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LAKEWOOD THEATRE COMPANY PRESENTS
"DA"
March
11 - April 17, 2005
By
Hugh Leonard
Directed
by Rebecca Becker
Tickets
Da
Mast Head | Da Cast & Crew
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Attached Photo Credit: (left to right):
Gary Powell as the son Charlie, Keith Scales as Da (his
father) and Ari
Karczag as young Charlie.
Photo by Rebecca J.
Becker.
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DA: The story of a man haunted
by the
spirit of his Irish father
 About the Play: Middle-aged Charlie (Gary Powell)
returns to his childhood home in Ireland to put everything in order
following the death of his foster father (or "Da"). Going
home brings back a flood of memories from his youth and his
relationship with his Da.
As Charlie sits at
the kitchen table sorting newspaper clippings and old papers, Da walks
in. Although dead, Da won't lie down in his grave or shut up. He
keeps interrupting Charlie, not as a ghost but as a garrulous living
presence. He butts into Charlie's mind with unasked-for advice and
truisms. He lives on in Charlie's head, as exasperating in death as
he was in life, speaking his mind, especially when he thinks it is
likely to cause a stir.
As the play unfolds
past and present intersect as Charlie relives memories of himself as
young Charlie (Ari Karczag), and his interactions with his
fierce dominating mother (Chrisse Roccaro) his first love
interest (Elizabeth Young), his best friend Oliver (Andrew
Hickman) his first employer, the formidable Mr. Drumm (David
Heath) and his father's stingy long-time employer, Mrs. Prynne
(Suzanne Owens-Duval).
 As Charlie
digs deeper into his memories, he begins to recall moments that reveal
his Da to be a much more complicated man than he had initially given
him credit for. When he leaves behind his childhood home, Charlie must
decide whether to leave behind the memory of his father as well, or
take his Da with him.
Stage Direction
for LTC's production of Da is by Rebecca Becker. The
stage design is by Chris Whitten, lighting design is by Kurt
Herman, properties are by Sandy Shaner, costume design is
by Pat Rohrbach, the stage manager is Bonnie
Toon-Sweeney and the producer is Kay Vega.
Background material for Da
About the
Play:
 Set in a Dublin suburb, Da, first presented in 1973
and considered by author Hugh Leonard to be his favorite play, is an
autobiographical account of a playwright coming home to bury his
father and finding himself haunted by the spirit of the old man and by
the spirits of his mother and a younger version of himself. Bernard
Hughes, who portrayed the feisty curmudgeon, Da (Irish slag for
"dad") was showered with awards as outstanding performer,
receiving a Tony, the Drama Desk Award and the Outer Circle Critics
Award. Director Melvin Bernhardt also received a Tony, the Drama Desk
and Outer Critics Circle Award, for his direction of Leonard's
work.
About the
Author:
Hugh Leonard (Playwright) is a highly prolific
writer for the stage, films and television in England and Ireland. He
was little known in the U.S. until the production of The Au Pair
Man, though his later play, called Da, was presented at the
Olney Theatre, Olney, Maryland, two months prior to the American
premiere of The Au Pair Man.
Born in Dublin in 1926, Mr. Leonard had his greatest international
success with the New York premiere of his 1973 play Da. The
production was presented off-Broadway in 1977 at the Hudson Guild
Theatre and then moved to Broadway and the Morosco Theatre. In 1978,
it was honored with a host of theatre awards, the Drama Critics Circle
Award for Best Play; the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding New Play; a
Tony for Best Play of the 1977/78 theatre season; and the Outer
Critics Circle Award as Best Play of the 1977/78 season.
Other stage plays by Leonard include: The Pearse Motel, The
Big Birthday, A Leap in the Dark, Madigan's Lock, A Walk on the
Water, The Passion of Peter Ginty, Stephen D., The Poker Season,
Dublin 1, Some of My Best Friends Are Husbands, The Saints Go Cycling
In, Mick and Mick, The Quick and the Dead, The Barracks, Thieves, Da,
A Life, The Mask of Moriarity, Pizzazz, Roman Fever, Summer,
Irishmen, and A View From the Obelisk.
His films include Interlude, Great Catherine, Percy and
Widow's Peak.
For television he has written The Irish Boys, trilogy,
Pandora, Silent Song, (Priz Italia), The Retreat, The Virgins,
The Truth Game, Me Mammy, Tales from the Lazy Acre, and many
others that include adaptations of Dickens, Emily Bronte, Flaubert, Dostoyevsky, Somerset
Maugham, Conan Doyle, Maupassant, and James
Joyce.
When not writing for the stage, Leonard acts as the literary manager
of the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, and is a frequent reviewer for
Plays and Players magazine, published in London.
About the
Director:
Rebecca Becker (Director) directed the OTAS and
Drammy award-winning Blithe Spirit, OTAS award-winning
Sleuth and After the Fact/Porch (all starring Keith
Scales). Other work at Lakewood includes choreography or combat
direction for Ring 'Round the Moon and I Hate Hamlet.
