PURE Theatre’s co-founder and artistic director Sharon Graci cannot often be found on stage. That is, unless she can be convinced by her real-life best friend, Joy Vandervort-Cobb, who will be her co-star in Jen Silverman’s two woman show, The Roommate.
“Sharon no longer identifies as an actor, but I couldn’t wait to get back on stage with her,” Vandervort-Cobb said, as Graci laughed in affirmation.
Graci stated that Vandervort-Cobb was probably the only person who could have gotten her on stage. The two are obvious friends, and each speak passionately about their mutual love for the theater and the lessons learned over years of dedicating oneself to the craft.
The Roommate is a one-act play featuring two 50-something characters brought to life by Vandervort-Cobb and Graci: Robyn (Graci) and Sharon (Vandervort-Cobb).
The show follows Sharon after a recent divorce. She’s lived an orthodox life and is now stuck as an empty nester on her own. As Vandervort-Cobb explained it, her character does not ask or dream of what’s next in her life because she doesn’t believe there is anything left. Her new roommate, Robyn, however, is a funky character who offsets Sharon’s previously traditional life.
For Vandervort-Cobb and Graci, this production is a chance to not only share the stage, but also an opportunity to breathe life into a story that isn’t often told, the pair told the Charleston City Paper.
Vandervort-Cobb said, “It’s so rare to be able to do a show with another woman — and it’s a show about women in their 50s and what that might entail.”
The Roommate is a show that follows the transformation that occurs when you step outside your comfort zone — whether that transformation is good or bad, Graci said. “[It’s about] the beauty of friendship. The ability to change. To live out loud.”
Finding the characters
The art of acting is a transformative process in and of itself, the actresses said. A new scene partner may change the interpretation of a moment, as they may identify a thought differently than a prior partner’s interpretation of the same scene.
As Vandervort-Cobb and Graci laughed their way through an interview, they revealed Cobb has played in this part before, as Sharon, but not with Graci.
“I have done this role before. But I’m not playing with the same actor that I did,” Vandervort-Cobb said. “[Graci’s] Robyn may bring a line this way, and I have no choice — I have to respond to what I’ve been given in order to give her something honest. So for me, there’s a big desire to make sure that I’m right here at this moment.”
For the two leading ladies, to act is to step into a character completely. A goal for both Vandervort-Cobb and Graci, they said, is to identify what drives a character.
“We talk a lot about ‘truthifying’ moments,” Graci said, adding that identifying what motivates the character and what they are thinking determines how the lines will come across. At times, these efforts of deep analysis are thought out moment-by-moment.
Vandervort-Cobb even researched the etymology of the name “Sharon” to reach the soul of the character, noting that it means “plain” and adding it to her understanding of the character she’s playing. “Sharon is very naive, and I haven’t been naive in a long time,” she laughed.
While Graci and Vandervort-Cobb hope the audience will find the humor in The Roommate, they also hope the audience leaves with an understanding of the depth of these character’s relationship and the moment in time the project centers around.
“Hopefully [the audience will] go out of here laughing about these two very different women,” Vandervort-Cobb said. “But it will also spark a conversation, I’m thinking, in the end.”
Find The Roommate at PURE Theatre April 4 to 27. Tickets can be purchased at puretheatre.org. Pay what-you-will on April 10.
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