The Atlanta Constitution from Atlanta, Georgia • 80

34-T me Atlanta Journal and CONSTITUTION SATURDAY, MARCH 1 1, 1978 mm mm By Helen C. Smith tl UST A LITTLE over a year ago there was just Penny Fuller. No husband, no baby, no dog, no tropical fish with fanciful names. Just Penny Fuller, actress. Free to play on Broadway.

As the scheming, double crossing Eve to Lauren Bacall's Margo in "Applause." As Sally Bowles in the hit musical, "Cabaret." In the ill-fated musical, "Rex," which closed after two months. Two bang up successes to one flop. Free. To dash out to Hollywood to be in "All the President's Men" as the Washington Post staffer whom Robert Redford talked in to doing some- undercover work for him in the Watergate expose. Free.

To go on tour in Neil Simon's "California Suite," a role she adored, a play she calls Simon's best writing to This year there is still Penny Fuller, actress. She will open Thursday, March 16, as Lu Ann in the Alliance Theatre's production of "Lu Ann Hampton Laverty Ober-lander," whether she can remember the order of all those names or not. She's working on it, having mixed up the tongue twister in a recent rehearsal. But there is also Mrs. Knox Kinlaw, wife of an Atlanta doctor, mother, of Heather, homemaker and caretaker of animals, particularly Semantha McDuff, Duffy for short, a frisky cairn terrier.

There are also two brilliantly colored tropical fish in a giant aquarium, Emmett (a clown fish, what else? Named after Emmett Kelly, the most famous of clowns) and Julian, simply named after a friend. HE NEW ROLES are still strange to her, but wonder 1 Staff Pholos-Nancv Manglfico On this page, Penny Fuller in the title role of 'Lu Ann Hampton Laverty Oberlander' and Susan Connors during rehearsals at the Alliance Theater. On the facing page, Miss Fuller with her daughter, Heather, her dog and her fish. fully so. She glows, even as she details her shortcomings.

She tells you she is struggling with the domestic counts herself an amateur in the kitchen, a fizzle as a gardener, totally inexperienced as a mother. But still she sJ "I think maybe Heather knew I didn't know what I was doing," says Miss Fuller who keeps her own name professionally. "She's a complete joy, sleeps until 10 in the morning, hardly ever cries." 1 Heather is nearly four months old. Mother and daughter sing to each other. Yes, quite true, they do.

And they coo and talk and send loving glnnces back anil forth. "I had such a good relationship with my mother. I hope Heather and I will too," she says in between gurgles to the 1 She is already planning to give Heather options in life. A flute, for example, so she can play with the youth orchestra if she's musically inclined, and lessons in gymnastics or skating if she should be athletically oriented. "She was so lyrical when she was born that 'Heather' just fit her.

But we gave her the middle name of Scott, a family name, so she could be a Scottie if that fits better." Penny Fuller is obviously very much at home in Atlanta and planning for a future with her family here. Their home is a charming yellow house, tastefully decorated in an eclectic manner, combining his furniture from a previous marriage, hers from her New York apartment, and her mother's which has been in storage. It sits on a quiet street close in to the action of the city, but where the birds still sing and the squirrels scamper up the trees. The garden is as skillfully landscaped as if it were an informal botanical garden. Her flashy red Starfire GT sits in the driveway, ready to go wherever its vivacious redhead driver wants to take it.

"What do you think, Heather, are you going to change my life?" she asks her little daughter, tossing a question herway. Heather lets out a cheerful squeal, as if to say "You bet." "I was a vagabond says Miss Fuller "but I seem to have settled in. I married, moved, had a baby in less than a year. Who knows what is going to happen? I haven't had time to tell. But I don't want my Broadway break-the big role-to come right now.

JL HAVE TO SAY my timing in my career has been rotten. I was not the cute personality type. I'm not Ivory soap pretty enough. Nor am I kooky. I was interesting looking and that wasn't in.

My type was not very saleable. I had come to a crossroads in my life. "So the timing in my life for these other changes was perfect. I was ready, prepared. Miss Fuller is musing about these things as she is eating what she has finally decided to call her breakfast.

The bowl of yogurt, fruit and nuts with wheat germ and honey had been scheduled for her lunch break at the afternoon rehearsal, but hunger had crept up on her. Miss Fuller has missed a sense of place, of belonging somewhere. She was fed up with flip-flopping from coast to coast, wherever the jobs for an actress were. "I have a complicated view of my work. I should have been a ballerina, with a place of being.

That box," she says, pointing to the television set hidden within a handsome cabinet, "has changed our lives. Actresses are not respected so much. There is not a habit of going to theater. "I had this idea of doing something lofty but that hasn't worked too well. If you are not a star of a series, you haven't made it.

I didn't like Hollywood. I like to be passionate about things. In film, you don't have to think. You just have to be. Does, it perhaps, seem small peanuts, starring in a play in Atlanta rather than on Broadway or in Hollywood? "Oh, not at all.

It's not Mickey Mouse at all. Two years ago when I was in Atlanta I thought it would be nice to have a place like this to be an actress, to work like a ballerina in one place, and I made some inquiries. It's rather spooky that I am actually here now. It is the right combination of fun and good talent to be working at the Alliance. Someone in the cast the other day said he thought people were going to be able to build a career in She's excited about her role as Lu Ann, finds it a challenge to be playing a Woman at three different stages in her life.

It is the second play in Preston Jones' "A Texas Trilogy." "The Last Meeting of the Knights of the White Magnolia," also a part.of the trilogy, was presented by the Alliance last year. 'fit 'St 1: i.