Opening Closed Doors

As on every other Saturday of the year, the East End Special Players are running through improvisations and small dramas in the open room at the Senior Nutrition Center in Bridgehampton.

Greg Doyle is thinking back to a time when he was very angry, trying to harness that anger and use it to animate his improvisation. Christine Provoost, seated in a chair next to him with her eyes closed, is recalling a particularly sad moment in her past.

Sitting on the floor in front of the two actors, Jacqui Leader, the director of the East End Special Players, encourages them to hold their concentration, stay in character, and bring those moments to life. Kneeling behind her, camera in hand, Don Lenzer of Amagansett films the center-stage dramas and the small emotional asides occurring constantly around the room.

Unique Actors

Mr. Lenzer, an award-winning cinematographer, is collaborating with Ms. Leader on a documentary about this unique group of actors, all of whom are learning-challenged adults. The Saturday sessions are run by Ms. Leader and funded by the Towns of East Hampton and Southampton, and their present project is an adaptation of Edmond Rostand's "Cyrano de Bergerac," to be staged at Guild Hall.

Most of the group have grown used to Mr. Lenzer's presence. They occasionally play for him or to the camera, but usually they are too involved in the task at hand to pay him any mind.

Greg, in his improv, is watching a man intentionally drop a cigarette on his neighbor's rug to start a fire and, he says, feeling helpless to stop him.

Confrontation

His tale is so dramatic it prompts Ms. Leader to ask, "Is this a real story?" Greg admits it's made up, but, in a flash of inspiration, Ms. Leader tells him to go on with the scene anyway. "What do you want to say to the man?" she prompts him.

"I want to tell him to go away," he says.

"Okay, Greg I want you to say, 'Go away.' And Carol," she says, calling a third actor, Carol Peterson, into the center of the circle, "I want you to say 'No!' "

"But he's going to push me," Carol protests. The other theater group members reassure her that he won't, and she reluctantly takes her place in front of Greg. Their voices rise to an emotional pitch as they run through the scene, but both stand firm.

Later, Ms. Leader, an actress and director of children's theater, explains that Carol and Greg have an on-again-off-again relationship that is played out in the once-a-week rehearsals. This Saturday it was off again and, though Greg's scene was imaginary, the psychodrama that evolved was therapeutic for both actors, Ms. Leader believed.

"By talking to each other and really hearing each other, you are able to respond with a natural reaction," Ms. Leader explains to the group.

Christine, meanwhile, has been deep in concentration, her eyes still closed. "Where are you, Christine? How do you feel?" Ms. Leader asks.

From very far away, Christine answers. She is in a hospital waiting room with her family, and doctors are pushing her to sign some kind of paper. "I feel unjustly treated," she says, obviously moved by the recollection.

Captivated

This level of emotion and concentration was part of what convinced Ms. Leader to take over directing of the East End Special Players in 1994 - and also what inspired her to find someone to make a documentary about the group this winter. A friend steered her toward Mr. Lenzer and she invited him to come watch one Saturday.

"It was an unfamiliar, kind of scary world to me," he admitted this week. "With a certain amount of reluctance," however, Mr. Lenzer accepted the invitation and arrived an hour into rehearsal with his video camera.

In short, he said, "I was captivated. I couldn't resist shooting."

The same qualities Ms. Leader so loved in the East End Special Players quickly inspired the cinematographer to take on the project.

In The Moment

Because there are so few opportunities for challenged adults to show what they can achieve, audiences are often astounded by what the East End Special Players can bring to the stage. "Each time I have been completely engaged by the character, the incredible drama of the situation," Mr. Lenzer observed.

Usually, a documentarian struggles to find emotionally charged moments to flesh out a film. Not so with this subject. "If there were a problem," Mr. Lenzer said, "it would be that the emotional crises are so frequent."

"They act on everything they feel," Ms. Leader added. "If they're upset or feel misused or abused, they let you know. They live in the moment."

