If you attend Bay area theater regularly, you'll probably recognize this experience. You go to the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center to see Jobsite Theater's Dracula — and there playing the lead is Weekly Planet Best of the Bay awardee Brian Shea. Next, you go to American Stage to see George Bernard Shaw's Candida — and there, in the role of the poet Marchbanks, is none other than Brian Shea. Since you like to give all local theater companies your vote of confidence, you buy a ticket to a Stageworks show, Beckett's Waiting for Godot — and there, at the HCC Ybor Campus Theater, playing Vladimir is — you guessed it — Brian Shea. Finally, you decide to investigate one of the youngest of local companies, the Alley Cat Players. So you amble into the Covivant Art Gallery to see A Man For All Seasons — and in the role of King Henry's Secretary Cromwell is Brian Shea.Shea is one of the area's premier performers, which means that when directors are trying to cast a successful production, they naturally think of him. And he's not the only one; there are perhaps six local thespians to whom Bay area companies turn repeatedly when they're looking for guaranteed quality. And though they may not always come through — Shea was terrific in three of the above plays, but only passable as Dracula — they're the best bets in town. So don't be surprised if you encounter, again and again (listed alphabetically; no ranking implied):
Ned Averill-Snell. Since he moved to Tampa a couple of years ago, Averill-Snell has become a director's favorite, showing up in shows at Gorilla Theatre, TBPAC, Alley Cat Players and American Stage. Handsome and possessing a stentorian voice, he often gets cast as a male lead, say, pure-spirited Sir Thomas More of Alley Cat's A Man For All Seasons or mean-spirited Jonathan in Gorilla's Snakebit. Perhaps his best all-around performance to date: Marc, in Yasmina Reza's Art at TBPAC — a supercilious guy who thinks his friend Yvan has been bamboozled. His most convincing emotion: unmitigated scorn.
Jonathan Harrison. Harrison, formerly the front man of some local rock bands, is in much demand not only for his acting ability but for his excellent singing voice. You may have seen him at American Stage's Gifts of the Magi or Food and Shelter, in Shakespeare in the Park productions from Macbeth to Twelfth Night Fever, or in TBPAC shows like Little Shop of Horrors, Shear Madness and Satchmo. Harrison's got a natural, straight-from-the-heart style that easily fits him for a wide range of parts. It would be nice to see him take on a psychologically complicated part, say in something by Chekhov. There's a lot of still undisplayed talent here.
Colleen McDonnell. McDonnell is one of the most formidable, versatile actresses in the area. In Gorilla Theater's Man and Superman she was an aristocratic, womanhood-defending Dona Ana; in TBPAC's World of Jacques Brel, she was "Timid Frieda," a diffident existentialist (with a lovely soprano); and in TBPAC's The Crucible, she was Elizabeth Proctor, a wronged wife who started by shaming her husband and ended by trying to protect him from a law-court gone mad. You've also seen McDonnell at American Stage, at the Silver Meteor Gallery for Alley Cat Players, and, most recently, in Jobsite Theater's The Beauty Queen of Leenane. Her special power: to totally inhabit even the smallest detail of the characters she plays.
Jeff Norton. Norton seems to have momentarily retired from local stages, but it's hard to believe that he won't be back shortly. It was only yesterday that he could be found performing at Stageworks, American Stage, the Jaeb and Shimberg Theaters of TBPAC, and just about everywhere else. Two of his most impressive roles in the recent past: Henry Ford in American Stage's Camping With Henry and Tom; and John Proctor in TBPAC's The Crucible. Norton's Ford was restless, hotheaded, impatient for a fight and willing to imagine one even when no one else seemed interested. His Proctor also started out as a stormy man of principle, but then segued into a more complicated figure, one who had the difficult task of defining himself against a society that had lost its ability to judge fairly. What would Bay area theater be without Jeff Norton? Let's wish him a speedy return to our stages.
Brian Shea. Shea is a deservedly popular actor who seems to be able to play just about anyone. Perhaps his best performance ever was as the intelligent, haunted, self-dramatizing Vladimir of Godot; but, no doubt, he's got some surprises still in store. Shea's characteristic strength: to make the emotion of a character seem to flow from his intellect. As the cognitive therapists say, behind every feeling is a thought. And behind them both on local stages is the superb Brian Shea.
Katrina Stevenson. Stevenson has only recently been noticed by directors outside Jobsite Theater; but now that they've found her, she's turning up more and more. In TBPAC's Shear Madness, she was hilarious manicurist and murder suspect Barbara DeMarco; in TBPAC's The Crucible, she was the dangerous, vindictive Abigail Williams, an all-too-credible Fountain of Selfishness; and in Alley Cat's A Man For All Seasons, she was The Common Man, a smug embodiment of the all the mediocrity that Sir Thomas More left behind. Add all her Jobsite appearances, and Stevenson's rapidly becoming a staple on the local scene.
There are other top-notch performers in the Bay area, though the full list wouldn't exceed maybe 20 or so names. But these six are somewhat special. They don't work for one company only, and they don't work just once a year. Area directors know them, trust them, and repeatedly cast them.
Keep an eye out for them in the course of your theatergoing.
Performance Critic Mark E. Leib can be reached at mark.leib@weeklyplanet.com or 813-248-8888, ext. 305.
This article appears in Apr 2-8, 2003.