The Pendleton touch at Smith

JERREY ROBERTS Director Austin Pendleton answers questions from the cast and crew, including stage manager Megan Linde, during rehearsal for Lillian Hellman's "The Children's Hour" at Smith College.

Pendleton, his hair disheveled, paces in white sneakers and examines the newly dressed set and eyes the play's actors, while answering questions from cast and crew. As he waits for the rehearsal to begin, he chats over coffee with production coordinator Sam Rush about current shows on Broadway.

When the lights finally dim, Pendleton takes a seat in the front row and calls out bits of advice to the players.

"How about leaving your coats on?" he says to Julie Baber and Caitlin Egleson as those actors enter. "I'd like to play with that image a little," he says.

"Try beginning that line just a little bit earlier," he says to Egleson, as she exits a scene.

Stage manager Megan Linde yells, "Hold!" The action paused, she addresses a technical problem, while Pendleton praises the actors.

"The show is impeccable," he tells them.

Teaching debut

This semester, Pendleton, a film, stage and television actor of wide renown, has been teaching an acting class at Smith and directing the college's current production of Lillian Hellman's "The Children's Hour."

In the drama, Baber and Egleson play Karen and Martha, teachers at a private school for young girls. Their reputations are attacked when a spiteful student accuses them of having a lesbian relationship.

"Part of the reason I did this play here, apart from it having lots of parts for women," Pendleton says, "is that I just wanted to get back in touch with [Hellman's] sensibility, her mind, and her heart."

Pendleton met Lillian Hellman, who is viewed as one of the most important 20th-century American playwrights, while acting in her play "The Little Foxes" in 1967. Hellman, who died in 1984, was present when Pendleton was a member of that cast - and was there as well when he directed a revival of the play 14 years later in New York City.

"She was not without opinion," Pendleton says, "but I loved her ... I miss her."

Pendleton is clearly pleased with his first experience teaching and directing at a college. His students, cast and crew say they value the experience and deft touch Pendleton brings to their shared mission.

Leonard Berkman, a professor of literature and playwriting at Smith and longtime friend of Pendleton, was involved in bringing the director to the college. "We have talked about it since his daughter, Audrey, came to Smith," said Berkman. Audrey is a senior this year.

"[Pendleton's presence] is long overdue, it's a delight and a treat," he said. Berkman and Pendleton attended Yale together and have worked together professionally on occasion.

Berkman said that he couldn't be happier to have his old peer here especially since he seems to be having such a good time.

Sean Dempewolff-Barrett, 20, a junior from Hampshire College and assistant director for "The Children's Hour," also values Pendleton's presence.

"He has an incredible way of synthesizing and simplifying everything," said Dempewolff-Barrett. "He allows the actors to give the roles their own shape."

The first 'Motel'

Pendleton, 61, has had a career that's the envy of most performers. He premiered the role of Motel the tailor in the Broadway debut of "Fiddler on the Roof," and has been a member of the Chicago-based Steppenwolf theater ensemble since 1987. He often plays comic roles in which he is a bit of a nebbish.

He has performed and directed on and off Broadway and appeared in television shows and in 63 films, including "What's Up Doc?" (1972), "The Muppet Movie" (1979),"The Thief Who Came to Dinner" (1990), "My Cousin Vinny" (1992) and "Amistad" (1997).

Pendleton is recognizable to many from his appearances as a coroner on the former television show "Homicide." Most recently he has taken a guest role in "The Education of Max Bickford," a new show loosely based on Smith College. His appearance hasn't yet aired.

He has been back and forth between his home of 40 years in New York City to performances in Chicago and to work at Smith.

Pendleton says his love of theater was sparked in his family's living room in Warren, Ohio, a place that doubled as a stage. Young Austin watched his mother, Frances Manchester, who was once a professional stage actress, as she rehearsed for productions in a community theater she helped to found.

"I was hooked," Pendleton said over lunch last month in Lamont House at Smith College.

Every aspect of the theater world captured Pendleton's attention, he says. He immersed himself in the industry and performed in films, directed and acted on stage, in comedies, and in musicals. While he did not become involved professionally until after college, Pendleton has always surrounded himself with theater, whether in Warren, New Haven, Chicago or New York City.

He didn't perform in his mother's early productions in Ohio, but says he watched them all. In junior high school he began to put on his own plays in the basement with his friends.

As an undergraduate studying English at Yale University, Pendleton participated in theater on an extracurricular level. "I was in all the productions that the undergraduate group did while I was there," he said, "but I never took any [theater] courses."

