SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2010 THEATER For actress, a sudden journey to ‘Oklahoma!’
Eleasha Gamble had only days to prepare for her starring role
by Jane Horwitz
Eleasha Gamble was rehearsing for a mini-cabaret turn as one of the guest performers at Arena Stage’s Oct. 23 open house when her career took a gulp-inducing leap. Artistic Director Molly Smith
asked whether Gamble could step into the lead role of Laurey in “Oklahoma!,” which was in pre- views and had less than two weeks before its Nov. 4 press opening. And not just any press opening, but the show inaugurating Arena’s $135 million redesign and grand opening after almost three years of construction and of producing shows at the Lincoln Theatre and temporary venues in Crystal City. She replaced Valisia LeKae, who, the theater company said, was forced to leave because of “pressing personal matters.” The sudden invitation to take over the role and the rush of events after she accepted felt “like the universe colliding all at the same time,” Gamble says. She had been sched- uled to start rehearsals for “A Christmas Carol” at Ford’s Thea- tre, but Ford’s released her with good wishes, she says. Gamble, 30, a native of Takoma
Park (she still lives there with her dad) and a Catholic University theater grad (where she studied with Jane Pesci-Townsend, the be- loved musical theater and cabaret performer who died in August), says she’s never considered herself a “quick study” when it comes to learning a part. Even so, she jumped into playing Laurey, the spirited young woman who runs a farm with her aunt in the Okla- homa Territory, circa 1900. “It was just one of those things
like, all right, this is what I have to do. There’s no time to even com- plain or worry. You just have to be- come a sponge and absorb as much as you can as quickly as you can. Trust me — I surprised my- self,” she says with a laugh. She ad- mits she was unfamiliar with the show except for its two most fa- mous songs, “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’ ” and “Oklahoma!” Whatever doubts she may have had about her ability to step into the role, the actress says her faith buoyed her. She says she conclud- ed: “God is putting this in my lap for a reason and I can’t deny that. I just have to surrender to this proc- ess and just trust and believe that this is where I’m supposed to be.” The “process,” Gamble says, has
been “stressful and crazy and nerve-wracking,” but at the same time “a wonderful validation for me.” The day after she was offered
the part, she began rehearsing the score with music director George Fulginiti-Shakar and spent the next two days rehearsing with a
couple of her co-stars, honing Lau- rey’s big numbers, “Many a New Day” and “People Will Say We’re in Love,” and other songs, such as “The Surrey With the Fringe on Top” and of course, the title song. Fulginiti-Shakar had to get out of his usual Sunday gig as music director at a church to start work- ing with Gamble. They “just bore into the score,” he says. He coached her on how to sing the tunes and act the lyrics. “She’s a trained musician,” he says. “She can read music, so she can actually find her way through the piece, even though she didn’t actually know it. Then we just had to start putting in acting values. . . . She had a couple days of music re- hearsals before she ever stepped into walking the staging and danc- ing.” Laurey first comes onstage sing- ing a bit of Curly’s signature tune, “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’,” af- ter which she gets into a flirty rep- artee with him. “That entrance is so important,” Fulginiti-Shakar says. “That a cappella entrance . . . is so important, because it says: ‘Here I am. Here’s the Laurey char- acter you’re going to fall in love with for the next two hours.’ ” By the third day, Gamble was re- hearsing with the whole cast and orchestra and developing her character with Smith, who staged the show. They worked on finding nuance in Laurey’s conflicted feel- ings about the nice guy Curly (Nicholas Rodriguez), whom she clearly loves, and the surly farm- hand Jud (Aaron Ramey), who both scares and intrigues her. By Oct. 27, Gamble performed her second preview show, carrying what she calls little “bibles” — mini-scripts the Arena staff pre- pared for each of her scenes, tuck- ing them into her costume aprons and checking lines when she need- ed to. She credits assistant stage manager Jenna Henderson with getting her on and offstage suc- cessfully and with the right props. “I don’t know what I would’ve done those early days without her,” Gamble says. She went “off-book” (scriptless)
a few days before the press open- ing, but she says she still reviews her lines backstage before each scene, just to be safe. In his Nov. 6 review, Washing-
ton Post drama critic Peter Marks wrote that Gamble plays Laurey “with a beguiling earthiness.” Gamble says: “If you’re living on the Oklahoma Territory at that time, and you’re two women who are running a farm, you couldn’t be this dainty little thing. You’re a tough broad, and you kind of have to be.” A little toughness and resilience
don’t hurt, either, when you’re tak- ing on a big role at a major theater at the last minute. “You had to just step up and do it and trust,” Gam- ble says. “Thank God, I’m sur- rounded with an amazing cast of people and wonderful stage man- agement . . . that helps immense- ly.”
Fulginiti-Shakar remembers
“I just have to surrender to this process and just trust and believe that this is where I’m supposed to be.”
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Gamble from her college days, when he recruited her for Catholic University’s show choir. “We rec- ognized talent when we saw it and gave her a couple of solos right off the bat. And to watch her journey from those days at Catholic Uni- versity to where she is now...” The music director also worked with her at Ford’s Theatre last year on “The Civil War,” for which Gam- ble won a Helen Hayes Award. He says he “watched her grow and just really open out that part.” Gamble was more than ready for “Oklahoma!,” he says. “I feel this was a leap for her, but it really was the next leap. She was ready for it. This wasn’t anything that she couldn’t have done.” Despite the whirlwind way she joined the show, Gamble says: “It just feels like this was where I was supposed to be. I was telling some- one the other day, doing this part and everything about it, the sec- ond I step onstage, it’s felt like breathing.”
style@washpost.com Horwitz is a freelance writer. SUSAN BIDDLE FOR THE WASHINGTON POST
A NEW DAY: Eleasha Gamble, as Laurey, with co-star Nicholas Rodriguez during the duet “People Will Say We’re in Love.” She was added to the cast at the last minute.
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