BLT takes on Albom's 'Tuesdays with Morrie'
“Tuesdays with Morrie,” a two man show, is in the works at the Butler Little Theatre.
The play is based on the true experience of Mitch Albom.
Sixteen years after graduation, Albom rediscovered his former professor and mentor, Morrie Schwartz, in the last months of the older man's life.
The two began visiting in Morrie's study every Tuesday, just as they had during college. The play is the culmination of those meetings which yielded life lessons.
The BLT production is under the direction of Bob Craig.
Selected for the role of Mitch Albom is Butler resident Jeff Carey, an English teacher by day.
“He is the writer and sports reporter who decides to reconnect with an old professor of his after learning of the professor's illness,” Carey said of the character he's playing.
“He becomes inspired by his visits with Morrie and started taking notes of, recording, and transcribing conversations that reveal Morrie's views and philosophies on life,” Carey said.
While Carey said he enjoys the emotional transformation than Mitch goes through in this play and portraying the lessons learned from the former professor, the role doesn't come easy in the two-man cast.
“As the two actors, John Henry and I have to keep pacing, intensity, and intention in mind as we move through the transitions in the show,” Carey noted.
“In a show without an intermission, we don't have a break to regroup and refocus, so the performance needs to have ebbs and flows to it,” he explained.
The two man show staging is not foreign to Carey who appeared in “Same Time, Next Year” and also in “Rounding Third” at the BLT. It was one of the reasons he auditioned.
“I auditioned for the show because I love two-actor shows,” Carey related. “The intensity of the interaction is great. I also wanted to work with Bob Craig, the director, again. We worked together a couple of years ago during 'Come Blow Your Horn,'” added Carey.
The role of Morrie is being played by John Henry Steelman of Indiana Borough. As a retired mathematics professor, Steelman spends his retirement acting throughout the greater Pittsburgh area.
“Morrie Schwartz is a sociology professor who has been diagnosed with ALS, Lou Gehrig's disease,” Steelman said.
“He clearly cared for all his students, but had a special bond with Mitch Albom,” explained Steelman.
Capturing his character's physical decline is the biggest challenge, Steelman said.
“Over the course of the play, he goes from being an energetic character to being practically paralyzed,” said Steelman.
While the two-man concept is new to him, Steelman has been in several one act shows. “A few years ago, as part of the Pittsburgh New Works Festival, I was in 'I Love You, Lynn Swann.' With the Indiana Players I have done the locally written one-acts 'The Trolley Dilemma' and 'Absolution.' Interestingly enough, the actor I did 'The Trolley Dilemma' with was the author of 'Absolution,'” he shared.
Albom's memoir with Morrie began as a labor of love to help financially with Schwartz's medical bills. Today, the book has sold 17 million copies in more than 50 editions around the world.
