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Theater student plays many parts

Headline Photo
Photo courtesy of Live Theatre Workshop

Jeremy Thompson, left, and UA dramatic theory senior Valerie Feingold star in Live Theatre Workshop's production of "Arms and the Man."

By Jessica Suarez
ARIZONA DAILY WILDCAT

Thursday October 4, 2001

Valerie Feingold has a couple of jobs and about a million roles to fill.

She takes 19 credit hours as a theatre major at the University of Arizona. She also works as a development officer for the Live Theatre Workshop, helping construct promotional materials for its plays.

Recently, she worked on putting together the program and marketing materials for its current production, "Arms and the Man," a play in which she also stars.

Feingold plays Raina Petkoff in "Arms and the Man," which runs through Oct. 21 at the Live Theatre Workshop. The George Bernard Shaw play explores the complexities of social status, class, romantic ideals and war inside a lighthearted comedy.

"It's very palatable for an audience," Feingold said. "[Shaw] slips his messages in very subversively."

The play, which takes place during a fictional war between Bulgaria and Serbia, contains two love stories.

Raina is a wealthy girl engaged to Sergius, a soldier on the Bulgarian side. Raina is a romantic when it comes to war; her father is also a soldier, and she imagines going to war as noble and heroic. This all changes when a Swiss soldier fighting for the Serbs comes through her window looking for a place to hide from the Bulgarian army. The soldier, Captain Bluntschli, tells Raina he is scared of dying in the war, something that doesn't fit in with her romantic notions. He also tells her that he carries chocolates onto the battlefield instead of bullets.

This sort of dualism - a play that's both frothy and meaningful - is typical of Shaw's work. It's also typical of the kind of play Live Theatre Workshop chooses to perform.

While Feingold has been in performances for other theater companies and for the UA, she has been with Live Theater Workshop since 1997.

"It's a great company to work for," Feingold said. "We have some struggles and limitations, but it is very much an actor's theater."

Live Theatre Workshop, a not-for-profit corporation, is a small theater company. The workshop's actors often play many other offstage roles. Feingold also works about 20 hours a week working on fundraisers, press materials, posters and programs for the theater.

Jeremy Thompson, who plays Captain Bluntschli in "Arms and the Man," is also more than just an actor for Live Theatre Workshop.

"I teach classes here (at the workshop), and I've been a director, actor, producer and costumer," said Thompson.

For Feingold, balancing work, theater and school can be challenging, but she remains most focused on one thing.

"I don't know how I balance it all. I just try and separate my different roles. But [theater] is always going to be the most important," said Feingold, who has studied as the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York as well as at the UA.

The challenge of doing a play about war in a country that may well be near war itself hasn't changed the relevancy of the play for Feingold, although it has changed its significance some.

"Shaw is always relevant," said Feingold. "[Sept. 11] put it in sharper focus. It gave it a different level of meaning."

Feingold and Thompson were still called to rehearsal that day, and Thompson only connected the two after rehearsal began.

"The director started to relate the events to the play," Thompson said. "It seemed inappropriate, but I realized, 'what an outstanding opportunity to make a statement about war.'"

This is Thompson's third production with Feingold, whom he calls, "just delightful" to work with.

"She's really present. She's not afraid to be fully engaged," Thompson said. "She's so busy and does so much, and she does everything fully."

Feingold's tireless work for the theater has early roots. Her first roll was as a munchkin in a production of "The Wizard of Oz" in elementary school. Since that time, her love of the theater has risen to become the main focus of her life, something she continues to work hard and make sacrifices for.

"If you can't give it everything you have, then you're going to fail," said Feingold.

 
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