Entertainment

By Mary Therese Biebel mbiebel@timesleader.com
Features Writer
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As he plays agent/father figure Herbie to the long-suffering daughters of a strident stage mother, noted character actor Austin Pendleton has some advice for his young cast mates in “Gypsy.”

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Director William Roudebush laughs as actor Austin Pendleton, right, tells a funny story from his acting career during rehearsal for ‘Gypsy.’ The musical, presented by Wyoming Seminary’s Performing Arts Institute, will be at the F.M. Kirby Center Aug. 6-7.

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Allison Considine of Dallas, who plays Louise, and Devon McFadden of South Orleans, Mass., who plays her mother, Rose, rehearse ‘Gypsy’ with Austin Pendleton at Wyoming Seminary.

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If they intend to make a career of acting, directing or playwrighting – he’s done all three – they should go for it but only “if they really, really want it.”

“It’s a profession where rejection is sort of the norm,” Pendleton said as he relaxed before a mid-week rehearsal at Wyoming Seminary’s Performing Arts Institute. “It’s not just rejection, but rejection according to other people’s whims and moods.”

His own resume is so chock full of successes, it seems Pendleton, 69, loses little time fretting about rejection himself. He’s appeared in such movies as “My Cousin Vinny,” “A Beautiful Mind,” “What’s Up Doc?” and “The Front Page” and even had a turn as the voice of Gurgle, the hypochondriac fish in “Finding Nemo.”

“I had to scream all the time … because he was a hypochondriac” Pendleton remembered with a chuckle. “No, no germs.”

After he portrayed the harmless little fish, Pendleton played the infamous Marquis de Sade (the word sadism comes from this man’s name) in a Massachusetts repertory theater’s production of “Quills.” Talk about versatility.

You may have seen the actor in HBO’s “Oz,” as a medical examiner in the seventh and final season of “Homicide: Life on the Street” or in episodes of “Murder, She Wrote,” “The Cosby Show,” “Frasier” and dozens of other shows.

His career highlights include directing Elizabeth Taylor in “The Little Foxes” and originating the role of Motel the tailor in “Fiddler on the Roof” on Broadway.

More recently, and off-Broadway, he directed “Vieux Carre,” a Tennesee Williams play set in a boarding house in New Orleans’ French Quarter. He also wrote the book for a musical version of George Bernard Shaw’s “Candida.”

The roles he’s enjoyed playing the most, he said, are “the two tramps in ‘Waiting for Godot’ and Chekhov’s “Uncle Vanya.”

His craft doesn’t always come easily, Pendleton said, mentioning a Central Park performance of “Romeo and Juliet” in which he found the role of Friar Lawrence particularly challenging.

“I’d get up at 5 in the morning, go outside and look for birds and flowers,” he said, explaining how he tried to get a handle on the character, who fiddles with herbs when he’s not advising star-crossed lovers or performing clandestine wedding ceremonies.

The role of the middle-age gentleman he’s playing in “Gypsy” – the musical story of stripper Gypsy Rose Lee’s rise to fame – is easier to understand.

At first, Pendleton said, Herbie is lonely. After the character pairs off with Rose, the mother who tries to push her daughters June and Louise into vaudeville, “he’s not lonely anymore, but his life is more hassled.”

“Gypsy” director Bill Roudebush said he’s pleased with the spontaneity Pendleton brings to the role and hopes PAI’s young thespians will emulate that trait.

“It’s a way of creating a character, the way a great singer sings a song they may have sung a thousand times before, and they make it look as if they’re making it up as they go.”

Some of the younger actors who appear in “Gypsy” said Herbie is the most sympathetic character in the production.

“He gives, gives, gives,” said Mitch Burke, 18, of Clarks Summit.

“And he never receives,” said Rob Hess, 17, of Ashley.

But another cast member, Scott Ashford, 18, of Mountain Top, feels empathy for the character Louise, who grows up in her sister’s shadow.

“She’s left out of everything, and her mother doesn’t love her as much,” he said.

Tori Bost, 15, of Dunmore, plays the more talented sister, June, and researched her life.

“She was a real person who got divorced three times and had a daughter named April,” Bost said, noting that June eventually appeared in plays and movies.

Whether or not “Gypsy” cast members find careers in the entertainment world, they’re enjoying this summer’s six-week theatrical experience.

“We’re really being immersed in it,” 17-year-old Taylor Delvecchio of Kingston said.

IF YOU GO

What: ‘Gypsy’

Who: Presented by the Performing Arts Institute of Wyoming Seminary

When: 8 p.m. Thursday and Aug. 7

Where: F.M. Kirby Center for the Performing Arts, Wilkes-Barre

Admission: $17.50 and $9.50 at Kirby, $16 and $8 at Wyoming Seminary

Tickets: 270-2186