Stanley still striving to reach her full potential

Stanley still striving to reach her full potential

Dramatic literature-lover and star of new play has dreams of
taking on classic role

By Jennifer Richmond

Daily Bruin Senior Staff

Florence Stanley says her character in "The Apple Doesn’t Fall
…" is a "woman of high aspirations who never lived up to her
potential."

Like her character in the play, Stanley says that she doesn’t
believe she achieved her full theater potential even though she’s
played a wide variety of roles in theater and television.

"I wanted to play a wide variety of greatly written roles. I did
not achieve that," Stanley says over a Coke at her Westwood
apartment.

"I wanted to play more classics. I wanted to do more Greek
drama. I wanted to do more Chekov. I did not have the opportunity
to do those kinds of things to the degree that I wanted to."

But she has played several roles on stage and screen including
the judge in "My Two Dads" and the voice of Ethyl in "Dinosaurs."
Both roles were characters with strong mothering instincts. So,
playing a mother in the Tiffany’s newest production "The Apple
Doesn’t Fall …" is nothing new to Stanley.

But these roles and the fame they brought with them aren’t the
reason Stanley became an actress.

"You know, it’s funny," she says, "people always ask me ‘why did
you get into the theater, because you wanted to be a big star or
something?’ I didn’t. I was attracted very much to the literature
of the theater."

This passion for dramatic literature started in high school when
Stanley’s teacher assigned her class all of James Berry’s works
except "Peter Pan," because the teacher felt it was too adult. This
assignment started Stanley on her trip through the classics.

Her love for drama continued at Northwestern University. "I was
fascinated by all the great writing I was reading," Stanley says.
"And at that time it was all great."

While today’s audiences argue over the better playwright,
Stanley says there was never any question about it when she was
growing up. "It wasn’t do you like this one, do you like that one,
do you like Pinter, do you like Mamet? It wasn’t questionable. It
was Chekov, it was Ibsen. Nobody argued those things.

"And I thought I would play (Shaw’s) St. Joan. I never did.

"I thought I would play Medea. I never did."

She did play Clytemnestra on Broadway, though. She also played
some Chekov, but never as much as she would have liked.

"So to that degree, I feel I’ve missed out a little."

But just because she missed the opportunity, doesn’t mean
Stanley has given up hope. She said if she could have her choice of
any character now, she’d like to play in Chekov’s "Cherry Orchard"
or "Three Sisters." She also wouldn’t mind doing "Trojan Women" or
playing Clytemnestra again.

Ideally, Stanley says she’d love to play Shakespeare’s men
because they’re more liberating. They’re more expansive and
explosive than the women’s roles. Stanley says the women’s roles
are confining. Even with all the options, Stanley’s first choice
has always been Titus Androdicus.

Stanley loves these classic roles because she is still a
classicist at heart. She doesn’t like watching Shakespeare that’s
been updated or modernized in any way because she says it
patronizes the audience. "It’s like they’re not gonna get it if you
don’t update it," she explains.

Stanley feels today’s actors and directors have a lack of faith
in their audiences. "They don’t have faith in the intelligence of
the audience, in the imagination of the audience," Stanley says.
"They play down to them (the audience). They spoon-feed them.

"When the audience is left to its own devices it brings so much
to the theater. In fact there are some plays and some scenes where
you almost need an audience to play a third party in a scene, and
sometimes, if an audience is too disparate, they’re really not good
companions because they throw the play off."

That’s not the case with "The Apple Doesn’t Fall …," though.
Stanley says the preview audiences have liked it thus far. They
appreciate her character and understand why she’s pressuring her
daughter to reach her "full potential."

"In this particular role I’m a woman who had high aspirations,
big dreams and never lived up to her potential. As a mother, you
want your children to reach their potential, and it’s funny because
children don’t appreciate that. They feel like they’re doing
fine.

"Some mothers either know or think they know what their child
can be. And when the child settles, it’s very hard to cope with
that."

In "Apple" the daughter has reached her job potential and now
Stanley’s character wants her to fill out the rest of her life with
a wonderful private life, something the daughter doesn’t feel she
needs at that point.

"It’s interesting, you can say she wants it for her daughter
because she didn’t have it for herself," Stanley says, "but I don’t
particularly think that’s true. My particular feeling is that she
wants it for her daughter because she wants it for her daughter. We
don’t have to be so Freudian about everything," Stanley says
laughing.

"Living up to your potential is a very big theme," Stanley says.
"And I don’t mean just in the play, I mean in the world, amongst
anybody."

STAGE: "The Apple Doesn’t Fall …" Running through March 24 at
the Tiffany Theater. Performed Thursday-Saturday at 8 p.m., Sunday
at 7 p.m., with a matinee Sunday at 2 p.m. TIX: $27. For more info,
call: (310) 289-2999.

(l-r) Director Leonard Nimoy and actresses Florence Stanley and
Margaret Whitton read through "The Apple Doesn’t Fall …"

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