>La Grande Observer | Union and Wallowa Counties' News Leader

COMFORT ZONE: Jennifer Madison, left, plays Kate and Jennifer Noel Gowenis Blanche in the Neil Simon drama/comedy. (Observer photos/LAURA MACKIE-HANCOCK).

By Jeff Petersen

Observer Staff Writer

So how does a senior theater performance major get to the point where he's directing a show with the biggest set ever assembled in Schwarz Theatre?

It's not easy. Or simple. The Dave Gammage-directed "Brighton Beach Memoir" opens tonight and continues Friday and Saturday at 8.

The story begins last spring when Gammage, whose biggest directing job before this was one-act plays, crafted a proposal for the show. It helped that he recruited what he believed was the best talent on campus and promised they would all show up at the same time, same place.

Sure, there was one pregnancy that required a last-minute replacement. Otherwise, all went hunky-dory.

The story continues over a summer that saw Gammage getting practical experience building sets at the Capitol Playhouse in Olympia, Wash.

And it continues this fall through weeks of practice back on the EOU campus with what Gammage calls "an amazingly talented bunch of actors and crew."

The crew includes set designer David Enslow, who thinks big, very big.

"When he builds, it's very realistic," Gammage said. "The two-story house on stage includes full staircases" and much more.

Gammage also credits costume designer Jeri-Lynn Roberts for being a key to the success of the show. He praises her eye for creating costumes that reflect the late-1930s period, considering the challenges she faces.

"It's a student-run show with little budget but whatever we can beg, borrow or steal," Gammage said, laughing.

Being director is a new angle on theater for a person who most often finds himself in the actor's chair, being directed.

"Basically, I pull from my experience as an actor," he said. "I know what I want and what I like. The actors know what they want and what they like. We work together from there."

Gammage may be in his early 20s, but he is no novice to theater. He had his aha! theater moment as an eighth-grader at Sylvester Middle School in Burien, Wash., a Seattle suburb. A member of the chorus, he helped put on a baseball musical that revealed a talent and ability on stage, before crowds. He moved on to gain more experience in high school shows and to the Treasure Valley Community College stage before moving on to EOU.

Gammage hopes the directing gig will propel him along to a future goal of starting his own theater.

He said he likes "The Odd Couple" creator Neil Simon's shows, and the Brooklyn setting for "Brighton Beach Memoirs." The semi-autobiographical dramedy (drama and comedy) chronicles the life of a young boy, Eugene Morris Jerome (played by Alan Arnson) and the ups and downs of his family life.

The "Memoirs" include appearances by Eugene's overbearing but loving mother Kate (Jennifer Madison), his sometime idol brother Stan (Stephen Zacharias), his dependable, hard-working father Jack (Daniel Petznick).

Scenes also feature his caring but naive Aunt Blanche (Jennifer Bean), his irritating cousin Laurie (Jeri-Lynn Roberts) and the lust of his life, his other, older cousin Nora (Kelly Gallego).

"Brighton Beach Memoirs" is one of three semi-autobiographical Neil Simon plays; the others are "Biloxi Blues" and "Broadway Bound."

The play could be rated PG for very occasional swearing and one scene revolving around a grown-up theme. Parents may want to use discretion in bringing children to the staging.