The many faces of Lisa MORGAN

BY NANCY STETSON nstetson@floridaweekly.com I USED TO THINK LISA MORGAN was a great actress. But now I'm working on another theory.

Right, Lisa Morgan as Sister Aloysius in "Doubt." Above, Ms. Morgan as Maggie in "Dancing at Lughnasa."

Maybe she's part chameleon.

Or maybe she's one of those shape-shifters you see in science fiction films and TV shows — you know, aliens who can somehow instantly metamorphose into other beings.

Because it's uncanny the way she totally transforms into widely varied characters: full, complete, three-dimensional people, each incredibly different from the others.

Last season at Florida Repertory Theatre, for example, Ms. Morgan played Sister Aloysius in "Doubt," a harsh, unyielding nun on a witchhunt to have a priest removed from the school. Earlier in the Rep's season this year, she performed as Maggie in "Dancing at Lughnasa." An earthy Irish woman always ready with a quip, at one point she let loose with a shriek, slapped flour on her face, hiked up her skirt and proceeded to lead her sisters in a wild, uninhibited dance.

Those attending "Doubt" had difficulty matching up the photo in the program with the woman on stage. And many who saw both "Doubt" and "Dancing at Lughnasa" had no clue that the stern nun and the raucous Maggie were one and the same actress.

Returning to the Florida Rep stage May 29 through June 7, Ms. Morgan portrays a working-class British woman who fears life has passed her by, in the one-woman show "Shirley Valentine."

Even in casual conversation, Ms. Morgan can transform. At one point while talking about Sister Aloysius, her face shifts for a few seconds, and suddenly she's the flint-faced nun she played on stage. And when telling an anecdote about a kitten caught in the act of climbing the curtains, for a few fleeting seconds she looks just like a wide-eyed feline feigning innocence.

She tells about the time a woman came up to her after seeing her in "Golda's Balcony," a one-woman portrayal of Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir. The playgoer raved about the performance and then told Ms. Morgan she had recently seen "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" at Palm Beach Dramaworks.

"It was brilliant. The woman playing Martha was fantastic. That's a role you should play," the woman told her.

Lisa Morgan, out of character. Courtesy photo.

When Ms. Morgan told her it had been her in the role of Martha for Dramaworks, the woman refused to believe it and kept insisting it wasn't. Ms. Morgan finally suggested she compare the programs from both plays when she returned home.

"I was kind of frustrated by it," Ms. Morgan says. "And then, when I finished the conversation, I thought, 'You know what? That's a fantastic compliment, that she didn't think the same woman in any way at all could play those two characters.' I thought, 'That's great. It means that in her eyes, I completely was both characters, and not me at all.' So I took that as a compliment at the end of it, after a very frustrating conversation."

Building character

How does she transform so completely when she's on stage?

"I work from the inside out," she says. "As I get to learn the play and as I get to learn the character, it kind of filters into me. It's a very strange thing. It's not by the numbers, and each character comes to you differently. Sometimes it's the dialect, sometimes it's a physical tic, and sometimes it's the walk. And as it kind of builds, layer on layer, it changes you, as the character overtakes you."

Becoming a character is something that comes from within. It changes her physicality, and therefore changes her face.

"Golda"

"I don't have a particularly striking face," she says. "My face is kind of normal. So I'm really lucky. I can use my face almost like a piece of costume. My face starts to fit the role."

At 47 she portrayed the 72-year-old Golda Meir without wearing any facial prosthetics or wig. She did wear a fat suit in order to match the prime minister's stocky build, however, and she put some gray in her hair.

"But I knew what her face looked like, and so my face took on that face," Ms. Morgan says. "I looked at photos and photos and photos of her, her expressions and her hand gestures.

"What I try to do is be that person… whatever that person is. I'm not up there trying to be me playing somebody. I'm trying to be that somebody, and I'm taking me out of the equation… Lisa has to get out of the way in order to allow Shirley to be there, or Golda to be there.

"It's strange. As I go on, that character becomes stronger and stronger, until eventually, I have it. And then, once I know what it feels like to be my interpretation of that character, once I have it, the gift is that I'm able to step into it. It takes me very, very little time to go from me in everyday life, to Golda or to Shirley. And that I love. Once I know what it feels like, I can go straight back to that feeling. I know how to get there; I know what the pathway is. And it's something that builds through rehearsal."

"Dancing at Lughnasa"

Director's notes

Maureen Heffernan, who directed Ms. Morgan in "Doubt" and "Dancing at Lughnasa" and who also directs "Shirley Valentine," says great actors "disappear into the role." She remembers the first time she saw Ms. Morgan dancing in costume as Maggie in "Lughnasa." "I was astounded," she says. "How does she do that — look large on stage, look older? It wasn't make-up; she wasn't wearing any."

The director considers is a privilege to work with Ms. Morgan. "She's so intelligent and emotionally available and funny — but powerful on stage… She invites you into the world she's occupying on stage."

As actors like Ms. Morgan begin to embody the persona of their character, she adds, "The way they move, the way they occupy space, the way they use their body changes." The result is often a surprise for the playgoer, she says: "What do you mean that's the same person?"

"Electra"

Ms. Morgan, who performs on the east coast as well, won Carbonell Awards (the Southeast Florida version of the Tony Awards) for Best Actress in two consecutive years. One year, she had three nominations for Best Actress, causing presenter Lucy Arnaz to say, "If we could just give Lisa Morgan a national tour, somebody else could have a shot at this."

The best of both worlds

"She's the real deal," says Brendan Powers, who acted with Ms. Morgan in "Doubt" and "Dancing at Lughnasa." "There are times when you can see a person working too hard to be funny or to get the desired end, and then you're watching an actor work." When Ms. Morgan is on stage, he adds, "You're really watching that character; you're not watching an actress pretend to be that character.

