'Happy Days' takes the stage in Bloomington

Winnie cannot move. Willie does not speak. Immobility and paralysis are strong themes in Samuel Beckett's "Happy Days," a two-man show which premiers at the Rose Firebay of the John Waldron Arts Center this weekend.\nThe first act opens to reveal Winnie is buried up to her waist. Beckett's script gives no explanation for Winnie's condition. She speaks of a time when she could walk, but does not focus on her incapacitation. Talking to Willie and painting her fingernails, Winnie continues on with her everyday life. Things may seem bleak for Winnie in the first act, but the second act opens to a more frightening scene -- Winnie is buried up to her neck.\nBringing "Happy Days" to a Bloomington stage has been a long-time dream of Martha Jacobs, who is directing the show. \n"This was sort of a Mount Everest project I wanted to climb," Jacobs said.\nRecently, Jacobs decided it was time to conquer Beckett's script, which is so difficult it is rarely performed. Jacobs said it is difficult to find actors talented enough to perform the complex script. She said she decided it was time to conquer this play because she knew actress Diane Kondrat had what it takes to make the play work. \nKondrat has been taking acting lessons from Jacobs for 16 years, performed in over 80 roles and is the artistic director of the Interaction Theater, an educational improvisational performance group in Indianapolis.\n"I really don't think I know of another actress who could pull it off," Jacobs said.\nJacobs applied for the Indiana Arts Commission grant and asked Kondrat to be her Winnie. Kondrat said Jacobs approached her with enthusiasm she could not resist. \nKondrat said the role has been her most challenging to date.\n"'Waiting for Godot' was a walk in the park compared to this," Kondrat said.\nWhen rehearsals first began, Kondrat tried her hardest not to move the lower half of her body and found the physical effort exhausting. \n"Then I realized the audience couldn't see it. It was really a relief," Kondrat said.\nSince Willie has few lines, Winnie's lines consist of one extremely long monologue. Kondrat said learning her part was difficult because of her endless lines. \n"This show, I've had to draw pictures to help me know what's going on," Kondrat said. "I had to make a road map to the script or forget it."\nKondrat has spent nearly six hours a day preparing for this role in addition to working a day job.\nDespite the dark themes of incapacitation and the pending doom of Winnie's gradual burial, Jacobs and Kondrat both said the play is highly comical. \n"The biggest, craziest thing is how funny it is," Kondrat said. \nMike Price, who plays Willie, adds a lot of physical comedy to his role.\n"I don't have a lot of lines, but I'm involved throughout the show," Price said.\nKondrat said she was surprised when Jacobs allowed her to goof around with the part and actually encouraged her to act loopier.\n"Martha has really concentrated on making it funny," Kondrat said. "I didn't think I'd be able to make it as funny as it is. I've really had a blast doing this role."\nKondrat said she tends to ham up the humor and she was sure Jacobs would tell her to hold back in her usual on-stage antics. Jacobs said she stressed the humorous parts of the play to make it more animated.\n"The challenge was how to keep the play dynamic and interesting when the main actress is basically immobile," Jacobs said. "People come to Beckett expecting a very dark vision, but we find that this play is really quite funny."\nEllen Sieber, who designed and painted the backdrop for the play, said she thought it was about the way people connect with each other and their world. Jacobs said the play took place in an indistinct time and place and Sieber said she tried to capture that in her backdrop. \n"It's almost like one of those puzzle pictures where it is different from different angles," Sieber said. "It's kind of like that with the play. On one level it's very frightening, and on another it's very hopeful."\n-- Contact staff writer Jenica Schultz at jwschult@indiana.edu.