‘Graceland’ gals

By Catherine Amos

Published: April 10, 2008

Save for a single lamppost and a white picket fence, the stage is bare. A radio broadcast recording sets the date at June 4, 1982 — three days before the opening of Elvis’ Graceland mansion.
A woman with a curly blond wig, dressed head-to-toe in pink, sets up camp with a tent and a folding chair near the fence. She’s startled when a younger woman appears, carrying a paper bag and a pillow.

Actresses Robin Lane and Carolyn Gortler portray two strangers in line for Graceland’s opening to the public in Windmore’s production of two one-act plays. The first, starring Lane and Gortler, is called “Graceland,” and introduces the audience to Bev (Lane) and Rootie (Gortler), two Elvis fans determined to be the first to set foot inside the mansion.
Bev, an Elvis fanatic who was the first at his grave, the first at his museum and the first to touch his statue, says she was the first to arrive. Rootie, a fan by way of her late brother, says she was the first in line and must be the first to go inside.

In the next 50 minutes, the audience learns the stories of both women and their reasons for being at the mansion. Bev is a middle-aged trucker’s wife who developed an affinity for Elvis tunes as a way to avoid listening to her husband’s stories. Rootie is a naïve, young wife whose jerk of a husband recently humiliated her and who carries the torch of her brother’s love of Elvis.

“They’re trying to settle who was the first,” said director Carole Thorpe.
“There are moments of humor and there is a moment of humanity in this between the two characters.”

The second play, “Asleep on the Wind,” is set 10 years before “Graceland,” and is a conversation between 13-year-old Rootie (Elena Zanella) and her beloved older brother, Beau (Michael Bertone), at their favorite retreat from their alcoholic father — an abandoned plantation in Louisiana.

“The dramatic reasoning for (the plays’ order) is the audience has heard (Rootie’s) story about her brother getting killed in Vietnam,” Thorpe said, “and to look at her as a 13-year-old girl with her brother foreshadows his fate. It brings a real poignancy to it.”

This is Thorpe’s fourth production for Windmore, but she has directed dozens more for various companies.
Though she has a lot of experience in directing musicals, Thorpe decided to try out the pair of one-act plays.

“This is a rare thing for me to do,” Thorpe said, “but I’ve found that I have a knack — at least I’ve been told — with working with actors and developing characters.”

The challenge was casting one actress for Rootie as 22 and 13, so Thorpe opted to use two actresses, Gortler and Zanella. After casting Gortler, Thorpe had to find a younger Rootie who would be not only a believable version of the older role, but also a believable sister to Beau’s character. She said the two Rooties watched each other’s styles to make a unified character.
Gortler, who recently moved to Culpeper from Charlottesville, studied drama at James Madison University and was eager to find a community theatre group in Culpeper. Everyone she asked pointed her to Windmore.

“It’s not really hard,” she said of being onstage with only one other actor. “It’s the same basic thing that you do in any other show — you have to be on the spot all the time, and even more so here because if the focus isn’t on you, it’s on the other person.”

Both Gortler and Lane praised Thorpe’s constructive criticism and direction and said they enjoyed working on “Graceland.”
Lane has worked with Windmore on and off for 20 years, serving the theatre company in a variety of roles.

“It’s been a lot of fun, it really has,” Lane said. “Carole is so organized and gives firm but gentle critiques. Carolyn has been wonderful to work with, too.”
Gortler said she was unsure at first of the script, but recognized the funny and poignant moments in “Graceland.”

“The biggest thing I get out of this show is kind of a sense of hope for humanity,” she said. “Maybe that sounds a little cliché, but we all touch each other’s lives in different ways and a stranger can really touch your life in a big and unexpected way.”

Catherine Amos can be reached at 825-0771 ext. 138 or .

Want to go?
What: Windmore Community Theatre presents “Graceland” and “Asleep on the Wind,” two short plays by Ellen Bryon
Who: Directed by Carole Thorpe, with Michael Bertone, Carolyn Gortler, Robin Lane and Elena Zanella
When: April 11, 12, 18 and 19 at 8 p.m., April 13 and 20 at 3 p.m.
Where: The Forum at Culpeper Middle School
Tickets: $12 for adults, $6 for students and seniors, $2 off for Windmore members
Call the Windmore Foundation for the Arts at 547-4333 or visit windmorefoundation.org for more information.