Sometimes lightning does strike twice in the same place. For example: at Gorilla Theatre, where Bridget Bean (who's also the theater's managing director) is about to reprise her stunning performance in Willy Russell's Shirley Valentine. I saw this show four years ago, and wrote that "Bean is a prodigiously talented performer who endears herself to us after only minutes on stage, and who, by play's end, seems someone we've known and liked all our lives. This is splendid acting, so seemingly straightforward and effortless, it's impossible to distinguish between the actor and her character."
I'd seen Bean before — in Alley Cat Players' Underneath the Lintel and, again at Gorilla, in Alan Bennett's Talking Heads — and I already knew she was special. But it was in Shirley Valentine, playing a misunderstood and quietly desperate housewife of 42, that Bean astonished me with her great gifts. I've been a believer ever since.
So who is she without the makeup? Bean was born Bridget Richardson in the northern English town of York, but grew up in the ex-fishing port of Hull on the east coast. She calls Hull a "grim city," and says that when she, as Shirley, talks about living in Liverpool, "in my mind it's in Hull." Her interest in theater awoke in infancy, when she was taken to the variety shows called "pantomimes" (singing, dancing, puppetry and comedy). She was further enthralled when, years later, she accompanied her mother to a drama group at the local church hall, and was allowed to "hold the book and prompt people."
But her high school offered no studies in the drama, so when she matriculated at Leicester University in the East Midlands, she majored in German. After graduating, she was "still a little bit lost and confused," so she became a teacher of English to immigrant Pakistani schoolchildren in the town of Bradford. She also performed at the Bradford Playhouse, a community theater founded by playwright J.B. Priestly — where she took acting classes, played in "tons of Agatha Christie" and learned to admire contemporary dramatist Caryl Churchill. After changing jobs one more time, she travelled overseas to Land O'Lakes to visit her friend, playwright Jonathan Hall, and met tree surgeon Jason Bean, with whom she carried on a long-distance four-year courtship. They were married in Florida, then lived in Land O'Lakes and Lutz during their six-year marriage.
During the years in Lutz (and when not working as an administrative assistant), Bean took acting classes from Corinne Broskette of Venue Actors Theatre and Anna Brennen of Stageworks. Broskette taught her to use the method-acting techniques of Lee Strasberg, and Brennen was "fantastic" at "stripping out all of your bad habits, taking you down to the authentic human being, and then working with that." Bean says she learned important techniques from all her acting teachers, but "I definitely credit Anna with teaching me how to act."
She eventually found work running a children's theater company and began appearing on Bay area professional stages at Early Bird Dinner Theatre, Alley Cat Players, Jobsite Theatre, Gorilla Theatre and Stageworks. She also studied acting at St. Leo University, where she was introduced to the plays of Williams and Miller, Edward Albee and Sam Shepard. One day she was browsing through the Tampa Tribune jobs section and saw that Gorilla was looking for a managing director. She applied, and "it turned out to be the perfect fit, because everything that I've done through my life seemed to be leading up to this particular job." After five years at Gorilla, she's the theater's only full-time employee, making all the day-to-day decisions, providing crucial input on what gets programmed for each season and reporting directly to Gorilla founder Aubrey Hampton. And occasionally she still acts.
Which brings us back to Shirley Valentine. Bean admits to finding the play personally relevant, but adds that she thinks just about anyone can relate to it.
"We've all been through a situation where we've been in the wrong place at the wrong time, or we've been married to the wrong person and we haven't been fulfilling our dreams and all that stuff." Further, the play suggests that "maybe later in life you might be able to blossom, you might be able to break out of your chrysalis… and to find your real self." In her own case, Bean says, she's found that self. "If you're going to have a life, this is a great life to have. It's immensely fulfilling."
Four years ago Shirley Valentine was just that — fulfilling. If you didn't catch it then, you'll want to jump at this chance to see a moving, intelligent play — and the wonderful Bridget Bean.
This article appears in Apr 7-13, 2010.