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Show From ski slope to stage: Downhiller and director Karri Hays takes a turn with PCP v. J . . h A by RICK BROUGH Record staff writer Up until a year ago, Karri Hays had never worked with Park City's theatrical troupe, Park City Performances Perfor-mances (PCP). Since then, she has gone from an actor in last summer's melodrama, "Deadwood Dick," to the co-director for PCP's forthcoming production of "Plaza Suite." She approaches her new task with surprising confidence. But maybe that's because, in the world of theater, she had nowhere to go but up. She gave her very worst performance perfor-mance the first time she was on stage. In first grade, she recalled, she was cast in her Catholic school Christmas pageant as one of six angels who gather around the baby Jesus. Unfortunately, before the curtain went up on the play, she had been forced at dinner to eat a few bites of Dinty Moore beef stew, which she hated. And as the play proceeded, she felt nausea more than divine exaltation. ex-altation. She threw up on the manger. "My mother never gave me Dinty Moore beef stew again," she said. But it was her cool, confident attitude at-titude that won her a role in PCP's melodrama last season. She had been meaning to try out for a play for a long time. When she went to auditions for "Deadwood Dick," she said, "The first thing I thought was 'Nobody here knows what they're doing. " ' Since she felt she was on an equal footing with everybody else, she could do whatever she wanted to do with the character. She tried out for the part of Rose, the blind victim who is buffeted by the twists and turns of the plot. Director Richard Scott thought she looked too young, but she got thet role because he had no one else for5 the part, she confessed. "Later? he; was glad," she said. She had no trouble memorizing lines. And it was . an interesting challenge to play a blind personal just looked out. I focused on certain points in the theater." However, no one told her at first that she had to sing in the show,' And she wasn't prepared for the night when, in the middle of a song, rowdy audience members threw coins that went dinging off her forehead,' she recalled. ".-... She also drew signs and; backgrounds for the Old West set. ! And later, she worked on a banner for season ticket sales for PCPn"I j guess I showed that anything thrown j at me I can do. And I'll j do i anything." ' After the show closed, she was, talking to Richard Scott one ! day! when he lamented that he couldn't , line up three directors for "Plaza ' Suite," Neil Simon's collection nofi three short plays. "I said, 'I'd love to 1 direct,' and he said 'OK,'" Hays recalled. Her collaborator, Bob Toy a veteran of many plays in Park City also is directing for the first lime. "We have the same idea of what we want," Hays said. If she is aware of any problem at all, it is her youth she's 24. And most of the cast is older than she. Hays is no babe in the woods, however. She was born in North "Carolina and her family moved r "around a lot with her Marine father. Then for two years he flew out of California for Pan American World Airways before he became addicted to skiing and moved to Park City, she said. She has lived here for 16 years. ,l'She had more experiences in drama after her dubious Christmas-play Christmas-play 'debut at age 6. At Park Cityt High School, she was a member of an improvisational troupe. Later, she! was a student at East High School in Salt Lake City, where she lost interest in acting because of the method of teaching. But, to fill the gap, she said, "Ski racing helped build a lot of confidence con-fidence in myself as an individual. " She started racing two years after she came to Park City. She was on the Park City Ski Team and, at one point, she placed first in the girls' cross-county event. One of her coaches was a native of Sweden, and, through the acquaintance, acquain-tance, she traveled to Sweden for a year.' A Swedish town sponsored her to ski for them on the European cir cuitsomething like the Nor-Am tour that featured top-seeded skiers from Scandinavian countries. She left because of Sweden's depressing climate, she said. It rained rain-ed all the time. Back home in Park City, she entered Town Races and telemark competitions, which revived her interest in-terest in downhill and cross-country skiing. Last year, she raced professionally profes-sionally and she said she will do it again this year. . The pressure in skiing and in acting ac-ting is similar, she said, except that, "It's much more intense in skiing in the aspect of guts." You have to think very clearly to avoid making any mistakes in the minute-and-a-half it takes to race ' down the hill, she said. To prepare, she closes off everything else in her mind. "Nothing can get in." During a race, "It's almost like you're screaming inside yourself, becausHyou're going so fast, going off jumps six feet high. You don't feel pain. You don't feel anything. You just see the gates and the people next to you." For now, her next challenge will come with the opening of "Plaza Suited Dec. 6 at the Egyptian Theatre. She said she and Toy have visualized what the play should look like. "We won't let the show go on unless everything in our heads is on the stage. After that, it's always up to the actors." The plot thickens: Good guys Karri Hays and Bob Toy outsmarted out-smarted the villain in last summer's melodrama, "Deadwood Dick." |