A funny thing about 'Forum'

For a college production, middle age is well represented in "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum." Five of the actors and actresses playing main characters haven't seen a dorm room in decades.

In many shows the University Theatre produces, age isn't a consideration in casting. In the musical comedy "Forum" it was.

"Age actually enhances the comedy," says director Dr. Kenn Stilson.

"Forum" opens Tuesday at the Rose Theatre.

The lead role of Pseudolus is being played by Dennis Seyer, a professor in the Department of Theater and Dance. Pseudolus is a slave in the house of Senex, a lecherous old man played by Tom Lee, an assistant superintendent of grounds and support services at the university.

Ellen Seyer, an adjunct professor and Dennis Seyer's wife in real life, plays Domina, Senex's wife. Lloyd Williams, a surgical assistant, is Lycus, the musical comedy's flesh merchant. Telephone company employee Jeff South plays another old man, Erronius, whose son and daughter were kidnapped long ago.

Students are in the play's other 13 roles, some of them substantial. In part, the casting is in line with the University Theatre's recent determination to include more community members in its productions. But the contrasting ages are by design, says Stilson.

It started with the decision to cast Seyer as Pseudolus, a slave out to win his freedom. "Once we established that we wanted a faculty person in a particular role," Stilson said, "then we needed someone of equal age" in certain other roles.

"Forum" is a farce set in Rome, 200 years before the Christian era. The setting is a street in front of three houses: The brothel of Lycus, the house of Senex, which includes Domina and their son, Hero (Dan Graul), and the house of Erronius.

Pseudolus decides that the best way to get his freedom is through satisfying the desires of his masters. The virginal Philia (Natasha Toro), a naive courtesan in training yearned for by both Senex and Hero but owned by Lycus, becomes the answer. In the tradition of farces, identities will be mistaken and slam-bang entrances and exits will keep the outcome in doubt.

With music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book co-written by Larry ("M*A*S*H") Gelbart, "Forum" is a marriage of the ancient plays of Plautus, Rome's best-known writer of comedies, and the relatively more modern vaudeville and burlesque traditions.

The first day of rehearsal, Stilson showed the cast Mel Brooks' "History of the World, Part 1." "I think of this as a precursor to all the Mel Brooks movies," he says.

Like Plautus' plays, "Forum" is populated by stock characters: The knavish slave, the henpecked husband, the domineering wife, the braggart warrior (Miles Glorioso, played by Stephen Fister), and on and on.

"The play is not politically correct in the modern sense of the word in its treatment of anybody," Stilson says.

Working with students in not new for Lee. He has been doing that in his job at the university for 18 years. It's also not his first time onstage. He and Seyer worked together more than 10 years ago on a production of "Charlie Brown" by the River City Players, Cape Girardeau's community theater troupe. Seyer invited him to try out.

Acting and singing don't intimidate Lee. He doesn't even mind having to kiss the beauteous Toro. His wife, Gay, assured him it was OK.

But something else has given him trouble. "I had to learn how to dance," he said. "I have never danced in my life."

Josephine Zmolek is the production's choreographer. "I might have been her biggest challenge," Lee said.

Seyer is accustomed to working with students as a director and professor, but putting him onstage changes the dynamic of their relationship, Stilson says.

This is the first time Seyer, who is the University Theatre's technical director, has acted since 1994. But he started out as an actor and has played leads before. That doesn't mean it isn't daunting.

"There's always anxiety," he says. "If you don't have anxiety you're too self-assured.

"... Acting and theater is serious stuff. You get your reward as the curtain comes down," Seyer said.

It's the singing that has prevented Williams, a regular in River City Players productions, from trying out for musicals in the past. Stilson convinced him to try. Now he's singing a solo.

Williams is impressed by how professionally run the University Theatre is. The students also have won him. "These kids are good," he says. "You can see the talent in every one of them. It's sort of intimidating. I'm learning a lot from them."

Opening night jitters will not be a new experience for him. "I get nervous at rehearsals," he says.

Dr. Christopher Goeke is conducting the 19-piece orchestra. Dr. Leslie Jones is the associate music director. Rhonda Weller-Stilson is the scenic designer, with lighting by student Marcus Stephens.

sblackwell@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182