If you were unlucky enough to miss local actress Karen Stephens’ performance in Sarah Jones’ “Bridge and Tunnel” last fall at Fort Lauderdale’s Women’s Theatre Project, you missed the performance of the year. Well, 14 of the performances of the year, that is. Over the course of the 90 or so minutes, Stephens
transformed into more than a dozen characters, all of them converging on an open-mic night in Queens. Jones’ intention was to expose all of the cultures that make up the diverse melting pot of New York’s outer boroughs, and to that end, Stephens played everyone from an elderly Jewish yenta to a Russian man, a Jordanian woman to a blistering slam-poet. Though she only had a few minutes to develop each of them, all of her characters came across as three-dimensional and fully convincing.
The good news, and the reason I bring this up, is that South Florida theatergoers have another chance to see this performance this weekend, right here in Boca. The Women’s Theatre Project’s Genie Croft, who directed Stephens in their Fort Lauderdale version, returns to stage “Bridge and Tunnel” on the proscenium stage at Boca’s Willow Theatre inside Sugar Sand Park for four performances Sept. 9 to 11.
I interviewed Karen Stephens this summer for a profile on her that will appear in our November issue of Boca Raton magazine. Here are a few excerpts about “Bridge and Tunnel” from our conversation:
“I first did ‘Bridge and Tunnel’ in Sarasota at Florida Studio Theatre, which was the regional premiere of the show, the first time it was done outside of New York by anyone other than Sarah Jones. So I had to audition for that play and put myself on videotape and send it to them. The director approached the rehearsal process in a way that allowed me to explore the character in a nontraditional way. She would sit and ask me questions as the character, which was really interesting because it gave the character a life outside of the actual script, and helped to make it three-dimensional and real. Once I got here with Genie and the Women’s Theatre Project – who, thank god, said they would put this show in their season – it was a blessing. I was able to take that a little further in exploring those characters in a different space and try to broaden them even more. And there are a lot of different ways to approach that with speech and mannerisms and to try to get to the reality of the character.
“Russian is one of the hardest accents to do, especially for a black female actor, because the character is an older Russian male. When I’m watching movies and TV and there are people there with accents, I find myself sitting there trying to mimic the accent. I’ve always done that, and a Russian accent was one that I would always try to do, even though I knew I would probably never use it. The Pakistani accent and the Haitian Creole accent are prevalent in South Florida, but I rarely get to use them. As for the elderly Jewish characters, I’ve worked in department stores, so I have personal connection with those characters.
“I’m excited about people getting to see it who didn’t see it before. Hopefully, they will not procrastinate this time and come out. After you do the play for a while, it’s almost in your body. Revisiting it is kind of like reawakening that muscle memory, and it comes right back.”
“Bridge and Tunnel” is at the Willow Theatre at Sugar Sand Park, 300 S. Military Trail, Boca Raton, at 8 p.m. Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $15. Call 561/347-3948 or visit www.brtg.org.
