Tony Mastroianni Review Collection
Actor Marley to direct here
Cleveland Press July 26, 1971
John Marley, seen most t recently as Ali McGraw's father in "Love Story," will be a guest director at the Play House this fall.
He will direct a production of Ibsen's "A Doll's House," which will open at the Drury Theater Oct. 15 and play through Nov. 7.
Marley has been a guest director at the Play House before. He directed productions of "The Strong Are Lonely" and "Day of the Lion."
"A Doll's House" will be the second production of the theater's 56th season.
OPENING the season will be "The Dark of the Moon" at the Euclid-77th Theater on Oct.. 8. The play, described as a legend with music, is based on the balled "Barbara Allen."
This too will be handled by a guest director, J.J. Garry Jr., associate professor of speech and drama director at Cleveland State University. Last season he directed his own musical adaptation of "The Birds" by Aristophanes which later was the winner of the American College Theater Festival at the Kennedy Foundation in Washington.
Marley will come to Cleveland after completing his work in the movie version of "The Godfather." He received an Oscar nomination as best supporting actor for "Love Story" and won the best male actor award at the Cannes Film Festival in 1968 for his role in 'Faces."
The use of guest directors may do much to strengthen the Play House. As suggested here before, there often is little point in presenting oft-repeated works unless the presentation offers a fresh point of view.
IT WILL be interesting to see what Marley does with the 1879 work of Ibsen which revolutionized the theater in its time but which may have fresh significance today since it comments on a woman's role in society.
Garry already has demonstrated his affinity for the unusual, both with "The Birds" and with his staging of "R.U.R." at the Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival last summer.