Feelings Acknowledged

"And when you're there, you do too," said Debbie Flannery, who is in charge of the sets and costumes for the productions and helps run the rehearsal sessions.

Because the emotions of the Players are so raw, their mood can quickly turn from elation to despair. Indeed, while the three actors work on improvs in the center of the circle, one member of the group hovers at the edge, tears streaming down her face. Two others, all smiles, hold hands while they watch their fellow actors. If ever a fellow actor is insecure, or unhappy in some way, the others are quick to offer hugs and words of reassurance.

When they get down to the business of working on "Cyrano," one actress takes her position, but is fighting back tears.

"The key," Ms. Leader said later, "is to acknowledge their pain or their sorrow with them, then say, okay, let's move on."

Rehearsing "Cyrano"

It takes about a year of rehearsals to mount one stage production. Mr. Lenzer has filmed about seven sessions so far and will soon start editing a short piece to show to potential funders. If they find the funds, he and Ms. Leader hope to make a feature-length documentary about the troupe as they prepare and stage their version of "Cyrano."

It is the most difficult of the plays the Players have taken on, with more lines, less narration, and a more sophisticated story line than previous projects. They watched the film version of "Cyrano" five times to understand the story before starting improvisations on it.

Familiar Insecurities

The story of Cyrano, who, too insecure about his physical shortcomings to declare his love for the beautiful Roxanne, instead gives words to another, more attractive but hopelessly tongue-tied suitor, is an ideal vehicle for the Players' particular talents and issues.

Like Cyrano, they have had to overcome great insecurities to bring their dramatic poetry to the stage. But building up their self-esteem and heightening their sense of self-worth are part of the mission that created the East End Special Players.

Susanne, who plays Roxanne, wanted to give up the part early on. "She said, 'I can't play Roxanne, because look at me.' " Ms. Leader recalled. "I said, 'Susanne, I think you're beautiful,' and she said, 'Am I beautiful? ' "

"She's constantly processing whether it's real or it's theater," Ms. Leader said fondly. "She will ask: Do I really love Christian? Do Christian and Cyrano love me and do they both die?"

Susanne is deeply expressive even in the improvs, but she has had conflicts with the dramatic craft along the way. "Lying really bothers her. And being a character she doesn't like," Ms. Flannery said.

She also has a "love/hate relationship" with the feather eye mask Roxanne holds up to her face when she is at the theater, said Ms. Flannery: "One time she said she couldn't use it because it stank."

Mr. Lenzer wants to capture all of this "inherent poetry" that occurs in the rehearsal sessions, rather than making a "clinical approach" documentary, he said.

"If ever there was a time to do this it's now. The conjunction of different elements is perfect," he said of the play, the actors, and the team working with them - Mr. Lenzer, Ms. Leader, Ms. Flannery, Steve Dickman as music director and composer, and Monique deCock as a set consultant.

Among The Stars

The five seem to be learning as much from the Special Players as the reverse. "It brings us to certain questions about ourselves," Ms. deCock said.

Being in on the process and seeing how the actors make it work, the issues they face from week to week, and the way they interact with each other "makes you really question your own values," Mr. Lenzer agreed. The working title for the documentary, "Among the Stars," describes something of their feeling toward the Players.

The finished product will probably not be in chronological order, but begin just before the staging of "Cyrano" and journey back through the process of bringing it to the stage.

The curtain on "Cyrano" will not rise until at least this fall. When it does, Ms. Leader hopes it will also go up at the Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor, Southampton College's Fine Arts Theater, and other locations.

Mr. Lenzer and Ms. Leader have set up a not-for-profit organization and will begin fund raising for "Among the Stars" in the coming month. One of the main sponsoring organizations is the New York Foundation for the Arts.

They hope to air the documentary on a number of networks and bring it to film festivals around the country. The theater group, Mr. Lenzer writes in a fund-raising proposal for the film, "has enriched the lives of everyone who comes in contact with it."

"It would be crazy not to let people know what these people are capable of doing," Ms. Leader added.