As actresses, the women cast in Penobscot Theatre Company’s season-opening show, “Calendar Girls,” are not afraid of putting themselves out there. Performers are not, generally speaking, a shy bunch, and aren’t squeamish about exploring big emotions and ideas through their characters, all in front of a live audience.
There’s a big difference, however, between baring it all emotionally and baring it all physically, as the eight women cast in major roles will do when they take the stage at the Bangor Opera House, beginning Sept. 8.
After all, “Calendar Girls,” based on the 2003 movie of the same name, tells the story of the middle-aged members of a women’s fundraising organization at a hospital in rural England, who decide to raise money for a sofa commemorating a member’s late husband by posing nude for a benefit calendar.
As in the movie, the eight actresses cast as the women in PTC’s production will indeed be naked onstage — though with costumes, props and other items cleverly set to hide various private parts.
“I can say that I didn’t think I’d be doing something like this at this age,” said Julie Lisnet, cast as Annie. “It’s liberating, it’s intimidating … when I was cast, I probably should have just stopped eating in April.”
“Thankfully, the script ensures that nothing is really going to be exposed,” said Alison Cox, who will play Jessie. “Angela, the director, and our costumers and everyone here has gone to great lengths to assure that everything is done very carefully … though it is live theater. Something can always go wrong. The prop you assumed would cover you could not be there for whatever reason. And then … oops.”
Director Angela Bonacasa, in her directorial debut at Penobscot Theatre, is no stranger to knowing exactly how to stage something so that nothing bad happens — as a certified stage combat instructor, she has choreographed hundreds of actors over the years so that their kicks and punches are done safely and no one is injured onstage during fighting scenes. Going from sword fights to lightning-fast placement of a lamp, a food item or an article of clothing so someone’s nether regions are not exposed isn’t a big jump for her.
“We tend to separate the ‘movement stuff’ out of the context of the directorial side of things, but in this show, they are not separate,” said Bonacasa. “The choreography in the big photo shoot scene is not really any different from a sword fight. It’s traffic patterns and knowing where this has to be and that has to be. It probably should have been more stressful for me, but this is really my comfort zone. This is what I love to do.”
“Calendar Girls” is a rarity among most plays produced in regional theater. Roles for women of a certain age are far less common than roles for younger performers — and a play composed mostly of women aged 40-plus is even more rare, despite the fact that there are often more women than men in the Bangor region’s pool of actors.
“‘Steel Magnolias’ is the only other show I can think of that’s been done in the area that’s like this one,” said Irene Dennis, who will play Marie. She was also in PTC’s “Steel Magnolias” production. “Oftentimes, there will be one, maybe two roles in a show that are for middle-aged or older women, and we’re all competing against each other for that one part. Here, though, we all get to work together. And that’s awesome.”
Sharon Zolper, who plays lead character Chris, is returning to the stage after a 13-year break. She teaches at Hampden Academy, and was for a decade the school’s drama coach, in addition to being a founding member of Ten Bucks Theatre Company.
“This is my first time back on stage in a very, very long time,” said Zolper. “For me it’s like a gift to be able to be back, and having the opportunity to work with all these women in various ways, women who I’ve worked with in various capacities over the years.”
Not only is the cast mostly composed of women — almost everything about the production as a whole is driven by women.
“It’s a play directed by a woman, designed primarily by women, acted mostly by women, at a company which has people at the helm that are women,” said Jasmine Ireland, who plays Celia. “There’s something really, really cool about it being almost completely driven by women, telling a story about women. And older women, too.”
The climactic scene in the show, in which the women pose for their photographs, will be preserved for posterity, however, as PTC has taken actual photographs of the cast — not entirely nude, mind you, though scantily clad — and will publish in the coming weeks an actual calendar. Fan can purchase the calendar at the show, which benefits both the theater and Sarah’s House in Holden, which provides lodging for those who must make long journeys to Cancer Care of Maine in Brewer for treatment.
“As one of the characters says in the show, ‘If I don’t get them out now, when will I?’” said Dennis.
“Calendar Girls” runs Wednesdays-Sundays Sept. 8-25 at the Bangor Opera House. Performances are at 7 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 3 p.m. Sundays, except for Sept. 9, when the show is at 7 p.m. For tickets, call 942-3333, visit the Opera House between noon and 5 p.m., or visit penobscottheatre.org.
