Bucks County Playhouse hosts play - and playwright

WITH THE wonderful Marilu Henner heading the cast, there's already enough of a reason to see Christopher Durang's 2013 Tony-winning comedy, "Vanya and Masha and Sonia and Spike" at New Hope's Bucks County Playhouse. But if you still need a nudge, know that you'll also be seeing Durang's debut in the role of Vanya.

The July 17 to Aug. 10 run marks the first time that Durang, 65, who has sporadically performed for decades, will be on the boards since 2005, when he co-starred with Tony recipient Debra Monk in a Boston production of his two-person "Laughing Wild."

Not that he hasn't thought about it since then. During a recent rehearsal-break phone call, Durang, a Montclair, N.J., native who lives in Upper Bucks County, noted that he contemplated joining the original Broadway cast in the role of Vanya, an aging baby boomer whom life has passed by as he cared for - along with his spinster sister - his aging, now-dead parents.

"The play," he explained, "is not autobiographical. I don't even have siblings. But, nonetheless, I think I put a little bit of my personality into it, and for a while I thought it would be fun to be in it."

Ultimately, he recalled, he and the show's producers realized that the burden of rewriting during rehearsals while simultaneously learning what is, essentially, the lead role, would be too much responsibility for him to assume. "But," he added, "I was thrilled with [Tony-nominated] David Hyde Pierce and thought it was the better choice."

According to Durang, his appearance in the production that features "Taxi" co-star Henner as Vanya's sister, Sonia (the play is rife with references to Russian dramatist Anton Chekov), was simply a matter of the stars aligning. He lives about 30 minutes from New Hope. And because it's summer, he doesn't have to worry about his teaching gig at New York's ultra-prestigious Juilliard School. Then there is the Playhouse's history, which, he admitted, was a particularly effective lure.

He said he was intrigued to learn that several famed playwrights - including George S. Kauffman and Thorton Wilder - likewise acted in their own plays at the 75-year-old venue.

"I was inspired to hear these authors were in their plays [at the theater]," Durang said. "So when [Playhouse execs] asked if I'd be interested in it . . . I felt sort of inspired by that."

Logic dictates that it should be a snap for Durang to perform in "Vanya." After all, he wrote it, didn't he? Not so fast, he insisted.

"When people ask me about that," he replied, "what I say is: 'What was your last email, and can you recite it by heart? I don't think so.' " He added that making things more challenging is that because this is summer stock, the 2 1/2-week rehearsal period is seven days shorter than the standard practice period.

Nonetheless: "We laugh a lot during rehearsals," he said.

One might surmise that having a play's author in the cast might inhibit or put pressure on the other actors. But Durang hasn't found that to be the case in New Hope or elsewhere.

"I could imagine it being so if I were dictatorial or something," he reasoned. "I've been in other of my plays in the past, [so] I like actors, and I understand they have a process. I don't think they're feeling funny about me."

As for the future, Durang has been commissioned by Princeton's McCarter Theatre to write a new piece ("Vanya" was hatched at the Princeton University-based theater). So far, he has a few pages written, but still no title - or even a good idea of where the play is headed.

"It may be political; if it isn't political, it will be about things we're all concerned about," he said. "But the first few pages are funny, so I have to figure out what to do with it."

Durang freely admitted that it takes him longer to create a new work than it did in his youth.

"I think of it as a natural part of aging," he offered, adding that, when, in the past, he would find himself struggling to create, his agent, Helen Merrill, would compare it to how farmers will leave fields "fallow" for a season, in order to allow it to rejuvenate itself and ultimately "yield richer crops."

"So," he claimed, "I always like feeling I'm being fallow at the time."