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CLOUDY Temp: 45 °F Wind: CLM at 0 mph Wednesday, February 19, 2003 SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map EXTRA HomeLife Magazine W3 Magazine Jobs @ Mail Tribune Tempo A & E Oregon CarZone Wellness Connection Real Estate Newspaper in Education Prime Times Outdoor Journal Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People CLASSIFIEDS Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Find Everything E SOUTHERN OREGON Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar ABOUT US FAQ What's New Advertise Home Delivery Classified Ad Contact Us Media Kit Email Story to a Friend January 23, 2003 Above Ralph Burgess in his Medford home are photographs of him, his wife, Ellen, and others with whom he has shared the stage in his long acting career. Mail Tribune / Jim Craven Play it again 56 years later, actor takes another turn at landmark Ashland hotel By BILL VARBLE Mail Tribune When Oregon Stage Works inaugurates a new play reading series in Ashland, it will be a long-delayed homecoming for Ralph Burgess. Burgess appeared in Angus Bowmer’s production of Eugene O’Neill’s "Ah, Wilderness!" in the Mark Antony Hotel in 1947. Jan. 31 in the same hotel, now called Ashland Springs, he appears in a reading of Rich Orloff’s play "Companion Pieces." Bowmer, then the guiding light of a little theater called the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, was teaching English at Southern Oregon College in Ashland. The OSF’s plays were presented outdoors each summer. Burgess was one of Bowmer’s students. "He was fabulous," says Burgess, now retired and living in Medford. "And I don’t say that for any reason other than it’s the truth." Burgess thinks part of the reason Bowmer was so good at working with actors was that he was an actor himself. "He understood," Burgess says. Burgess caught the acting bug big-time and went on to study and work at the famed Pasadena Playhouse in Southern California. He came back to play Romeo for Bowmer in OSF’s 1949 "Romeo and Juliet," then left again to pursue an acting career in New York and Los Angeles. In the meantime, he’d played real-life Romeo down south, meeting his wife, Ellen Berry, when they worked together in a production of "Peg O’ My Heart." Bowmer had gone to Pasadena to audition actors for OSF. In addition to playing in OSF’s successful "Romeo," Burgess appeared in "Richard II" that summer. He remembers a Stanford professor playing the nurse in "Romeo" and then writing a review of the play. "She said the nurse stole every scene," he says. The part of Mercutio was also played by a visiting professor. Burgess acted for years in Southern California and New York City. He once worked in a 1950s television quiz show that hired actors and represented them to viewers as real people. "We weren’t given the answers," he says. "But we were asked test questions, and the real questions might be part of the test." He once "won" $10,000 but in reality was paid $50 for his work on the show. The quiz show craze collapsed in a 1959 scandal that became the subject of the 1994 Robert Redford movie "Quiz Show." The Burgesses went on to live and work in Texas and Arizona and returned to Southern Oregon a few years ago. They continue to be active in theater. "Companion Pieces" won New York playwright Orloff the 2003 Pickering Award for excellence and is also being produced at the Coldwater Theatre in Michigan. Orloff has written eight full- length plays, including "Veronica’s Position," the award-winning "Shedding Light" and the romantic comedy "Damaged Goods," offered as a reading at a local theater last year. Appearing with Burgess is Mary Brubaker, who was in the cast of Actors’ Theatre’s production of "Spoon River Anthology," and Herman Edel, who did his first radio broadcast at 17 and produced music tracks for radio, television and films in Aspen, London, Los Angeles and New York. Also featured in "Companion Pieces" are Ashland artist Nancy Zuffich and Louisiana native Denise Guillot. Bill Ritch is making his Southern Oregon directorial debut. Ritch recently complete a master’s degree in dramatic arts from the University of California, Davis. "Companion Pieces" is a pair of one-act comedies dealing with subject matter said to be a hard sell in Hollywood: love and sex among the elderly. "It’s funny, funny," Burgess says. "The two are almost identical, but one is a little more harsh than the other." Performances are set at 7 p.m. Jan. 31 and Feb. 1 and 2 p.m. Feb. 2. Tickets are $10 general, $5 students at the door. For more information, call 482-2334. Reach reporter Bill Varble at 776-4478 or e-mail [email protected] Printer Friendly Version Email Story to a Friend Subscribe Archive: Click to Search Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright 1997-2002 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy webmaster feedback A D V E R T I S E R S