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Mike Maria and Christa Manning are two lovers who meet annually for a quarter century in ‘Same Time, Next Year.’
When George meets Doris at the beginning of “Same Time, Next Year,” she’s “a very ordinary, everyday New Jersey housewife, not frumpy but plain,” director Walt Mitchell said.
“She has a very normal routine of going out for pizza one night, bowling another night. She’s very comfortable with her life.”
But during the 25 years the lovers get together – for an annual visit when George’s wife believes he’s doing accounting work for a favored client and Doris’ husband believes she’s attending a women’s spiritual retreat – Doris undergoes a metamorphosis.
“She goes back to school, gets her high-school diploma, goes to college, begins to read, becomes an anti-war proponent during the hippie years, the Vietnam years, and ends up being a very successful business owner,” Mitchell said, describing the play that opens tonight at the Grove Theatre in Nuangola.
Doris’ once-a-year lover changes over time as well.
“George goes through Gestalt and many of those self-discovery things, consciousness-raising groups, to the point where he says, ‘The heck with it. I don’t want the rat race anymore. I’m content being a piano player and teaching music.’
“He goes from the strait-laced, coat-and-tie image to a T-shirt-and-jeans type of person. She goes in the opposite direction.”
Actors Christa Manning and Mike Maria are masters at depicting those transformations, Mitchell said, and at portraying the quarter century of aging each character undergoes.
That makes things easy for the director.
“I feel like I’m on an inflated raft,” Mitchell said. “I bob up and down and float with this wonderful presentation that they’re giving me. Just as you would change direction on a raft by flicking your hand a little to the right or left in the water, all I have to do is a little tweaking.
“The rest of the time, it’s just get out of the way and let them work their magic.”
Mitchell is also grateful to technical and lighting director Marty Wentz for finding “period tableware that goes from china to plastic as the play evolves from the ’50s to the ’70s, the right type of suitcase for each period, the right design of thermos.”
Costumer Gina Gibbon comes in for her share of praise from the director, too, for “helping Christa with costumes and acting as her dresser through all the demanding and challenging costume changes, not the least of which is a pregnancy suit.”
If you go
What: ‘Same Time, Next Year’
When: Through Sept. 13 with performances at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 3 p.m. Sundays
Where: The Grove Theatre, 5177 Nuangola Road, Nuangola
Tickets: $18
More info: 208-7679