After graduating in 1961, he was off to New York City. Pendleton began taking acting classes in the city while auditioning for productions. He also took classes at Herbert Berghof (HB) Studios, where he now teaches.

Pendleton broke into the New York City theater world in an off-Broadway show called "Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mama's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad," directed by Jerome Robbins.

Robbins later directed "Fiddler on the Roof," casting a 24-year-old Pendleton as the tailor who sang "Miracle of Miracles" in "Fiddler" for the first time on Broadway.

"Oh, it was exciting," Pendleton said of that role. "But it was terribly frightening, I felt a lot of pressure."

Pendleton played Leo Hubbard in another Hellman play, "The Little Foxes," directed by Mike Nichols on Broadway in 1967. Three years later, he joined Alan Arkin, Martin Sheen, Bob Newhart and Orson Welles in the cast of the 1970 film version of Joseph Heller's "Catch-22," playing the part of Lt. Col. Moodus. It was one of his early films.

Twenty years after that, in 1990, Pendleton appeared in "Mr. & Mrs. Bridge" (1990) with Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, which would become his favorite movie project.

"I loved the making of that film," he said. "I was only on it for a few days, but I loved it."

Pendleton's resume, not surprisingly, is long. He was nominated for a Tony Award after directing Elizabeth Taylor as Regina in "The Little Foxes" on Broadway in 1981.

"[Taylor] was really nice and everyone loved her," Pendleton said. "She was a very adventurous, hardworking actress. I wish she had done a lot more theater after that, but she didn't."

He says he would like to work with Meryl Streep and Jessica Lange before his career is over and was happy to have recently collaborated with Al Pacino in a workshop production of "Oedipus Rex."

Out of all his involvement in the trade, which appeals the most? "I guess I like theater the best. But film ... first of all you get paid for it, but secondly there's a permanent record of your work," he said.

Teaching's appeal

Pendleton also says he will never tire of teaching aspiring actors. Before he began teaching his Acting III class at Smith this semester, he had seen the capabilities of his students, because many of them auditioned earlier for "The Children's Hour."

"This is not as different as I thought it would be," Pendleton said of his directorial debut at Smith. "These people are just plain good, you know? I have directed professional casts that weren't as good as this. I thought I would have to adjust the way I work because they are students. But no. ... These students are talented."

"You can teach someone who's very promising and has real talent to go further and to develop or just to maintain the talent," he said. "But you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear."

Elizabeth Bradley-Howard, 21, of Wayland, is a student in Pendleton's Acting III class. She has been impressed by what Pendleton has had to offer.

"He has a huge amount of knowledge about everything relating to theater," she said.

Personal connection

While at Smith this fall, Pendleton's been able to witness firsthand his daughter Audrey's last year at the college.

"Now I wish I had done this every year," Pendleton said wistfully. Audrey is a neuroscience major who plans to go to medical school after taking a few years off, said Pendleton.

"She has blossomed here academically and in every way. It's exciting to be around that, and just to hear the conversations around the dinner table at night at Haven House, they're outrageous," he said. Pendleton takes most of his meals there, with his daughter and her friends.

"My dad and I are good friends," said Audrey Pendleton, 22. She said she wanted to act when she was young but is now content to watch other people perform. "I leave it to someone as talented as my dad," she said.

"He is really in tune to the human condition and he has an incredible amount of talent and passion," Audrey Pendleton said.

Pendleton's fondness for theater and teaching is evident as he watches leads Julie Baber and Caitlin Egleson rehearse Act III of "The Children's Hour."

"Oh, you look so good," Pendleton tells his cast, as he sits in that front row with his legs outstretched and his hands behind his head.

Pendleton pauses to tell the actors stories about his experiences with this and other plays.

"There was this one time," he begins.

Then, Pendleton quickly approaches the three cast members onstage and lowers his voice, as if to shield onlookers from a potentially offensive story. The three actors erupt with laughter at the story. Pendleton returns to his seat and Megan Linde, the stage manager, calls for the scene to begin again.

As that suggests, Pendleton, who arrived a famous actor and director, has managed to become a friend as well as mentor to the actors. His antic humor is everywhere. The actors quietly joke between scenes.

"Don't make fun of your director," Pendleton says, with his wide, familiar grin.

"The Children's Hour," which opened last weekend, will be performed tonight through Saturday at 8 p.m. and Saturday at 2 p.m. in Hallie Flanagan Studio Theatre at Smith College in Northampton. Tickets are $7 for general admission, or $4 for students and seniors. Tonight, all tickets are $1. For tickets call 585-ARTS.

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