The Memphis Press-Scimitar from Memphis, Tennessee • 33

ShowTIme 3 The Front Rom Pro-Scimitar Friday 28 1973 British Actress to Perform at Little Theater Star Likes To Lib and Let Lib Kid Down the Street Is Clicking in Atlanta By JANE SANDERSON Prill-Scimitar Stall Writer LITTLE ANNE AND ROONEY Former Memphian Anne Haney a lead- Ing actress on various Atlanta stages vies with veteran Mickey Rooney for laughs in a Jacksonville Beach production of How They Campaigning for liberation is not actress Carole Shelley's cup of tea The Britisher says she is proud of being a woman has always felt liberated and finds that playing the part of a woman seeking independence in fails to alter her views love men opening doors for He and lighting Cover my she said in a telephone interview I like the old-fash- Story ioned labels Miss and Mrs I resent being referred to as Ms I find it demeaning and I don't like to be neutered that way" Miss Shelley arrives in Memphis Jan 12 to begin rehearsals for the Memphis Little production of Henrik which opens Jan 27 Before Christmas she played Nra for five weeks at the Goodman Theater in Chicago There are some measures concerning rights Miss Shelley feels strongly in favor of one in the area of salaries She advocates comparable pay for men and women but only they are doing the same kind of work" Where she does not object to what anybody else wants to do if it makes them happy she still wishes women in general would relax and enjoy being women want to be lumped into a liberated she continued would like the was first introduced in 1889 and is looked on today as an early feminist movement drama It was resurrected on Broadway last year with Claire Bloom playing Nora which was repeated in a movie and on ABC-TV with Jane Fonda playing the lead Miss Shelley believes Ibsen saw his Work as an exercise in human relationships not as a vehicle for lib The characters are merely caught up in a situation that is intolerable to them at that point in history she said and things have not changed that much in the past century what lib would have us to Memphis Little Theater director Sher- wood Lohrey looks on husband as a typical Victorian man who rules his house with an iron fist treats his wife like a plaything to be wound up on demand" Torvald the husband to be portrayed at Memphis Little Theater by Holden Potter is a typical 'man who could have been of any period with his dependence on social patterns he was born into and brought up within Lohrey pointed out By EDWIN HOWARD Prtss-Scimitar Amusements Editor THAT CUTE RED HEADED KID who used to live two doors down and for several seasons enlivened the offerings whether frothy or weighty of Ray Southwestern Players seems gradually to have become the First Lady of Atlanta theater Well at the very least she has become its No 1 kook and bottle washer having stolen shows from such old pros as Mickey Rooney and Dorothy Lamour while impersonating maids Anne Haney (the former Anne Thomas daughter of Robert Lee Thomas 3607 Cowden) is winding up her biggest year as an actress having appeared in seven different productions in Atlanta and Jacksonville from which she gleaned a sheaf of rave reviews several of which attest to her scene-stealing propensities even when the scenes were shared with seasoned professionals boasting well-known names The year began with Chris Manos Peachtree Playhouse producer deciding to take a chance on Anne as the only local performer in a production of Neil of the Red-Hot The imported New York players with whom she was teamed were Jerry Stiller Elaine Hyman and Jane Curtin But under Jim direction our Anne outstripped the visiting actresses in the view and contributed strongly to best moments As Atlanta Journal critic Terry Kay put it: it really is in the third act that Stiller displays his skills as a performer He is splendid but he has Miss perfectly structured portrayal of the depressed woman to play Next the former Memphian played the two maids in and Emilia in Comedy of both at Alliance Theater Then she was invited down to the Alhambra Dinner Theater in Jacksonville Beach Fla to play what else? the maid in Noel with Dorothy Lamour It was another good experience for Anne: Lamour was a delight a really nice lady so I had a ball and got a tan to Again Anne acquitted herself impressively with the name star Jacksonville Leader critic wrote: Lamour has the comic touch (but) Anne Haney can only be called a larcenous lady as she ripped off each scene she entered with great gusto Naturally the Alhambra Dinner Theat- er wanted her back and got her in September But first in July producer Manos cast Anne in his big Theater of the Stars production of Fair starring Michael Allinson (he played Prof Higgins twice with road companies in Memphis) and Hans Conried Anne played Mrs Eynsford-Hill and although it was her first musical and singing "is not my she loved it The production played a week in Norfolk Va after its Atlanta run and Anne enjoyed