MOUNT VERNON — Playing a famous, living person on stage can be difficult for an actor. Playing a famous, living person in a profound, soul-shaking drama is even more challenging.
What must it be like to do this with the real person sitting in the audience?
That was the scenario experienced Saturday night by Mount Vernon’s Rachel Frady, now a double major in English and Theater at Ashland University, when she performed the role of death penalty activist Sister Helen Prejean in a performance of the theatrical version of Prejean’s best-selling book “Dead Man Walking,” with Prejean in attendance.
“It was imposing,” Frady said this week via e-mail, as her hectic schedule of classes and rehearsals prevented her from doing a telephone interview. She added that the intimidation lessened immediately once she met Prejean, for the nun is an advocate of theatrical presentations of her story, which was also made into a highly successful film starring Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn. Frady said Prejean was supportive and reassuring, reminding the actors that they were storytellers, and embracing each of them after the performance.
That’s a long way from where Frady started, putting on “shows” with her siblings for their parents in the living room of their home. By the time she hit high school, Frady became heavily involved with community theater and school productions. Her passion for acting made her dream into a reality when she committed to studying it at Ashland.
“What draws me to acting is that it is a tool that can be used to teach, to entertain, to worship,” Frady said.
She said learning about acting has challenged her to learn more about herself in the last 2 1/2 years than she did in the preceding 18 years. She said acting has challenged her to question herself.
First encountering “Dead Man Walking” was one such moment.
“I read the script and was moved by it,” Frady said. “This drama made me have conflicted feelings about the death penalty, what the Bible says about this issue, and how I would react in such a situation.”
She said it is not her aim in this show to try and sway anyone for or against the death penalty, but merely to get the issue out into the open so it can be pondered and discussed.
Frady researched Prejean and prepared a dramatic monologue for auditions. Although she was the only auditioner for the role not to attempt a southern accent, and felt she messed up some lines, director Ric Goodwin saw something in her openness that led him to cast her in the challenging role. Frady said the role has taken over her life for the time being, something which is both exhilarating and exhausting.
“I am very used to acting in comedies,” Frady said. “Dramas take a lot more focus and energy for me.”
Although she initially swore not to watch Susan Sarandon’s famous film performance of the role, Goodwin encouraged her to consider another point of view as part of the research process. Frady was impressed with Sarandon’s performance but realized it wouldn’t throw off what she was conceiving, because Sarandon’s performance was tailor-made for the medium of film, featuring the kind of small nuances which wouldn’t register in a stage performance.
Frady said working on this role has spiritual dimensions for her as well.
“I feel inspired by this character’s devotion to God,” she said. “I know a lot of Christians can be guilty of separating God from their daily lives, myself included. Seeing and acting out how devoted this woman is to God, how all of her actions are driven by her for God, it gives me something to aspire to.”
Ashland University has made the production part of a larger project also involving the criminal justice, English, philosophy, religion, social work and art departments. Further information about the project is available at AU’s Web site under “Theatre” and then under “Dead Man Walking Project.” The show runs for three more performances today, Friday and Saturday. Tickets or further information can be obtained from the AU Box Office at (419) 289-5125.