Article from The Daily Citizen-- July 11, 1997

Reprinted from The Daily Citizen Entertainer, July 11, 1997

'It's only a play.' 'It's only a play.'
Searcy Dinner Theater brings intense, dark 'Gaslight' to the stage
By Judy O'Farrell, Staff Writer

Casting Call-- The cast of Gaslight (standing, left to right) Julie Wright, Hannah Dixon, Paul Huebner, Nathan Noble, Michael Woodall; (sitting) Heather Holder, Henry McDaniel. The show will be performed at the Harding University Student Center, room 236, this weekend.

It's just a play, right? Just a guy dressed up pretending to be a murderer. His wife, not really going insane, not really even his wife-- just a girl. Just a story about a girl whose murdering husband drives her to the brink of insanity.

It is just a play. No need to get anxious, right?

Wrong.

If the actors in Searcy Summer Dinner Theater's Gaslight have anything to do with it, you'll leave the show with sweat glistening on your wrought brow. "I think there will be some nervous laughing," director Steve Frye said with a sinister gleam in his eye.

What you can expect is a "suspenseful melodrama," according to Frye. It's not your typical mystery in that the villain practically wears a sign, but "what's interesting is, how are we going to catch him, how much is he going to get away with?" Frye said.

Such tension has even the actors nervous, as Harding student Heather Holder, the victim/heroine, admits to being sent into the hallway in a fit of uneasy giggling.

If anyone has a right to feel uneasy it's Holder's Mrs. Manningham-- the woman is married to a man bound on convincing her that she's mad. A man who has killed before.

An evil man who will see justice only through the magnifying glass of the grinning "good guy," Inspector Rough, portrayed by Searcy resident and Harding employee Paul Huebner. "With Rough, you can tell that every challenge is a joy," Huebner said of his character. "He just loves his job."

Rough, with his notebook full of one-liners, is a comic relief in this otherwise intense script. Comic suits Huebner, who calls the part "freedom" in that "when Rough gets into trouble, he jokes. Paul can't do that," he said. Huebner is, in fact, not often free these days-- he is designing, building, and acting in Gaslight.

But it doesn't take him long to adjust to his stage character. "When I'm up there [on stage], everything disappears," he said, and only the crime-solving detective is left.

It takes heavier concentration to set Holder into her tormented character, with whom "it's not easy" to relate. "Obviously I'm not going insane," she said.

"Or I hope not," she added, laughing-- an uncertainty not altogether unreal after a run-through of the show when "I'll just be in tears," she said. She has to stop and remind herself, "It's just a show."

Just a show that's more dramatic than Holder is accustomed to. "My biggest experience is in comedy," she said. "Now all of a sudden, not only do I have to do a serious role, but it's my first lead."

"I'm usually tired after a full run-through," she added, smiling.

"You catch [the atmosphere], too," Frye said of the potential dilemma, "but it's the actor's craft to be able to put that aside and say, 'Okay, let's look at the notes.'"

"I joke about having to debrief everyone after the show," he said of the script, which he, however, described as lighter than the famous movie version.

The 1930s movie with Ingrid Bergman inspired Frye's decision to direct "Gaslight," but he noted many differences in the original. "It is a piece of its own," he said.

Frye amended the script himself to reflect the more action-oriented society in which the show will be performed. He said he pulled up the anchoring soliloquies in order to sail the action forward more quickly.

And the action will sail, according to Frye. "There are a couple of twists at the end," he said with a grin. "Will the hero be able to solve the mystery?"

What put this writer on edge was finding that Harding student Henry McDaniel, who portrays the villain, was perfectly comfortable in this setting. I caught him on stage before rehearsal, trying to hone his cigar-puffing techniques. How does he like playing the merciless Mr. Manningham?

"I love it," he said. "I absolutely love it."

But he's just a guy, a nice guy, dressed in a stuffy suit, right? I mean, it's just a play.

Just keep telling yourself that. And if, while you're watching, you feel an uncomfortable tickle at the back of your throat, don't squelch it. Just go ahead and giggle.

According to Holder, "it's just a natural release."

Pleased to meet you--Heather Holder as Mrs. Manningham accepts the charm-loaded greeting of Inspector Rough, portrayed by Paul Huebner. Holder and Huebner have acted together in previous productions on the Harding campus.

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