Former local luminary stars under the Big Sky

Shortly after earning this column’s “woman of the year in theater”

honor in 1993, Mary Sullivan Slack packed her bags, bid farewell to

the Newport Theater Arts Center and headed for Montana. She’s been

very active in theater there and has brought many budding talents

onto the stage.

Now known as Mary Reckin after a divorce and remarriage, she’s

been a leading lady on northwestern Montana’s theater scene, both as

an actress and director. She is ensconced in Kalispell, where she’s

preparing to costar (in the Katharine Hepburn role) in Ernest

Thompson’s venerable heart-warmer, “On Golden Pond.”

The show will play in Kalispell for a weekend in September before

heading to nearby Libby, where Reckin directed and starred in the

musical “Jerry’s Girls” two years ago.

Clearly, she’s found a home in Big Sky Country.

“Last April I directed a little-known play entitled ‘Ladies First’

by the chaps who wrote ‘Something’s Afoot,”’ she said.

Reckin was featured in a production of “Something’s Afoot,” a

mystery play, at both Newport Theater Arts Center and the Costa Mesa

Civic Playhouse.

Other appearances at the Costa Mesa theater included roles in

“Call Me Madam,” “Under the Yum Yum Tree,” “Idiot’s Delight,”

“Absence of a Cello,” “Baker Street” and “Night Watch.” She also

directed “The Pirates of Penzance” for the playhouse.

At the Newport Theater Arts Center, she performed in “Murder Among

Friends,” “Zorba,” “A Little Night Music,” “The White Arrow” and

“Blithe Spirit.” She directed the center’s “A Distance From Calcutta”

and “Ladies in Retirement” and served as producer for nine other

Newport productions.

For the short-lived Newport Harbor Actors Theater, once housed in

the Newport Theater Arts Center facility, Reckin was seen in “The

Great Sebastians” and “The Royal Family.”

About “Ladies First,” Reckin said, “It revolves around Jackie

Kennedy’s restoration of the White House and a day when Eleanor

Roosevelt, Bess Truman, Mamie Eisenhower, Pat Nixon and Lady Bird

Johnson come to view it first.

“I used all women from the Flathead Democratic Women’s Assn.,” she

said. “We only had two performances, but they were sold out.”

One of the featured actresses was Kay Schweitzer, mother of

Montana’s governor, playing Eleanor Roosevelt.

“We raised $1,700 for our group,” Reckin said.

Reckin, who has become deeply involved in her new state’s

Democratic politics, says she’s been keeping busy “attending

conventions, painting, decorating and riding on floats.” Next

February she’ll direct a P.J. Barry play entitled “Heritage” for

President’s Day.

“It’s about the women in Lincoln’s life,” she said. “It’s short,

but very presentational and easy to stage.”

Reckin’s future plans also include forming a readers’ theater

group to perform classic dramas by Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller

and Eugene O’Neill. She’s also scheduled to direct “Mornings at

Seven” in nearby Bigfork.

She said she revisits her old Costa Mesa and Newport haunts

occasionally and would pay an extended visit if either theater

planned to produce the play “Lettice and Lovage.”

“That’s the one I have to do before I hang it up,” she said.

* TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Daily Pilot. His reviews

appear Fridays.