SCR ACTING CLASS PUTS LIFE IN OLD DREAMS

The pair performing a pivotal scene from William Inge’s “Picnic” one recent evening at South Coast Repertory were not professional actors. Nor were they working on one of the Costa Mesa theater’s two stages.

Sandi Shirey, a psychotherapist from Costa Mesa, and Doug Pryor, a Corona resident in the restaurant business, were performing the scene for their Tuesday intermediate acting class, part of SCR’s evening conservatory. What brought them together was a lifetime interest in acting--an interest that had previously been neglected in favor of more “practical” pursuits.

“I studied acting at the Pittsburgh Playhouse 25 years ago, but I put it aside to get married and have babies and go to college in my 30s,” explained Shirey, who is now a psychotherapist in private practice. “I work with clients all the time to help them get in touch with and express their feelings, and I decided I need an outlet for mine.”

Pryor told a similar story. “It’s something I’ve always wanted to do,” he said about acting, but his early yearnings for the stage were set aside when his parents threatened to cut off his financial support. “So I got a career and went into the restaurant business,” he said. “It’s pretty stable now, to the point where I sat down and said, ‘Hey, it’s time to go toward your next love.’ A friend of mine recommended South Coast Rep, and here I am.”

SCR runs two conservatories: an intensive summer program for pre-professional actors, and an evening instructional series that draws beginning and intermediate students. A recent talk with members of instructor James Wilson’s Tuesday night class revealed a variety of goals and motivations.

Some professed no burning desire to become actors, saying they look at the class as a way to improve their communications skills. Others were there to test their acting ability, to see if their persistent urges to act indicate a latent talent. Still others said they know that they want an acting career and see the class as part of their training. As class member Brad Way (“like ‘Broadway’ without an ‘O’ ”) put it: “I’m interested in pursuing acting on stage, or in film, or in cheesy commercials--however I can get a paycheck.”

The tale told by two sisters in the class, Laura and Deborah Vance, typified a recurring theme--parents who discouraged their children’s inclination to act and pushed them instead to an education oriented toward a more practical career.

“I’ve wanted to act since I was a baby. I did it in high school,” Laura said. “I have parents who pushed me into the computer industry, which is what I got my degree in, but I hate computers and terminals and everything to do with that.”

Deborah also set aside her desire to act in order to earn a computer science degree. “It’s like my dad’s won--I’m a computer programmer, but I don’t want to be. I enjoy acting.” Both sisters hope now to turn their backs on computers and pursue acting careers--with their father’s blessing. “I told him, and he wishes me the best of luck,” Deborah said. “But I’m 22 now and out on my own, so he really can’t ground me if I defy him.”

Instructor Wilson, in his fourth year as director of SCR’s conservatory program, sees the desire to act as a healthy impulse that is often discouraged. “I think nearly everyone has a need to express a personal experience in one form or another,” Wilson said. “Unfortunately, in many ways our society and parents discourage free expression, and for many people their range of expression becomes very limited, very small.”

Wilson, who is also an associate professor of drama at USC and is SCR’s vocal director, sees his main task when working with beginning and intermediate acting students as building a supportive environment, free from the fear of rejection or humiliation.

“Once they trust the environment and the instructor, they move and express with greater ease,” Wilson said. “I really am trying to create the awareness that they can learn about acting and perform without fear.”

Wilson put his theory into practice as his students took turns performing two-person scenes for the class. The acting was often stiff and self-conscious on the first run-through but gained life and self-assurance in a second performance.

The first time around, Wilson said, “All the focus is on themselves. They create self-consciousness unintentionally. So once they have broken the ice and been through it once, they realize they can’t be hurt or humiliated. They are freer the second time.

“In other words,” he continued, “I have to reduce their protective barrier against humiliation.”

Wilson said he believes that the experience is valuable even to those who choose not to continue their training. “For many students, it’s an opportunity to gain a greater range of expressiveness,” Wilson said. “It affects their work life and their personal life. And it raises their standard of expectation as a theatergoer. They expect more. They’re more critical.”

A few students each year from the evening conservatory audition for the more rigorous summer program, Wilson said, and several students interviewed in his current Tuesday class said they planned to try out. In fact, most of the students said they wanted to pursue acting further, either professionally or on the community theater level.

“I’m definitely considering it. I’d like to do it,” student Ellie Newman said. “There’s part of me that says, ‘Who are you kidding? There’s no way.’ But then there’s another part of me that sees it’s just like any other business.”

Helen Erv took the class to help her in her work as a free-lance producer of TV commercials, but has found herself hooked on acting. “I thought it would be good for me to learn about acting to help me in my job. But after I took my first beginning class I realized I really liked it,” Erv said. “That (producing) is the job that brings me money, but this is where I’m finding my interest is.”

Meanwhile, Laura Vance is finding that her lifelong urge to act was no fluke. “Every hour I see improvement in everybody, myself included,” Vance said. “I get high from this class--every time I go home I pant. I get home at 9 or 10, and at midnight I’m still up.”