Stones in His Pocket

"He had stones in his pockets and dreams in his head."
BY NANCY _STETSON F Florida Weekly Correspondent

For actors, portraying multiple characters within one show is the dramatic equivalent of scaling Mt. Everest: emotionally and physically challenging. And they're just as exhausted - and exhilarated - when it's over.

Chris Clavelli and Bill Taylor may be performing in "Stones in His Pockets," a two-man show, but they portray 15 different characters. Those characters range in age from 12 to 70 and include eccentric Irish villagers, a Hollywood film crew and a movie starlet.

"Stones in His Pockets," playing at the Florida Repertory Theatre from Friday, Oct. 26 through Nov. 18, tells the story of Charlie and Jake, two guys whose small Irish town is suddenly overtaken by a Hollywood film crew. Suddenly, everyone's gripped with acting fever, and Charlie and Jake become extras, along with their fellow townspeople.

"It's a real challenge," says Clavelli. "It's 15 characters, two actors. Fifteen different physicalities and dialects. Just the idea of doing that, for any actor, is a good thing.

"It's showing off. It's like: 'Look at this!' It's like the Olympics, or a triathlon. Can you handle comedy? Can you handle drama? Can you handle dialects? Are you physically capable? It's everything you trained or studied to do."

Clavelli's acted in the show before and also directed it three times, in places as varied as Jackson Hole, Wyoming, upstate New York and Vero Beach. Taylor, artistic director of Theatre Conspiracy, just acted in his company's production of "Greater Tuna" this summer, another two-man show.

"In 'Greater Tuna,' you go off-stage to change character and change costumes," he says. "In 'Stones in His Pockets,' you step behind the other person and change character. You're doing all of the changes on stage, in front of the audience. There's no changing hats, no changing clothes. You change your posture, change your voice and go."

"There's nowhere to hide," Clavelli says. "You can run, but you can't hide."

"...but you have to dance," Taylor chips in.

"In the second act, just when the actors are getting really beat, there's a dance," Clavelli explains.

And it's not a nice slow waltz or a stately spin around the dance floor. It's Irish step dancing.

Yes, Irish step dancing.

"I agreed to do it," Taylor says. This was before he realized it was Irish step dancing. He sounds rueful.

"All it says in the script is, 'They dance,'" he says.

"The changes [of characters] come so fast. In two pages, you're playing maybe eight characters."

Sometimes, Taylor says, he portrays two different characters having a conversation with each other.

It's a lot for the actors to absorb, and it's both a physical and emotional challenge to express so many different characters.

"In rehearsal, by the last hour, we're mashed potatoes, Our brains are scattered," Clavelli says. "It's a cram session every day."

And yet, Taylor couldn't turn down the opportunity. "I wanted to give it a whirl," he says. "It's a challenge. You don't get very many chances. Something like this doesn't come along very often."

Florida Rep Producing Artistic Director Robert Cacioppo's directing the play. He's worked with Taylor before, having directed him in the one-man play, "Tru," on Sanibel Island 11 years ago. Cacioppo's wanted to work with him again, and this was the first opportunity that came up.

Clavelli's making his stage debut at the Florida Rep with this show. He's worked with the company before, but behind the scenes, directing recent shows such as "Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks," "Rounding Third," and the acclaimed "Sideman" which ran in 2003.

"I've been trying to get Chris to act here for a while," Cacioppo says. "And ever since I directed Bill 11 years ago, we've been trying to work together again. You would not want to do the show without people who are as skilled as Chris and Bill. They're both regular guys. Guy guys. Doing this show is so mind-blowingly hard. It's a lot easier to rely on putting on a bra or a wig.

"Ultimately, a play like this, demands an audience to participate. Your imagination is required," he says. The stage is essentially bare, with just a minimal amount of props. And, the various characters build relationships with each other that change over the course of the play.

"The Irish are such great storytellers," says Cacioppo, praising the playwright, Marie Jones. (The play originally played in small Irish theaters, then played at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 1999. It played for three years in London's West End, then jumped the Atlantic, playing on Broadway where it was nominated for three Tony Awards.)

"It's a comedy with a tragic bent," Cacioppo says. He searches for a comparison. "Wasn't Charlie Chaplin's tramp funny and also sad simultaneously? It's just great writing, really exciting to work on."

"By the end of the night, it's a really good story," Clavelli says. "It's a buddy story. When it gets exciting, the audience gets the conceit, and they're all over it. Everybody basks in that trust. That makes it so special."

If you go

>>What: "Stones in His Pockets" >>When: Oct. 26 through Nov. 18 >>Where: Florida Repertory Theatre at the Arcade Theatre on Bay Street between Hendry and Jackson in downtown Fort Myers >>Cost: $34-$38 >>Information: Call 332-4488.