New 'Girls' in town

By Lisa Bornstein, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published September 19, 2008 at 3 p.m.

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Photo by Terry Shapiro

Cast members Linda Klein, left, and Barbara Gehring, right, headline "Girls Only." Allison Watrous, center top, and Amie MacKenzie are their understudies.

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Theater isn't all bright lights and applause, you know. Sometimes you have to get that new version of See, See My Playmate memorized.

To that end, a recent afternoon found four actresses at the Garner Galleria Theatre, doggedly working through the childhood hand-clap game until they got it right. This is what it takes to be Girls Only.

The original, autobiographical depiction of 1970s girlhood was the surprise hit of last season at the Avenue Theater - such a hit that it was extended until the point where Barbara Gehring, who created and performed the piece with Linda Klein, had to leave because she was just too pregnant to perform.

Such a hit that Denver Center Attractions saw in it potential as a title to sell around the country, the first step being to restage it at the Galleria, again with an all-female audience.

So these days Gehring and Klein are teaching Amy Mackenzie and Alison Watrous how to play, well, them. Gehring and Klein, two- thirds of the improv troupe A.C.E., kept creative control, including over casting.

"Barbara's and my first concern was, 'Can I be a friend with this person?' " Klein says. "Can I just be in a room for 12 hours a day with this person?"

Auditions involved improv exercises and looking for two women who could play off Gehring, Klein and each other. Mackenzie understudies Gehring, and Watrous understudies Klein, but there may be opportunities for other combinations. In the meantime, though, Gehring and Klein remain the headliners, committed to five shows a week through December.

When it came time for the new actresses to pick up the script, it was a little unsettling.

"Linda and I had a moment watching other people do our monologues, and we got really weepy," Gehring says. "That's Linda's story. Why are you telling Linda's story?"

"There's an honoring for sure," Watrous says. "It's fun, but you are telling a true story of someone's life."

Part of the original show involved Gehring and Klein's digging through "memory boxes" filled with reminders of their actual childhoods.

With an eye to the future, the props designer found or made exact replacements, and where the creators would improvise based on the object an audience member selected, Mackenzie and Watrous have to memorize each possible story.

"And also pretend like it's improvised," Mackenzie explains. "You don't want to pick up an object and launch into a monologue."

But that's not the hardest part.

"Being in my underwear," she says, referring to the show's bra- and-panties opening. "Where were these roles when I was in my 20s and loved prancing about in my underwear?"

OTHER NEWS: Rent has closed on Broadway, but fans can still catch the final show. Closing night was filmed on Broadway and will be shown in theaters around the area Wednesday, Thursday, Sept. 27 and Sept. 28. Locations at thehotticket.net/rent

Girls Only

* When and where: 2 and 7:30 p.m. today, 2 p.m. Sunday; 7:30 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays; beginning Oct. 8, 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays; Garner Galleria Theatre, DPAC

* Cost: $29

* Information: 303-893-4100

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