t's a treat for Anne Marie Gardinier Halstead to do theater this time of year.
Usually, she's entrenched in academia at St. Lawrence University, where she is an assistant professor in the Performance and Communication Arts Department. Gardinier Halstead is on sabbatical this semester, and that has allowed her to direct American playwright Steven Dietz's "Private Eyes" at the Pendragon Theatre in Saranac Lake.
The show opens Friday, and the cast includes St. Lawrence University student Sara Cushing as well as Pendragon company members Chris McGovern, Donna Moschek, Tyler Nye and Brandon Patterson.
Previously at Pendragon, Gardinier Halstead performed in the "Suitor's War," "Welcome Home" and "Jenny Sutter," and she directed a staged reading of "The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later." She also has an ongoing guest-artist stint at the Firehouse Theatre Project in Richmond, Va.
Clever comedy
Dietz categorizes "Private Eyes" as a "comedy of suspicion." The play had its world premiere at the Arizona Theatre Company in 1996. It gained broad recognition when it was produced as part of the 1997 Humana Festival of New American Plays at the Actors Theatre of Louisville.
"'Private Eyes' is a really clever script," Gardinier Halstead said. "It's a backstage comedy about love, deception and passion. It's a multi-layered play, and the way I see it, constantly blurring the line between illusion and reality. As the characters are deceived and deceive each other, the audience is deceived along with the characters."
Directing the play was a fuzzy experience for her.
"Where art begins and real life begins is a question you ask throughout the play. We are doing the same thing with the cast. We're talking about what's real and what's not," Gardinier Halstead said.
Relationship thriller
According to Dietz, the play began as "a scene in which two lovers fail to speak the truth. And, like a lie, the play grew. It began to go to greater and greater lengths to keep its own deceit afloat. It took my sense of structure for a ride and built a web of such complexity that clarity (or 'truth') was rendered virtually impossible.
"As a director in collaboration with the actors, we had to make some decisions for ourselves for understanding and the sake of consistency of what is real and what is not."
Dietz left the play open-ended.
"If the audience leaves the show still wondering, I think he wants that. It's good if the audience is left wondering," Gardinier Halstead said.
"Private Eyes" is set in the present in a theater.
"We don't know where that theater is," Gardinier Halstead said. "It's a really good anecdote to cabin fever and winter blues. It's light. It's a thriller of sorts. It's very suspenseful. It's like the audience is playing the role of detective in this relationship thriller. There's a trick at every turn. Just when you think you have a handle of what's going on, Steven Dietz throws another curve ball. It makes it quite unique and enjoyable."
She calls it a play within a play within a play.
"It's really lots of fun."
E-mail Robin Caudell at: rcaudell@pressrepublican.com
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