HAINES -- I almost dyed my hair red a few weeks ago, to go with my new Irish accent. But in the way that family stories morph over time, it's possible that even though I'm not Irish at all except by marriage (my husband's grandmother was a Fitzpatrick), someday my grandchildren may recall that their "Mimi" spoke "Irish."
I have spent two months rehearsing and performing Brian Friel's play "Dancing at Lughnasa." Which means I have been mostly living in Ballybeg, County Donegal, Ireland back in the summer of 1936 with my four sisters (I played Kate Mundy, the eldest and a very proper school teacher); Gerry Evans, who is the wayward father of one sister's son Michael, a 7-year-old "love child"; and our older brother Father Jack, a priest recently returned from 25 years in Uganda who is forgetful, ill and no longer Catholic. The charming narrator is young Michael, all grown up.
Director Tod Sebens, who captains his tour boat in Glacier Bay for a living, chose the play for its simplicity -- eight actors and one humble cottage kitchen set that fits our budget -- and for the story, which transcends time and place. "We have all experienced changes in our families that are special for no other reason than they are our memories, and they define the passing of time," he says.
Haines has a great theater. Being up on that stage with lights and curtains and all heightens every performance. In this, Haines is just like Broadway for actors and the audience.
The Chilkat Center for the Arts began its life in the 1800s as a cannery on the other side of Chilkat Inlet from Haines. In 1924, the Army floated it in pieces to Fort William H. Seward. After World War II, five veterans and their families purchased the whole fort, including the theater and recreation hall. One of them, Mimi Gregg, had stagecraft in her blood. Her mother, an opera singer named "Madam Vic," joined her in Haines. Mimi founded Lynn Canal Community Players and promoted two major upgrades to the building. A third was just completed.
One of the last shows Mimi was in before she died was "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever." She played an aging director in a wheelchair thanks to a broken leg, but got to deliver a line she herself had repeated many times to other casts -- "There are no small parts, only small actors!"
Haines is a small place, and Lynn Canal Community Players has been putting on at least two shows a year for nearly 60 years, and everyone who is part of one -- cast or crew -- automatically becomes a member.
The shared thrill and fear makes for more generous audiences, I suspect, and encourages more people to perform. This may explain why drama and debate are so popular at the school, and why Haines has puppeteers and so many musicians, too. And if say, I were kin to anthropologist Margaret Meade and studying this town, I would conclude that three or five or eight people do change the world. Haines is better somehow for each performance.
Little Dave, who played Gerry and works in my husband's lumberyard, sums up the "Lughnasa" effect better than I do. "I've had several people say, 'I cried in spots and I laughed in spots.' So I guess we did pretty good."
Cheryl Mullins works at Freddie's Auto and Truck Repair. She played lighthearted sister Maggie Mundy with such heart, wit and confidence that I assumed she'd had lots of experience. Turns out she never stepped on stage until she was over 50, and this is now her third show in four winters. "My grandmother -- a wise aul Irish woman -- said there are three types of people and most likely everyone falls under each category at some time in their life. One is the victim, one's the survivor and one's the 'liver'. I am doing things I do not know if I like doing until I try them. Performing in theater was one that was outside of my comfort zone." She is shy, she said. And used to stutter. "I have been a victim, no fun. I have been a survivor, necessary but not joyful. I am a 'liver' and finding joy every day." Joyful is the word that describes her performance, and what it felt to be in her "family."
I'm sure the others would agree. "Father Jack" works at the post office and had never been onstage before. I watched how "Maggie" gave him confidence in their scenes together, by picking up a line, or waiting kindly in rehearsal until he found it himself. There's a lot of trust out there under those lights.
Of course, there are lessons galore here -- about small towns, families and friends -- and if you want to get serious for a minute, the whole point of our brief shared time on Earth can be reduced to two acts called love and co-dependence. People need one another.
Something else happened just before we took our places at the dress rehearsal. I looked at my stage sister "Agnes" and saw her real grandmother Mimi's dark eyes flash back at me. I could almost hear Mimi say, "Break a leg and remember, there are no small parts …" Now I'm called "Mimi" too, I'm playing my part like a "real" actress, and I have a granddaughter who has already danced in a ballet recital on this very stage. My scalp tingled.
I asked Cheryl afterward if she thought I was crazy to believe Mimi Gregg was in the theater. (Maggie is the wisest Mundy sister, after all.) "No," she said. "She's been here before."
Haines author Heather Lende's third book, "Find the Good," will be published in April.