Like 'good dinner conversation'

Director Greg Johnson likens the Alpine Theatre Project production of the one-man show “Barrymore” to “a really great dinner conversation — with a fabulous guest.”

In “Barrymore,” David Ackroyd inhabits the skin of hard-living actor John Barrymore, as the legendary figure shares his life story with the audience not long before his death at age 60. The setting is a theater Barrymore has rented one night in 1942 to re-create himself as Shakespeare’s “Richard III,” a role he had performed successfully in the 1920s.

“The show keeps audiences on the edge of their seat with the changes of tone,” Ackroyd said. “It turns on a dime.”

Though still in character as Barrymore, Ackroyd has to create impressions of more than a dozen of the famous and not-so-famous people crucial to Barrymore’s life story. These include close friend W.C. Fields, as well as influential directors and others who helped channel his career.

“David has to be a chameleon,” Johnson said. “There are so many drastic changes with Barrymore doing impressions of the characters in his life.

“You have to be an immensely powerful actor for this show. It’s a star turn. You need someone who can command the stage for an hour and a half, whose stagecraft is at the highest level, whose technique is brilliant.”

The show, written by William Luce and full of both comedy and tragedy, opens tonight at 8 p.m. at the Whitefish Performing Arts Center. It is Alpine Theatre Project’s first production of the summer season.

Ackroyd was one of the founders of the professional Equity theater company, along with Betsi Morrison and Luke Walrath, and is now the artistic development director for the organization, a role which he calls mostly “advisory.”

Like Barrymore, both a classical and popular actor who was regarded as a talent capable of mastering his roles in stage and on film, Ackroyd has his own long and diverse story as an actor.

Ackroyd fell into acting at age 25 after some time in the Army. He was accepted at Yale Drama School and joined the Yale Repertory Theatre, giving him a steady three-year opening gig as an actor.

As his career unfolded, he appeared in Broadway and off-Broadway shows such as a successful run of “Children of a Lesser God” and “Hamlet” with Sam Waterston at Lincoln Center, on the soap operas “Another World” and “The Secret Storm,” and in numerous other television and movie roles. He lived in Los Angeles for 18 years before he and his wife, Ruth, moved to the Flathead Valley.

Ackroyd has starred in a number of Alpine Theatre productions, including “My Fair Lady,” “Camelot,” “Moonlight and Magnolias” and “Art” in the summer seasons, as well as “Onstage” collaborations with the Glacier Symphony such as “The Music Man” and “Sound of Music.”

Though it’s not been a personal struggle, Ackroyd said as a fellow actor, it’s not difficult to understand Barrymore’s self-destructive tendencies as a heavy drinker.  Some of the reasons theater actors especially may drink are logistical; some are spiritual.

“After a show you’re so wired, you’re not going to go home and go to bed,” Ackroyd said. “You’re going to stay out until 2 in the morning, and the only thing open at that time are bars.”

He said there’s a close community generated within the theater world that actors are reluctant to lose. A night of drinking with the friends you’ve made working intensely through each day in rehearsal and shows is a natural way to extend that sense of community.

Barrymore, the grandfather of Drew Barrymore and brother of Lionel and Ethel Barrymore, was a popular, charismatic man, drawn especially to the company of hard-drinking journalists.

“He was unapologetic about it,” Ackroyd said of Barrymore’s lifestyle. “And sometimes he behaved very badly. Later on in life, the alcohol really took over.”

Ackroyd knows Barrymore’s history inside and out, as this is his fifth outing in the role. He first performed it nine years ago as a fundraiser for the Montana Repertory Theatre at the University of Montana, and also has given the show in the KM Theatre in Kalispell and in Libby. It will be his first performance of the show, though, utilizing full professional production values on a big stage.

“I love doing this show,” Ackroyd said. “It’s a mountain to climb every day, and a different experience than when you have other actors. There’s a lot of freedoms to make up moves, you can change the dynamics. It’s pretty much up to you.”

“Barrymore” director Johnson has a long history with Ackroyd. They met three decades ago on the set of an unsuccessful Broadway show — “a thriller that didn’t thrill,” Johnson said — but it did create a friendship between the two that picked up again when they both moved to Montana.

Johnson has been the artistic director for the Montana Repertory Theatre for 20 years. The group is a nationally respected professional company that tours 40 states every year, combining upper-level students from UM and professional actors.

Johnson has also directed two other of Alpine Theatre Project’s more intimate summer shows — the three-person “Art” and four-role “Moonlight and Magnolias.”

“They call me for the little shows. The next one there won’t be any actors,” Johnson joked.

“Barrymore,” by William Luce, runs June 17 through 25 at the Whitefish Performing Arts Center. Performances are at 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays and 3 p.m. on Sunday. Call 862-7469 (SHOW) or visit www.alpinetheatreproject.org for tickets and information.