GEETTING TO THE HEART OF `MISS JULIE'; UNIVERSITY THEATRE PRODUCTION OF STRINDBERG PLAY OPENS TUESDAY

Robert Dillon's decision to mount a production of August Strindberg's tragedy "Miss Julie" was based, in part, on his sense of duty to the theater he loves and to the academic community in which he teaches.

"I felt an obligation to give the actors an opportunity to act in plays like this, an obligation to give students the opportunity to see plays like this and an obligation to experiment," Dillon said.

Strindberg's 19th-century play, which opens for a five-day run at Southeast Missouri State University Tuesday, is considered a landmark in theater because of how it moved the theater away from an idealized portrait of people toward showing real people with real problems, Dillon said.

At the heart of the play is the tragic relationship between Miss Julie, the 25-year-old daughter of a Count, and Jean, the Count's valet. Set in a Swedish manor on a Midsummer Eve in the 1880s, the play tells the story of people who are trapped as much by their social milieu as they are by their own pasts.

As the daughter of a Count and the mistress of the manor, Miss Julie is not allowed by the conventions of the time to associate with the hired help. Yet, when her father goes away for the summer holiday, Miss Julie condescends to spend the celebration at a dance with the servants.

While at the celebration, she dances and ultimately becomes involved with Jean, a man who desires to climb higher socially, though he is just a valet in a tightly ordered social hierarchy.

"The preservation of order is good for society, but sometimes it is not good for individuals," Dillon said.

"Either this world will crush you and keep you in place, or you will break free. But if you break free, there will be a price to pay. For Julie, it is the ultimate price," he said.

There is, Dillon said, a tendency to see the play in simple terms, something which he as the director and the cast have worked hard to avoid.

Julie can be played as a simple, shallow tease and Jean as a Machiavellian social climber who seduces a woman and then directs her to commit suicide.

"But we decided that it is not that simple," Dillon said. "They are human beings with anger and resentment and hope and joy -- the whole range of human emotions."

Dillon is quick to credit his cast with evoking the complexity of the characters, even in the way in which the actors change their interpretation of the characters and the play from night to night, reflecting how real people are neither static nor rigid, but change over time.

"With this cast, I feel like a very happy tourist on a tour, and I'm along for the ride," he said.

The title role of Miss Julie is being played by Rachel Roberts, a speech/theater education major at Southeast.

Roberts has been featured in several university productions, including "Henry IV, Part I," "The Music Man" and "Independence." She won the Davis-Barnett Best Supporting Actress Award last year for her role as Sherry Briggs in "Independence."

She described the complexity of Miss Julie's character by saying that Julie is "confused and rightly so." For that reason, she and Alden Field, who plays Jean, have talked extensively and constantly about the characters.

Field, who returns to Cape Girardeau and the university stage after several years of professional acting jobs, said the character of Jean and the play as a whole are difficult for even the most seasoned actor.

"Strindberg is a writer of ideas, but as an actor I can't play ideas," he said.

After attending Southeast for several years, Field left to pursue a professional acting career. He spent a year and a half with the Burt Institute in Florida, where he worked with the Oscar-nominated actor Burt Reynolds. He also toured for a year with the Shenandoah Shakespeare Express.

A third cast member, Kara Cracraft, plays Kristine, the 35-year-old cook who, unlike Jean, seemingly accepts her place in life and desires no change. The role is one which requires a great deal of depth, said Dillon.

Cracraft also brings extensive theatrical experience to the production, having worked in the university productions of "Luv," "The Merry Wives of Windsor," "Chapter Two" and "Shadow Box," among others.

She also toured professionally in 1993 with the Nebraska Theatre Caravan's production of "A Christmas Carol" and performed summer stock in the 1990 Golden Eagle Showboat production of "Dames at Sea" in Canton, Mo.

Seating for the production has been limited by moving the audience actually onto the Rose Theatre stage and only using a small section of the stage as actual performing space.

Dillon said the unusual move was done for a number of reasons, including the fact that the play, though a landmark work, is not the type that would fill the theatre.

But he added that the most important reason was that he wanted to depict as much real life as possible and to make the theatrical experience as intimate as possible.

"It's a small cast and a small show. We wanted to give the willing audience member the experience of being right in it, of feeling like a fly on the wall," he said.

`MISS JULIE'

Where: Rose Theatre, Southeast Missouri State University

When: Tuesday, Feb. 17 - Saturday, Feb. 21, 8:00 p.m.

Ticket prices: $5 for general public; $4 for faculty, staff and senior citizens; $3 for students; $2 for children under 12 ;$2 each for groups of 10 or more