There’s something to be said for growing old in the theater.
“One of the things I’ve discovered is that there’s a lot less acting required,” Denver Center Theatre Company actor Mike Hartman said with a chuckle.
“I remember the first play I did in high school. I played Grandpa Vanderhof in ‘You Can’t Take it With You’ with white shoe polish and zits.
“I don’t have to do that anymore. Now it’s more about being than acting.”
At 62, Hartman and 73-year-old pal Philip Pleasants are enjoying the roles of a lifetime. Again. In 2008, they created the McPheron Brothers for the DCTC’s world premiere staging of “Plainsong.” This week, they’re back for the sequel, “Eventide.”
The McPherons are crusty old Colorado ranchers with no female experience but who agree to take in a pregnant teen. In the sequel, one finds love for the first time.
“When we started the project, we just had no idea how it was going to affect people and how successful it was going to be,” said Hartman. “But that first night, the response Phil and I got when we left that stage after our first scene together? Phew. People just love these characters.”
“They do indeed,” Pleasants added.
It’s a blessing, Pleasants said, to have this opportunity so many decades into their professional careers.
It helps that Denver Center audiences have built a powerful connection with Hartman and Pleasants over the years. Hartman’s first play here was “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?” in 1992, and he’s delivered signature performances in “A Dirty Story,” “Glengarry Glen Ross,” “A Raisin in the Sun” and more since. Pleasants arrived in 2005 and soon played King Lear, but is best known as Scrooge in “A Christmas Carol,” a role he’s played for 40 years.
“We are brothers on the stage and in spirit as well,” said Pleasants. “We share a wonderful camaraderie.”
But they’re hardly twins. “I somehow have a penchant for playing rednecks and hicks,” said Hartman. “Philip does classier things.”
It was artistic director Kent Thompson — who has directed both stage adaptations of Kent Haruf’s novels — who envisioned this duo as the McPherons. He said they feed off each other’s experience, work ethic, generosity and sense of humor. “They figure out so many wonderful moments together — without a word or prompt from me,” said Thompson. “They are a director’s delight.”
“Eventide” again interweaves the entire community of fictional Holt, Colo. But the hitching post of the whole saga is the relationship between the isolated McPherons, who at first seem aloof, awkward and yes, a little odd.
Haruf’s tale presents many families in various stages of dysfunction. When the brothers take in the unwed Victoria and help with her child before sending her off to college, it forces the audience — and the actors — to reconsider what a healthy family really means.
“A lot of times in this play, family is not blood relation,” Hartman said. “Family is the people that step up and put their hand out to you.”
Hartman fully intended to become a Methodist minister as a full-scholarship theology student at Otterbein College in Ohio when he was required to act in a play for his speech class. What he found performing “A Man for All Seasons” was a similar calling.
“To be on stage, and to be doing a meaningful character that imparts to an audience a different way of thinking, is a tremendous experience,” Hartman said. “I still consider the theater to be almost a temple, a place to be held in very high regard.”
Pleasants comes from what he calls a very dysfunctional family of six brothers and two sisters. But his mother loved Shakespeare, and Pleasants grew up in the Virginia mountains performing his 13-year-old Julius Caesar for her.
“Most of them have passed now,” he said of his kin. “But the theater has become my family because they have given me love, attention and a job. They’re a part of me now — and that’s what I count as family.”
That family was there for him last month when, in an interview for “A Christmas Carol,” Pleasants mentioned that he’d likely be spending Christmas at his apartment alone. Which made Hartman laugh.
“The day that story came out, he got about 16 phone calls and had about 80 old women lined up by the stage door, wanting to take him out,” he said. To which Pleasants admits: “I was trying to garner all the sympathy I can.”
For the record, Scrooge had Christmas dinner with Hartman and his wife, “Eventide” co-star Lauren Klein. And, yes, she plays Hartman’s love interest.
