PREVIEW : Audience Visits Mountain Man’s Camp in Play

Martin Bright wanted to write a play for himself and was looking for a character that fit his persona.

He had to look all the way back to the 19th Century.

The writer settled on Jim Bridger, a mountain man who inhabited the South Pass region of the Wyoming Rockies during the mid-1800s. The resulting one-man play is “South Pass,” which opens tonight at the Group Repertory Theatre in North Hollywood.

“I’ve always had an infatuation with the American West,” said Bright, a camper and fisherman. “When I found this character, I was compelled. I just couldn’t stop writing about him and talking about him.”

Bridger was born in St. Louis and grew up in that city before leaving for the wilderness around 1822. He could neither read nor write, but was a renowned storyteller. Accounts of his life were passed from generation to generation by word-of-mouth, Bright said.

The play takes place in a forest campsite. Bright said he treats the audience as if it were a wagon train that happened to stumble upon Bridger’s crude bivouac. The actor tells tales of survivalist living and the people who roamed the West, people like Mike Fink, the river rat, and Hugh Glass, who on two separate occasions was mauled by bears and left for dead, only to make his way out of the woods.

“So many wonderful characters surrounded Bridger,” said Bright, who at times during the play switches into these other characters.

The one-act drama, directed by Bonnie Snyder, deals with such concerns as the environment, overcrowding and violence among the wilderness men.

“We’re dealing with a lot of the same issues today that these men were dealing with in their day,” Bright said.

The 48-year-old actor also strives to be as realistic as possible: He goes as far as to light his pipe with flint and steel.

Bright has performed in dozens of plays around town, most recently the Group Repertory’s production of “Much Ado About Nothing.” He has also appeared on such television shows as the syndicated “Divorce Court” and the CBS series “Paradise.”

Performances of “South Pass” begin at 8 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, at 5 p.m. Sundays, through Nov. 10, at the Group Repertory Theatre, 10900 Burbank Blvd., North Hollywood. Tickets are $12, $8 for seniors and students. For information, call 769-PLAY.