"It's like she physically transforms. She's one of those rare finds, where she can really take on any role."

"Retreat from Moscow"

She also keeps her fellow actors on their toes, Mr. Powers says.

"She's so alive and alert as an actress, that when you're working opposite her… you're always engaged, because there's no chance for you to settle back. She challenges you to really be in the moment with her."

Off-stage, he says, "She can be devilishly funny. Which is delightful to work with in the rehearsal hall. No matter how grave and serious the role may be or the story may be, she always has a wonderful lighthearted approach to things. So you get the best of both worlds."

The Welsh-born actress, who trained in England, is so adept at accents that she does voice-overs and coaches actors and casts. As Golda she possessed a thick Israeli accent, and as Maggie, an Irish one. When she portrayed Sister Aloysius, she sounded as if she'd been born and raised in the Bronx.

And the mercurial actress changes her hair color at least five or six times a year. For "Golda's Balcony," she bleached streaks to look gray. For "Retreat from Moscow," she bleached all her hair, then put gray in it. For "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" she had her hair cut, permed and dyed dark brown.

"Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf."

"Whatever I need to do," she says. "Generally if the director wants me to look a certain way, I'll dye my hair at the drop of a hat."

But it has to feel right for the character.

"I'm not a great one for wigs," she says. "I tend not to like them. For me, it always feels as if I've got a wig on, and I find that quite disturbing. I like to have the hair that my character would have, as much as I can do it."

When she portrayed Annie Wilkes, the fanatical woman who kidnaps her favorite author in "Misery," she wore no make-up and didn't wash her hair for weeks. She didn't wear any make-up in "Dancing at Lughnasa," either. Nor did she pull in her stomach muscles.

"I was just pot belly and all, I didn't care," she says. "Because Maggie wouldn't have. She wouldn't have pulled in her stomach while she was feeding the chickens! And neither did I. That's the kind of reality that I like." Forget the glamour

Few actors allow themselves to be so naked on stage, but Ms. Morgan seems to relish it.

"I love it! That's the joy of it," she exclaims. "People always think, oh, it's so glamorous, you get to dress up, and you put on all this make-up and do your hair. That's the side of it I can't stand. I don't see acting in that way. For me, it's a job, and you do as good a job as you possibly can.

"Dressing up or putting on fancy shows is anathema to me. I know a lot of people (who feel), 'Oh, how good can I look?' For me, it's exactly the opposite: Well, how plain is this woman?"

For "Shirley Valentine," Florida Rep's last show of the season, Ms. Morgan's character undergoes both an emotional and physical transformation. "So what you see of her in the beginning of the play is very different from what you see at the end of the play," she says, adding the physical transformation comes out of the emotional one.

"And I know when I'm doing this in rehearsal, I feel, from the beginning to the end, that I've shed 40 pounds. I mean, that's how it feels. My physicality changes through the play to reflect that, because that's what she's feeling."

Why "Shirley" works

Willy Russell's "Shirley Valentine" tells the story of a woman who, at 42, realizes she's lost herself in the roles she plays as wife, mother, and neighbor. In re-examining her life and her marriage, she rediscovers herself. The play premiered in Liverpool in 1986, then ran in London's West End and then on Broadway. It received the Olivier Award for Best New Comedy and a Tony Award nomination for Best Play, in addition to garnering numerous awards for actress Pauline Collins.

"'Shirley Valentine' is just a journey with this interesting woman who looks at her life and reclaims it," Ms. Heffernan says. "It's touching and moving and funny. It's a comedy, but it's not a farce. It's just rich… like getting to meet a friend that you've always wanted to have and haven't met yet. That's what 'Shirley Valentine' is."

"Somewhere in the course of a lifetime, to 42, this woman has kind of just faded and faded and faded," Ms. Morgan says. "And then she's given an opportunity, and because she takes it, because she won't allow herself to be frightened, even though she is… she grasps hold of this tiny little flame of opportunity, and she completely transforms herself and, therefore, her life.

"Instead of being in a world where she has no choices, she ends up in a world where she can make any choice she wants."

Ms. Morgan first played the role when she was 32, but she says it has more resonance now. Though the story is about a woman, it appeals to everyone, she says, adding that she's seen men leave a performance weeping. "This isn't just about women being trapped. It's about anybody being trapped. Anyone.

"That's the joy of this play, and this is why it works, and why it's still being done. It resonates with anybody who has had a moment of looking around and going, 'What happened? How the heck did I become… ?'

"Most people live lives of quiet desperation," she says, quoting Thoreau. "We all do… I don't care how happy you are or how successful you are or how much money you've got, everybody's got a moment when they go, 'Is this it?'

"Some people say, 'Yes, this is it, and I hate it,' but they keep going.

"Shirley says: 'Yes, this is it, and I hate it. And you know what? I'm going to do something about it. I'm not going to do this anymore.'"

When a performance is over, Ms Morgan says, she feels tired, but triumphant. "What I feel is that I've just done something miraculous. Because Shirley's just done something miraculous… It's not about, 'Wow, I just got through another performance.' "I feel triumphant because Shirley feels triumphant. And her feelings are coursing through me.

"So at the end of it, I feel triumphant because she's triumphant. And I feel very free, because Shirley's free."

.. If you go

>>What: "Shirley Valentine" >>Where: Florida Repertory Theatre, 2267 Bay St., in the Arcade Theatre in downtown Fort Myers between Jackson and Hendry streets When: May 29-June

 

>>Special preview: Students with a valid high school or college ID can see the preview performance at 8 p.m. Thursday, May 28, for $10. >>Cost: $39, $35, $20 >>Info: 332-4488 or www.floridarep.org