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Young actors test their wings in Huntington's Amphitryon

By Hope Green

At the start of the Huntington Theatre Company's current production of Amphitryon, two winged cherubs descend from heaven into ancient Rome, frolic about, and quietly help the gods Jupiter and Mercury toy with the hearts of mortals.

	Mainstage roles give SFA sophomores Mariessa Portelance and Paul Cortez (right) a chance to work with theater professionals in the cast, including Lawrence Bull (SFA'89). Photo by Kalman Zabarsky

For School for the Arts sophomores Paul Cortez and Mariessa Portelance, playing the silent, merry cupids in the Molière farce is a chance to extend their range as actors while working alongside professional theater folk. And they are finding director Darko Tresnjak a patient mentor.

"When I walked into the first rehearsal, I was a little intimidated," says Portelance (SFA'03). "But the director and everyone in the cast have made me feel right at home. Darko has a vision of what he wants, and he explains it very well."

Tresnjak is also calm by nature, adds Cortez (SFA'03), "which makes you feel as an actor that you're in good hands."

Spring is prime time for SFA sophomores to get parts in mainstage productions at the Huntington's home, the Boston University Theatre. Many juniors in the theatre arts division are away on internships, while seniors are preparing their showcases and looking for agents.

Even so, Cortez and Portelance were surprised to learn they had made the cut. The cast-call advertisement they responded to was for understudies. "Little did we know we'd be getting actual roles," says Cortez.

This is their second major Boston production. Apart from acting in student shows, they danced last year in the Boston Lyric Opera's Akhnaten. Both are longtime performers: Portelance has trained with the Eastern Connecticut Ballet, and Cortez has studied martial arts as well as several dance forms.

In high school Cortez was a New England wrestling champion. He briefly considered going pro, he says, "but I had an artistic side as well, so I chose theater."

Body language is as vital to the Huntington's rendition of Amphitryon as it was in 17th-century France. Tresnjak has worked extensively in dance and puppetry, and the stage set by scenic designer David Gordon is a jungle gym of ramps, stairs, and slides that demands agile players.

"Our part isn't really dancing; it's movement," says Portelance, "but Darko explained to us how ballet was very influential in Molière's time, which is why physical grace is so important in this show."

"We don't speak, so our entire physicality will determine our characters," says Cortez. "A lot of the expression is through the arms, torso, and legs."

Besides the two sophomores, BU has an alumnus in the cast, Lawrence Bull (SFA'89). He plays Argatiphontidas, one of Amphitryon's fighting friends.

"I've never played somebody so blatantly pugnacious," he says. "I have a speech about how reason and rationale don't enter the picture for me -- I just want to break some necks."

It's good to be back at the Boston University Theatre as a professional, says Bull. He acted in five Huntington shows as a student, including King Lear and Three Sisters. He launched his career with financial backing from a 1989 Esther B. and Albert S. Kahn Career Entry Award, an annual SFA honor, and the following year gave a prizewinning performance as Slim in Of Mice and Men at Synergy Theatre in Chicago. Now back in New England with a long list of stage credits, Bull has become increasingly involved in the New Voices Theatre Ensemble in Beverly, Mass., where he is also a director.

Amphitryon is Bull's seventh acting role in 12 months. He is familiar with Molière, as he once performed in Tartuffe at the Utah Shakespeare Festival. The translator behind both productions is Richard Wilbur, who is known for faithfully replicating in English Molière's dynamics of rhyme and meter.

Molière tended to experiment with verse styles, however, so the Huntington show offers Bull a different kind of speaking part.

"Tartuffe has more of a set meter with rhyming couplets," he says. "The rhyme in Amphitryon is somewhat hidden, so it's a bit more freeing, because you find yourself less inclined to go for rhyme patterns. In Tartuffe you almost have to fight to get the meaning out, whereas this is sort of already shaken up. It's easier to extract the meaning because you can speak the lines in a more conversational way."

Amphitryon runs at the Boston University Theatre, 264 Huntington Ave., from March 9 through April 8. Tickets range from $12 to $55. BU students, faculty, and staff receive $5 off regular price tickets; half-price rush tickets are available for those 25 and under, two hours before curtain. Call 266-0800 for tickets and further information.

Read the sidebar "A mythic love triangle"

9 March 2001
Boston University
Office of University Relations