In his exploration into what made the McPheron brothers step up when asked, Hartman seized on the fact that they, too, were orphaned at about 10 to 12 years old.
“When that happened to them, I have a feeling the community must have surrounded these two boys with love and support,” Hartman said. “Maybe from a distance, but I think they had their eyes on these two boys to make sure that they were going to be OK.
“I think it’s that feeling of being surrounded with care and love that they remember when they are asked to take this young pregnant girl in. I think they have a solemn obligation.”
That these two get to play those two at all, they credit Haruf and playwright Eric Schmiedl.
“These characters are so well-drawn in the books that when you put a couple of knuckleheads like us up there, it’s hard to screw it up,” Hartman said.
It’s the kind of work that makes growing old not so bad.
“Are you kidding?” Hartman said. “I just bought my $10 lifetime senior pass for all national parks. It’s unbelievable — plus half off on camping! It doesn’t get any better than that.”
“Eventide”
Rural sequel. Presented by the Denver Center Theatre Company at the Stage Theatre, 14th and Curtis streets.Adapated by Eric Schmiedl from the novel by Kent Haruf. Directed by Kent Thompson. Starring Mike Hartman and Lauren Klein. Through Feb. 27. 6:30 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays; 7:30 p.m. Fridays; 1:30 and 7:30 p.m. Saturdays; and 1:30 p.m. Sundays. $18-$51. 303-893-4100 (800-641-1222 outside Denver), at all King Soopers or
Video: Charlie Miller’s “Easing into Eventide”
More theater: Tony Kushner is coming to Colorado on Wednesday
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For a guy who writes seven-hour plays and talks a bit like a woodpecker pecks, Tony Kushner can be remarkably succinct. “I’m not great at really, really short answers,” he says. But Kushner, one of the most influential voices in American theater, knows what he wants to say. And it is definitely, defiantly, a view from the left. In a brief interview, he is able to impart cutting views on Dick Cheney (“a monstrous human being”), Sarah Palin (“a homegrown fascist”), Cindy McCain’s newly announced support for gay marriage (read on) and more. And you can bet Kushner, best known for “Angels in America,” will have much more to say Wednesday, when he comes to Colorado College for a panel discussion to include Suzan-Lori Parks (who wrote “Topdog/Underdog) and David Henry Hwang (“M. Butterfly”). We got to warm Kushner up last week with a rapid-fire talk in which he took questions submitted by Denver Post readers.
Today’s best bet
“Autism Chronicles” is a live theater performance created and directed by Norma Moore that weaves stories from literature written about families living with autism. It will be presented at 2 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 31, in the Gates Concert Hall at the University of Denver, as a benefit for the Autism Society of Colorado. Performers include Ian Merrill Peakes, currently starring in the Denver Center Theatre Company’s “When Tang Met Laika,” along with Jonathan Nichols, Tamlyn Tomita and Josh Robinson. $25 and $100. 720-214-0794, ext. 19.
