July 22, 2002

t's a hot July afternoon, and the cast of Flattery Will Get You ... is in rehearsal. The room is plain, the dress is casual, the props are imaginary, and the lighting is fluorescent. Another four hours of rehearsal will take the cast steps closer to opening night - a mere two weeks away.

"The caterer goes that way," says director Greg Leaming, barefoot, weaving a path to an imaginary door during a wedding scene. "Follow down this way," he tells an actor. "Good, good. That's it." Nearby, other actors sit around the room on chairs and sofas, scripts in hand, studying their lines.

The world premiere of Flattery Will Get You ..., a new play written by Steven Drukman, was performed by Connecticut Repertory Theatre July 19 and runs through July 28 in the Harriet S. Jorgensen Theatre. Based on an adaptation of a turn-of-the-century Russian farce by Alexander Ostrovsky, the play revolves around a young man who flatters and cajoles his way into the good graces of powerful men and women, but is eventually discovered by the notes in his diary.

Greg Leaming (right) directs Andy Neiman, playing George W. "Binky" Kurchaev, and Màire-Rose Conlon playing Monika, in a rehearsal for Flattery Will Get You ... two weeks before opening night. Photo by Shannon McAvoy

Opening night is just hours away during a dress rehearsal for the premiere production of Flattery Will Get You ... and cast members Andy Neiman and Màire-Rose Conlon. Photo by Gerry Goodstein

The play was commissioned by CRT with funds from the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Artist-in-Residence Program for the Advancement of the Arts. The program, in the School of Fine Arts, supports artists-in-residence in the creation of new work. The funding made it possible for CRT to hire Leaming, Drukman, Equity actors, and a Russian who translated the original work, Diary of a Scoundrel.

But the actors in this adaptation, won't have to squeeze themselves into corsets and cumbersome petticoats: the new play is set in present-day Washington, D.C. The cast is complete with a wealthy senator, his former actress wife, a liberal Congressman, a conservative general, and a former TV evangelist and her niece, a White House intern.

"We worked through the play and decided to reinvent it as a modern-day political farce," Leaming says. "The characters have a lot of parallels in contemporary American culture. It wasn't that difficult to get at the spirit of Ostrovsky very quickly - but with a light, easy hand. It's not dense material. We can actually put Tammy Faye Bakker on stage and make her a central component of a play. It's great fun."

Gary English, artistic director of CRT, describes the play as an intermingling of Russian and American popular culture. For example, the characters have both Russian and American names. The scenery will reflect that as well, says English, who designed the sets.

The production was selected with students in mind, he says. "CRT is a professional theater but it also has a training objective," he says, "so we're always looking for opportunities that help our students and alumni. We also want to do material that is difficult for our students, so they can grow." The cast of Flattery Will Get You ... includes six current UConn students and three graduates of the dramatic arts program, as well as Equity and other actors.

The cast and crew embraced the challenge of producing a new play. "You have the benefit of coming into a totally blank space and the sense of ownership over creating a role," says Andy Neiman, an MFA candidate, who plays the role of George W. "Binky" Kurchaev.

English says the biggest challenge of doing a new play "is exactly what makes it exciting at the same time: there is no precedent. No one has any idea how it will play in front of an audience. And a new production of a new play requires constant evaluation about what's included and what's not included, as well as interpretatio n: Does this line work? Does it make sense? Does it lead to the next line in a logical way?"

The presence of the playwright at rehearsals has added another dimension to the process.

"I've never been able to turn around and ask Eugene O'Neill, 'Hey, what were you thinking about when you wrote this line?' or 'How did you envision my character responding when this happens?'" says Matthew DeCapua '01, who plays the lead character, George David Glumov. "Steven can also give us input when something is not working, make a cut in the script or add a line. It's fantastic."