THEATER / JAN HERMAN : Taking a ‘Moment’ to Visit Old SCR Friends

Few actors have had more productive careers at South Coast Repertory, personally or professionally, than Anni Long and Jarion Monroe.

Long started out as a resident member of the company in 1975. Monroe came along in 1988. But separately and together they’ve played a remarkable variety of SCR roles. They even got married within a few months of when they met at an SCR rehearsal.

All that notwithstanding, the couple left Orange County’s only resident professional theater company three years ago and moved to Northern California, where they now live in Mill Valley.

They recently returned to play two of the leads in “Man of the Moment,” the current SCR Mainstage revival of Alan Ayckbourn’s satirical British comedy about television fame and real-life obscurity. (Long portrays Jill Rillington, an ambitious, cold-blooded TV interviewer. Monroe is Vic Parks, an equally cold-blooded celebrity.)

Why did they leave SCR? What have they been doing since they left? How do they regard SCR?

Long and Monroe responded to those and other questions during a recent interview over lunch in Costa Mesa. Question: You’ve both said in the past that you left SCR for family reasons. Were there any career reasons?

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Long: The impetus was certainly personal. Jarion had no desire to leave the theater. He was delighted with it. But for me it was different. I had reached a plateau in terms of my professional relationship with the theater. The saying, “Familiarity breeds contempt,” is too strong. In my case it was, “Familiarity breeds lack of perspective.”

Q: Did you feel you were becoming complacent or being taken for granted?

Long: It was safe being here. SCR is safe. In this business that’s a great plus, but . . .

Monroe: . . . but it’s also a great danger. Complacency breeds artistic death. You must somehow regenerate, test yourself. It’s like the quote on the wall of our health club.

Long: It says, “There’s no such thing as staying the same. You’re either getting better or you’re getting worse.”

Q: How easy was it to make the transition to theater in the Bay Area?

Long: I had to start my career all over again. People would look at my resume and go, “That’s great, but . . . “ They didn’t know me. They hadn’t worked with me. And there was a whole community of performers they did know. So the first year up there was extremely lean for me. Very hard.

Monroe: To begin with, it’s a smaller theater community than it is (in Southern California).

Long: The first play I did was “Life During War Time,” by Keith Reddin, at Berkeley Repertory, which I already had going up there. Then I moved around a lot.

I did a new play at the Magic Theatre, “Mozart’s Journey to Prague.” During my time at the Magic, I read Wallace Shawn’s “The Fever.” Of course, I’d had a history of Shawn, playing Lemon in “Aunt Dan and Lemon” (at SCR in 1988). “The Fever” is a 100-minute monologue about the haves in a world of have-nots. I thought, “I must do this piece.” So I approached Lee Sankowitz at the Marin Theatre in Mill Valley.

It was the first time in my career I’d ever taken the initiative and said, “Here’s something I want to do for very personal reasons.” The piece is aimed at an affluent audience and it’s written for someone like me who grew up as one of the haves.

Q: Did you ever get to do it?

Long: Yes. I did “The Fever” at the Marin. And after that, I was asked to do it at the Julian Theatre in San Francisco. So I became a producer. The next place I did it was on the Mendocino Coast at the Arena Renaissance Co.

Then I did “The Weekend” at the Cowell Theatre in San Francisco. It was a new play, a terrible piece, but it had a lot of money behind it. I figured, how bad could it be? Well, it was beyond bad.

I also did “The Women” at the Marin. There were 14 women in it, and we had a blast.

Q: Was it easier for you, Jarion, to find work?

Monroe: Well, I’d had a long history with Berkeley Repertory. . . . So basically I did two seasons there: “Our Country’s Good,” “The Illusion,” “Major Barbara,” “Volpone,” “Lady From the Sea.”

Then I did the California Shakespeare Festival: Prospero in “The Tempest,” Macduff in “Macbeth.” After “Man of the Moment” here, I’ll be going back up to do the world premiere of Octavio Solis’ new work “Santos y Santos” at a smaller company.

Q: Did both of you focus strictly on the theater up there?

Monroe: Actually, we did much more media work than we did here.

Long: In all my years here, I struggled to go to Los Angeles. I tested for TV series, but I was never able to (land one). You have to commit to that completely, or forget it. But up there we’ve done commercials and corporate films.

Monroe: And I played Machiavelli and Anni played Elizabeth I in the PBS series “Renaissance.”

Q: How did your roles in “Man of the Moment” come about?

Long: David (Emmes, SCR’s producing artistic director) called us out of the blue. It was a total surprise. He said, “I’m reading this play and you just popped into my head.” He wanted both of us. We were doing “Rumors” on this huge stage at San Jose Repertory and having the best time.

Jarion: We made a clean sweep of Bay Area drama awards last year.

Q: Given that sort of momentum, what made you come back to SCR?

Jarion: It was a chance to work with the gang again, and especially with Richard (Doyle). He is one of my dearest friends. John Ellington (also in the cast) is one of my oldest friends. There’s that need to work with this bunch. Besides, doing British accents is one of the most enjoyable things I do.

Q: What specifically appealed to you in the roles?

Monroe: Vic, the character I play, is definitely the villain of the show. I can get laughs and still be sinister. I guess I’ve done lots of heavies: Malvolio in “Twelfth Night,” Corvino in “Volpone,” the Devil in “Man and Superman,” Dr. Waxling in “Search and Destroy.” I make them the guys you love to hate.

Long: One of the things that does not appeal to me about the character I play, Jill, is her self-absorption and her self-awareness. Being a TV interviewer in front of a camera breeds that. Don’t sweat on the blouse. Don’t get dirt on the cuffs. She’s kind of like “Young Frankenstein,” the hair, hair . . .

Monroe: Jill and Vic are sort of birds of a feather.

Q: What is coming up for both of you after “Man of the Moment?”

Monroe: I go straight into rehearsals for “Santos y Santos.”

Long: I’m waiting to hear about a project the Ensemble Theatre Co. (in Marin County) wants me to direct. People were at me to direct for years, but I never tried it. This spring I did--a student production of “The Merchant of Venice.” They got a California Arts Council grant to do it. Now they’ve submitted me for another project.

Q: And after that?

Long: It could be anything. We were on a total roll when we left. By coming here we pretty much pulled ourselves out of everything for the fall season in the Bay Area. We have to go back and say, “OK, here we are.” Because if you’re not right there, you don’t exist.