This week’s theater openings
Opening Tuesday, Feb. 2, through Feb. 14: National touring production of “Legally Blonde” (Buell Theatre)
Opening Tuesday, Feb. 2, through Feb. 14: Arvada Center’s “A Man for All Seasons”
Opening Thursday, Feb. 4, through Feb. 27: Denver Center Theatre Company’s “Eventide,” Stage Theatre
Opening Thursday, Feb. 4, through Feb. 20: Star Bar Players’ “Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune” Colorado Springs
Opening Thursday, Feb. 4, through Feb. 27: Black Box Burlesque’s “Cora Vette’s Dangerous Curves” (Thursdays only, Bender’s Tavern)
Opening Thursday, Feb. 4, through Feb. 13: Crested Butte Mountain Theatre’s “The Diary of Anne Frank”
Opening Friday, Feb. 5, through Feb. 21: Performance Now’s “The King and I” Lakewood
Opening Friday, Feb. 5, through March 14: 73rd Avenue Theatre’s “The Foreigner”
Opening Friday, Feb. 5, through Feb. 27: Brooks Center Arts’ “A Rose to the End of Time”
Opening Friday, Feb. 5, through Feb. 14: Parker Arts Council’s “Moon Over Buffalo”
This week’s theater closings
Today, Jan. 31: Town Hall Arts Center’s “Sylvia”
Today, Jan. 31: PHAMALy’s “Barefoot in the Park” (at the Aurora Fox)
Today, Jan. 31: Gravity Defied Theatre’s “You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown (at the Aurora Fox)
Today, Jan. 31: Evergreen Players’ “Parallel Lives”
Saturday, Feb. 6: Curious’ “Home by Dark”
Saturday, Feb. 6: Square Product and Wrecking Ball Lab’s “Good Girls Don’t, But I Do” (at Packing House Arts Center)
Saturday, Feb. 6: California Actors Theatre’s “All My Sons” Longmont
Sunday, Feb. 7: Theatre O’s “Conviction” (Boulder)
Most recent theater openings
“Aida” Elton John and Tim Rice’s contemporary musical adaptation of the timeless love between an enslaved Nubian princess and an Egyptian soldier. Through April 3. Jester’s Dinner Theatre, 224 Main St., Longmont, 303-682-9980 or
“Conviction” In Madrid, an Israeli scholar is detained for stealing a confidential file on the Spanish Inquisition. Contained within: the true story of a Spanish priest who fell in love with a Jewish woman. This Denver-born production precedes an upcoming off-Broadway staging in New York. Through Feb. 7. Presented by Theatre O at 5311 Western Ave., Boulder, 720-323-4665 or
“I Do! I Do!” Follow Michael and Agnes from their wedding day and 50 years beyond. Sundays only through March 7. Union Colony Dinner Theatre, 802 Ninth Ave., Greeley, 970-352-2900 or
“Molly Brown and the Mysterious Murder” Mystery dinner theater set at the Denver Democratic National Convention of 1908. Appropriate for all ages. Through Feb. 27. Adams Mystery Playhouse, 2406 Federal Blvd., 303-455-1848 or
“The Moving of Lilla Barton” When Lilla Barton, wife of the pastor at an Episcopal church in Alabama, is widowed, she refuses to leave the rectory. Now there’s no place for the new pastor and his family to live. Through March 7. Bas Bleu Theatre, 401 Pine St., Fort Collins, 970-498-8949 or
“The Spoon River Anthology” A musical exploration of Edgar Lee Masters’ book depicting the life of a small town and its many characters. Through Feb. 13. Longmont Theatre Company, 513 Main St., Longmont, 303-772-5200 or
“That Was Loud, This is Now” This is a return run of the latest installment in the Heritage Square Music Hall’s long-running, silly pop-music revues. Through Feb. 21. Heritage Square Music Hall, 18301 W. Colfax Ave., Golden, 303-279-7800 or
“Twelve Angry Men” Reginald Rose’s 1955 courtroom drama about jury deliberations in the trial of 19-year-old man accused of the fatal stabbing of his father. Through Feb. 21. Presented by TheatreWorks at 3955 Cragwood Drive, Colorado Springs, 719-255-3232 or
“When Tang Met Laika” This world premiere explores what happened when Soviets and Americans joined together in the 1990s Cold War thaw to establish the International Space Station.. Through Feb. 27. Presented by the Denver Center Theatre Company at the Space Theatre, 14th and Curtis streets, 303-893-4100 or and here’s
“The World is Mine” A look inside the mind of Eugene O’Neill, as presented by the Buntport Theater collective. Through March 6. 717 Lipan St. 720-946-1388 or and here’s
Complete theater listings
Go to our complete list of in Colorado, including summaries, run dates, addresses, phones and links to every company’s home page. Or check out our listings or
The Running Lines blog
Catch up on John Moore’s roundup of theater news and dialogue:
