NL_021320

18 | February 13, 2020 | the new lenox patriot life & Arts
newlenoxpatriotdaily.com
‘Mary Page Marlowe’ paints picture of complicated woman
Lincoln-Way actors
star in Drama
Group production
Nuria Mathog
Contributing Editor
If you go...
What: The Drama Group’s “Mary Page Marlowe”
When: 7:30 p.m. Feb. 14, 15, 20, 21 and 22, and 2
p.m. Feb. 16 and 23
Where: The Drama Group’s Milord Studio Theatre,
330 W. 202nd St. in Chicago Heights.
Ticket information: Tickets cost $23 for adults, $21
for seniors and $17 for students with ID. They can
be purchased online at brownpapertickets.com/
event/4443615 or by calling the box office at (708)
755-3444.
Even the most seemingly
ordinary people can
turn out to be surprisingly
complex.
That is one of the principal
messages behind the
Drama Group’s upcoming
production of “Mary Page
Marlowe.” Written by
American playwright Tracy
Letts, the play chronicles
the story of an Ohio
accountant, her decisions
and her relationships with
her family. The tale is not
told chronologically, instead
conveyed through
a series of scenes from
throughout Marlowe’s
life. Nine different actreses
are cast as Marlowe,
showcasing her journey
from childhood to old age.
Director Chuck Cairns,
a Park Forest resident,
has been involved with
the Chicago Heightsbased
Drama Group “in
one form or another” for
about 45 years, starting
with a successful audition
in the 1970s for the role of
John Adams in the musical
“1776.” Since then, he
has directed about half a
dozen plays as part of the
community theater group,
he said.
He first saw the play in
its original incarnation in
Chicago’s Steppenwolf
Theatre in 2016 and was
immediately hooked, he
said.
“The idea of an examination
of one woman’s
life in non-chronological
order, over 11 different
scenes cherry-picked for
her life, just intrigued
me,” he said. “And when
it was all done and finished,
I wanted to know
more about this woman.
So the arc of her life, the
story really enthralled me,
and I thought, ‘What play,
if I ever want to direct another
one, would I want to
do?’
The cast, which consists
of about 21 actors,
has been rehearsing for
the production since just
after Christmas, he said.
The Drama Group’s rendition
of the show is told
in the round, meaning the
actors can be seen from all
sides, and involves “a lot
of moving parts,” Cairns
said.
“It’s a very, very big
piece that I’m working
on,” he said. “I’m very
blessed to have the caliber
and quantity and quality
of the actors that I have to
do the show”
Cairns said his favorite
scene from the play is the
one between Marlowe at
age 63 and her husband,
Andy — a moment he described
as one of the most
bittersweet, touching and
comedic parts of the show.
“It’s sort of a slice of
life,” he said. “And any
couple who’ve been married,
young or old, for any
length of time, will appreciate
some of the action
that goes on in that scene.
That would probably be
my favorite, but they’re
all very, very good.”
He added one member
of the group once called
the production a “parking
lot play” — the kind of
play that stays with viewers
to the extent that it
later compels them to talk
about it in the parking lot
on the way to their car.
“You’re taking all these
little isolated incidents
and then seeing, out of
time, all that happened to
her here or her child here,
came to affect her 10, 15,
25 years later down the
road here,” he said.
Frankfort resident
Jeannie Markionni, who
plays Marlowe at age 59
in the play’s final scene,
said she typically pursues
musical theater roles but
was inspired to audition
for the play because she
thought working with
Cairns would be “a great
experience.” She said she
hopes the audience is able
to take each scene and use
it to get a better understanding
of Marlowe’s actions
in other parts of the
play.
“I really feel that my
role is a transitional role
for Mary Page, where
she’s looking back and
possibly regretting some
things, and then she realizes
that that is just all part
of life, that sometimes life
is messy and you have to
pick yourself up and keep
going,” she said. “And I
think that really relates to
any of us — we all have
those moments where you
have made a mistake or
New Lenox resident Liz Yerkovich (right), playing Roberta Marlowe, rehearses a
scene with Oak Park resident Mia Wetzler, cast as a young Mary Page Marlowe, Jan.
29 in the Drama Group’s upcoming production of “Mary Page Marlowe.” Photos by
Nuria Mathog/22nd Century Media
might have gone, ‘Hm,
maybe I shouldn’t have
done that,’ and then we
move on.”
New Lenox resident Liz
Yerkovich and Mokena
resident Joshua Reid are
cast as Mary Page Marlowe’s
parents, Roberta
and Ed Marlowe, in the
1940s. Reid said this will
be his first production
with the Drama Group,
adding he was a big fan of
Letts’ plays.
“The shows he writes
have just got such emotional
weight, but it’s not
gratuitous emotional baggage
in these shows,” he
said. “It’s very personal.
You can empathize with it
very well. It’s not always
the easiest thing to write
a very personal, powerful
emotional show but
also be able to get people
to empathize with it as
well, so that’s why I love
this show, and it’s a very
unique show in the way
that it looks at Mary’s life
Frankfort resident Jeannie Markionni, playing Mary
Page Marlowe at age 59, reflects on her character’s
past.
in snapshots.”
Yerkovich said she was
looking forward to seeing
the audience’s reaction.
“[Letts] sneaks in so
many things throughout
his play, and we’ve done
it so many times, but
there’s some things now
that we’ve just started to
see,” she said. “So, I’m
interested to talk to the
audience afterwards and
ask, ‘What do you think
about this?’ or ‘What do
you think about that?’ It’s
a show that makes you
think.”