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Thursday, October 23, 2008
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Comfortable 'Crazies' Actors enjoy working with Bryan Johnson in Aitkin Community Theatre's first play in three years Entertainment Editor AITKIN - At first, Connie Pettersen thought she was crazy for accepting a role in Aitkin Community Theater's "Borderline Crazies." Four months after she started memorizing her lines, her dog still thinks she's crazy.
"My dog is gonna be glad to have me back (after the play)," Pettersen said before a rehearsal last week at Aitkin High School. "In order to learn the lines, I recorded them on an iPod. I go for a walk every day with the dog, and we live in a neighborhood where we're kind of close to the road. So all of a sudden I'm yelling the lines because I have to practice it louder. My dog used to turn around and stare at me. Now she totally ignores me."
At least Pettersen is spending quality time with her husband, Chuck, on the comedy, which runs Thursday-Saturday in the AHS auditorium. The Pettersens play a couple whose marriage has lost its spark. Another Aitkin couple, Jon and Jan Hegman, play a husband and wife who try to help the other couple at a double-booked Lake Tahoe cabin.
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Chuck and Connie Pettersen play Stu and Ellen Thomas in Aitkin Community Theatre's production of "Borderline Crazies." The Pettersens are one of two Aitkin couples who play couples in the show. Brainerd Dispatch/Kelly Humphrey
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Just as these "Borderline Crazies" are looking for things to do as couples, so were the actors.
Bryan Johnson, the former Aitkin High School choir director who is fronting the first Aitkin Community Theater show since 2005, didn't hold traditional auditions for "Borderline Crazies." Rather, he phoned the Pettersens and Hegmans and said the roles were theirs if they wanted them.
"Bryan has a good way of convincing," said Jon Hegman, who - like his wife and Chuck Pettersen - had acted for Johnson as a student and as an adult. "The first (community play) I did (2001's "See How They Run"), that's the first lines I'd ever done. I was in musicals but hadn't really had any lines. I said, 'Is it very much?' He said, 'It's not too bad.' I had probably the second-most lines in the whole thing! But he makes you very comfortable.
"I've really enjoyed it, especially when I've had a chance to be with Jan. We're recent empty nesters now, so it's a good way to spend time together."
Connie Pettersen, originally from St. Paul, had acted in Aitkin's Riverboat Days, but this was her first invitation to Johnson's party. She required more convincing than the other three actors.
"My husband convinced me (to take the role)," she said. "I write for the News Hopper in Aitkin, and I didn't need anything else, so I wasn't real excited. But my husband said, 'It's something we could do together. We're always saying we don't have enough things to do together.'"
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Stu Thomas (Chuck Pettersen, left) wields an ax as Monica Black (Jan Hegman) flies into husband Ira's (Jon Hegman) arms in a scene from "Borderline Crazies." The Aitkin Community Theater comedy opens Thursday in the Aitkin High School auditorium. Brainerd Dispatch/Kelly Humphrey
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"Unfortunately, the play is backwards," Chuck Pettersen said with a laugh. "In the play, she's trying to convince me of things like that."
Connie Pettersen is glad she took the role. If she hadn't, and Chuck did take a role, she wouldn't have seen him for four months, she said. That's only a slight exaggeration.
"It's definitely not like joining a book club," she said. "I have a stack of magazines unlooked at. I've got novels stacked up to read once this is over. I gave up personal reading."
"There's a lot to memorize; more than an average play," Jan Hegman said. "There are two more minor parts, but it's basically the four of us having the lines for the entire play."
If you go
What: "Borderline Crazies."
Staged by: Aitkin Community Theater.
When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday.
Where: Aitkin High School auditorium.
Tickets: $7, on sale at the Aitkin Independent Age and at the door.
Phone: (218) 927-3953.
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"The way Bryan does it is amazing," Connie Pettersen said. "You start off just learning the first few pages, and then you do a walk-on, then eventually you have to get rid of the book, and then you move on to the next (section). I kept thinking, 'I don't think I can remember anymore,' but it just magically happens. We met his deadlines, and pretty soon you learn all the lines and put it all together, and that's what we're doing now."
The cast and crew members think audiences will find "Borderline Crazies" funny. Johnson, sporting the same enthusiasm he brought to AHS musicals from 1969-2007, spoke about a physical scene in Act II.
"We built the walls only this high and we have a platform back there with a shelf that extends out," he said, gesturing to the living-room set where the action takes place. "(Chuck Pettersen's character) crawls up a ladder and leans over the edge and is looking in the window upside down. He loses his balance and falls. We've got two big wrestling mats back there."
Even with all the physical stunts and comedy, the message of "Borderline Crazies" isn't lost on the four leads.
"I really like the premise of it, because you see the way marriages are nowadays," Jon Hegman said. "You see a lot of people drift apart, and this is an effort to draw them together."
"The play actually has a good moral to it," Connie Pettersen said. "There's good psychology in there for keeping your marriage fresh."
JOHN HANSEN may be reached at john.hansen@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5863.
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