In Portland, she directed and choreographed the Drammy award-winning
production of Antigone for Classic Greek Theatre, and the
premiere of John Vergin's opera Final Quartet. She has
directed numerous productions nationally and internationally,
including Linda Walsh Jenkins' original trilogy with music, Old
Wives Tales in its Chicago premiere, and Steve Gooch's Female
Transport in its Midwest inaugural presentation. From 1993, to the
present, Rebecca has collaborated with Artistic Director Keith Scales
at Classic Greek Theatre with the composition of music for
Prometheus Bound and Medea, and the choreography for seven
of their productions. This fall Lakewood Center for the Arts hosted a
display of her pastel paintings, for which she won national and
international awards including a First Prize in the 2004 Sennelier
Pastels Competition). Rebecca taught for nine years at Lewis &
Clark College (where she was awarded the Professor of the Year Award)
and is now on the faculty at Portland State University. She is also
featured on television as one of four hosts on the PBS series,
Bridging World History.
The Players
- Leading Characters:
Keith Scales (Da) has been a free-lance actor, director and
writer in the Pacific Northwest since 1970 and is currently artistic
director of Classic Greek Theatre of Oregon. He has acted in and/or
directed several shows at Lakewood, including A Lesson From Aloes,
Bedroom Farce, Ring Round the Moon, I Hate Hamlet,
Sleuth, After the Fact/Porch and Blithe Spirit.
Keith would like to dedicate his performance in this production to his
own Da who, he is reliably informed, was half-Irish.
Gary Powell (Charlie) has previously appeared at Lakewood in
The Woman in Black, Ah! Wilderness (OTAS Award),
Footlight Frenzy, Arsenic and Old Lace (OTAS Award),
Inspecting Carol, Perfect Crime, and Rumors. This
season he performed at Artists Repertory Theatre in Mrs. Bob
Cratchit's Wild Christmas Ride, which marked his seventeenth
performance with ART. Professionally he has acted in numerous leading
and featured stage roles in the metro area in the last twenty years.
He has also appeared in feature and industrial films, commercials,
worked as a voice-over artist, and been a member of a touring company
on the East Coast. He has degrees in English and teaching and a MFA in
acting. During the day, he teaches English to high school seniors.
Chrisse Roccaro (Mother) has had a career as a singer,
character actress and radio, television and film actor (SAG,AFTRA)
that has spanned more than 30 years in Portland and New York. Her most
recent appearance was as Judy/ginger in Ruthless, at
Astoria's River Theatre. In March 2003 she created the role of Louise
in the premier of Promise, a new chamber opera by Theresa Koon.
At Lakewood Theatre she appeared in 2003 as Hannah in Spitfire
Grill, as Madam Arcati in Blithe Spirit, (2003 Drammy Award
Outstanding Achievement by an Actress in a Supporting Role), and as
Nettie Fowler in Carousel.
Da
- Director's Notes:
I confess.
I'm haunted.
I also confess: it's been funny.
When Kay Vega agreed I could direct Hugh Leonard's play, Da,
I was already far under the spell of Nick Tynan, Da himself. In
the year since I've read Leonard's two autobiographies and read
the play itself countless dozens of times, but the spell remains as
magical as it was the first time I encountered the man.
To some extent it was inevitable. All of us, Irish or not, have to
reinvent ourselves as ourselves: separate from our parents. And
all of us, in the end, realize even our reinvention is shaped by those
from whom we separate. At that moment, it's blindingly (and
often startlingly) clear - they're still part of us, and indeed
must be part of us, with their force and with their foibles, if we
are to be whole.
But I had my own mother and father - both, like Hugh Leonard's
parents, dead but certainly not vanished. Did I really need another Da?
Apparently, I hadn't a choice. At rehearsal Keith Scales will utter
one of Da's lines perfectly, and I swear I hear another voice
laughing with mine in delight at his own words spoken so well. When
Chrisse Roccaro, playing Maggie Tynan, whirls suddenly between
laughter and fury and that same voice beside me marvels, "Isn't
she a wonder!" His love for his son spills into such fondness
for Gary and Ari, his admiration for Mrs. Prynne becomes his
approbation for Suzanne, his warm sympathy for Mary Tate melds with
his affection for Elizabeth, even his impatience with Oliver doesn't
keep him from laughing at how well Andrew embodies his son's best
friend. And Drum - ah, here's another confession - his respect
for Drum, and his admiration for David, were what led me to understand
how crucial that man was to both Charlie's life and the play itself.
And all with such laughter!
I didn't invite him, but he certainly has made himself at
home.
What else has he taught me? Everything you'll see on stage
tonight. But fair warning: don't think you'll leave him
here. He's got a way of walking home with you when you least expect
it.
-
Rebecca J. Becker
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