'Wit'
THE THINGS THIS ACTOR DID FOR ART:
_BY NANCY _STETSON J nstetson@floridaweekly.com
J anina Birtolo sits in the stylist's chair, watching as her golden hair falls to the floor.

COURTESY PHOTOS Janina Birtolo, who plays Vivian Bearing, teacher of John Donne's work and a cancer patient, with Carla Grieve (Professor Ashford, her mentor) in "Wit." Above, Janina gets her locks cut for the role.

It's been 30 years since she's had her hair cut professionally, 30 years of wearing her hair at a below-the-shoulders length.

Some actors will do anything for a role.

Birtolo's getting her hair shorn.

When you're an actor, your

body really isn't your own.

"The things we do for art…" says Birtolo.

"Your body's an instrument," says Annie Rosemond, who's directing Birtolo in "Wit" and has come along to Salon Zenergy to offer moral support.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning drama plays at the Sugden Community Theatre in Naples from May 21 through June 14. Birtolo plays Vivian Bearing, a university professor of 17th century poetry and expert on the Holy Sonnets of John Donne. Bearing learns she has ovarian cancer and realizes that she's paid so much attention to her intellect that she's neglected relationships.

Actors who play Vivian Bearing have to look as if they're going through chemotherapy and losing their hair. Some get their head shaved, some wear a bald cap. Others, like Birtolo, get their hair cut short.

Today's haircut is just the first step. When it gets closer to opening night, Birtolo may get it cropped even shorter.

It all depends upon what costume designer Dot Auchmoody and artistic director Dallas Dunnagan decide. If Birtolo needs to wear a skullcap to make her look bald, at least she'll have hair short enough to wear one. Otherwise, Birtolo jokes, all her long hair piled under a bald cap would give her an oversized cranium, making her look like a sci-ficreature from another planet.

"It has to be really short," says Rosemond. "Otherwise, there's no point in cutting your hair. You're supposed to look like you've have treatment. You can't be cute."

Birtolo mentions that in another play, another actor she knows used gel and clumped her hair together to make it look like hair had fallen out from chemotherapy.

"I imagine that would be one of the toughest things for a cancer patient, particularly a woman, to lose all their hair," Birtolo says. "It's an incredible change. I have the luxury of it being a choice, but it's still nerve wracking."

Birtolo's known in Southwest Florida for her arts writing, her arts work with local PBS station WGCU-TV and for her one-woman shows depicting the lives of people such as Amelia Earhart, Abigail Adams, Sarah Bernhardt and Galileo's elder daughter. She's also performed in previous Naples Players productions, including playing the lead in "Tale of the Allergist's Wife."

She didn't consult with oncologists or cancer patients while developing this role, she says, because she already knows a lot about cancer from doing freelance writing for NCH Healthcare System.

It's a role of a lifetime, she says. Also a highly challenging one.

"It's an enormously difficult role for a lot of reasons," Birtolo says. "It's difficult to learn, because of the words. The language that is used is a mixture of John Donne's poetry and scholarly analysis of the same, combined with medical terminology. They're not your typical lines.

"It's also physically demanding. I have to be sick - I have to throw up at one point. I have to have fever and chills. I have to be losing it, drugged out on morphine. But the biggest thing is emotionally. It's just a heartbreakingly beautiful story. You basically go through this woman's entire life with her as she is looking back and judging herself.

"It's so beautifully written. The path that she is traveling is echoed in the John Donne poems that she recites, though she doesn't realize it until the end. It's one of the most exquisite plays I've ever read or seen. So for me, it's a part of a lifetime."

Birtolo remembers reading the play in the late '90s when it first came out.

"I said to myself at that point in time, 'I would love to play that part.' But I also said to myself, 'But the Naples Players would never put this on.' It's a dream come true for me, and I'm extremely grateful to Annie for casting me."

Rosemond says she thought of Birtolo immediately when she knew she was going to direct the play, but was pleased when many talented women auditioned for the part.

"We had some great people read for it," Rosemond says. "We're very lucky. It's nice to have choices."

In addition to receiving the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, "Wit" received the Drama Desk Award and the Outer Critics' Circle Award for Outstanding Play, two Drama League awards and the Drama Critics' Award for Best Play. Two years later, it was adapted for HBO, with Emma Thompson playing the lead and Mike Nichols directing.

Margaret Edson, now an Atlanta kindergarten teacher, wrote "Wit," basing it on what she observed while working as a clerk on an oncology/AIDS unit at a Washington research hospital.

"Wit" has played in regional theaters all over the country, in cities such as Seattle, Houston, Atlanta and Cincinnati, as well as in cities abroad. The Naples Players are staging it in the Tobye Studio, their black box, traditionally used for more contemporary and edgy plays.

COURTESY PHOTO "Wit" director Annie Rosemond with actress Janina Birtolo, the show's star.

"The Tobye is such an intimate space," Rosemond says. "You can't cheat in there. Casting is 90 percent of getting it right, I think. And I think working in the Tobye is a challenge because the space is small and I want it to look authentic."

Like so many, Birtolo's life has been touched by cancer. Her sister died from breast cancer and her aunt was recently diagnosed with stomach cancer.

"I don't think that makes it more difficult to play this role, I think it makes it more meaningful," she says. "It's like a chance to pay tribute to them. That's how it feels to me."

Birtolo glances anxiously at herself in the mirror.

"I was extremely nervous in coming here," she says.

"I thought you were fine on the way here," Rosemond tells her.

"I'm a good actor," Birtolo replies.

She's had her below-the-shoulders hair for a long time; that's how most people know her.

"The last time I got my hair cut short was right after Dylan was born, my second son," she says. "And he's going to be 30 at the end of May."

A woman comes by and sweeps up Birtolo's golden hair. Birtolo's left hand snakes out from underneath the bronzecolored cape and waves good-bye to it.

When the haircut's over, she looks at herself quizzically in the mirror. The transformation's stunning. She looks like a woman who's just undergone a makeover; the cut not only emphasizes her eyes, but has also taken off years. But Birtolo says it's going to take her a while to get used to her new look.

And ironically, she looks the very picture of health, even with shorter hair.

"It's daunting," Rosemond says of directing "Wit." "First of all, you want to get it right. I'm lucky to have Janina, because she understands the subject matter perfectly."

But the idea of directing such a play gave her pause.

"It was a challenge for me, because of my age," says Rosemond, who recently turned 70. "Not that I dwell on mortality, but I didn't know if I wanted to spend five months [working on a play about someone dying.]"

But ultimately, she said yes.

"It's a play about hope, not death," Rosemond says. "I think there's hope at the end."

.. if you go

>>What: "Wit"

>>When: May 21 through June 14

>>Where: The Tobye Studio at the Sugden Community Theatre, 701 5th Avenue South, Naples

>>Cost: $20 ($10 for students)

>>Information: Call (239) 263-7990 or go to www.naplesplayers.org.