re not in the book.’ And I looked around and I heard

‘You’re not in the book’ again,” Gregory recalls. “I said ‘What book are

you talking about?”’

Nelson Reilly told Gregory that he had been trying to reach him by

looking him up in the New York City phone directory and had been

unsucessful.

“I said, ‘That’s because I live in Los Angeles,”’ Gregory quipped.

Nelson Reilly asked Gregory, an established theater producer, if he

would like to try and do a play about Dickinson with Harris in the main

role.

The rest is history -- except for one thing. The play originally had

14 roles in it.

“I had just come off of producing ‘Clarence Darrow’ with Henry Fonda

and was into one-person plays,” said Gregory. “Bill Luce adapted very

quickly to my instructions.”

Harris said that performing it solo can be a challenge.

“It does take a sort of different kind of attention when you’re

performing a one-person play because there is no one to help you out if

you forget something,” she said, “and there is no one to take the burden

with you.”

But it is a burden she carries beautifully.

“Julie is the first lady of the theater now,” Gregory said of the

woman who helped found the Actor’s Studio. “She’s probaly the greatest

stage actress we have, and she reposes such huge confidence in Charles

Nelson Reilly.”

He does as well, crediting the director with injecting both humor and

poignancy into the play.

“It tears you apart and makes you laugh,” Gregory said.

FYI

WHAT: “A very special evening with Julie Harris and Charles Nelson

Reilly.”

WHERE: Newport Beach Central Library’s Friends Meeting Room, 1000

Avocado Ave.

WHEN: 7 p.m. Monday

COST: Free

CALL: (949) 717-3801

MISC: For more information on “The Belle of Amherst” at the Laguna

Playhouse, call (949) 497-ARTS or visit www.lagunaplayhouse.com.