the association with both Mr Allinson charming and Mr Conried turned out to be quite a scholar of Oriental history and The re call from the Alhambra Dinner Theater was in the nature of an emergency Would Anne rush down and be ready to open with only four rehearsal in How They She would did and was competing with that old scene-stealer Mickey Rooney for laughs and coming out quite well thank you Wrote critic Merry in The Leader: "That talented Anne Haney (who stole some scenes out from under the famous Lamour nose last season) plays another maid this one with a yen for a glamorous figure which she the Victorian age when the play was first presented to a storm of violent reaction the sympathy was on the Lohrey said this has shifted in the past 85 years so we now recognize Nora as the hero in spite of the fact she walks away from husband and children to find He describes the Little production as a revised version of the original drama one presented last year on Broadway by writer Christopher Hampton Nora is 26 years old at the time of the play but she had been childlike all of her life Miss Shelley explained and had ultimately become a possession of her husband It is obvious to Miss Shelley that husband did not realize what his wife had been going through during eight years of marriage and arrival of three children really change in the Miss Shelley observed becomes aware of what she has been missing not as a woman but as a human being living in a world actually has many very good qualities She is a very honest person a little stupid and frivolous perhaps but her honesty works for her at the end of the play I think she means to hurt Toward the end when Nora makes her decision to leave home the question arises: does she leave to the whole point of the the actress answered pointing out Nora is not trained to do anything and admits she know what is to become of her it is interesting that she walks out of the house with Miss Shelley continued all The same thing is happening today Miss Shelley said with liberated women leaving their homes to be career women She feels abandonment of the home is unnecessary since anything one wants to do badly enough can be done with or without a family quite a deep play with a lot of rationalism I necessarily have to agree with it but a bloody good Not all of Miss lifetime acting career has been confined to serious drama even though the past three years have found her turning more to the classics particularly with the American and Canadian Shakespeare Companies As the daughter of Covent Garden opera singer Marta Shelley and1 of the late British composer Curtis Shelley the actress has been familiar with the theater all her life and started appearing on stages at the age of 3 She began acting with an English repertory company at 17 Her mother will accompany her to Memphis It was a comedy Odd on Broadway that brought Miss Shelley to this country and she gained acclaim for portrayal of one of the Pigeon sisters a role she later repeated in the movie and on television She believes really good comedy off as drama too there is truthfulness in comedy it is not worth much she said achieves with bunches of grapes This gambit fetches some of the biggest laughs of the evening and think Mr Rooney make the most of his And The Stephen Brodeur added: Haney turns in a sparkling performance and the results include two of the funniest Anne herself recalls: the show together in four days then keeping up with Mr Rooney for three weeks took its toll on the nervous stomach but I have since As the exciting year for actress Anne Haney moved toward its close she won the role of the sardonic teacher Catherine in Paul Miss Reardon Drinks a Little" at the Studio Theater Atlanta Journal amusements editor Barbara Thomas led the cheerleading with these words: confess to being an Anne Haney fan from way back but her creation of Catherine the droll irreverent teacher who washes away her burdens with Manhattans and endures her sister's fixations on rabies and the evils of meat is the best of hers seen yet And those who have watched Miss Haney know saying a For Anne it was heaven finally a show with great And it must have been especially gratifying to have a triumph in a role other than that of a maid Between engagements again Anne 19 happily holidaying while wondering what her next stage role will be Also active in the flourishing television commercial! market in Atlanta she appeared in P' Bell 1970 CLIO (commercial equivalent of the Oscar) winner among many others: Husband John is director of programming for Educational TV station and their 11-year-old daughter Melissa does some radio TV and stage work herself although her ambition professionally is to become a veterinarian Congratulations Anne on your burgeoning career And incidentally as a specialist in maids had you thought of that greatest maid role of all Maid of Orleans in Shaw's CAROLE SHELLEY As one of the zany Pigeon sisters In Odd (left) and as Nora in.