The 2nd act

Pat Hegnauer brings theater to the East Bay

by Johnette Rodriguez

When Pat Hegnauer founded 2nd Story Theatre with Ed Shea in 1978 above a harborfront restaurant in Newport (thus 2nd Story), she could not resist her desire to develop an ensemble of actors who would do intimate theater productions -- those with a small group of characters and a large dose of passion. She still can't.

She's currently director of performing arts at St. Andrew's School in Barrington, with a full teaching load of teenagers, but she has also made time to revive 2nd Story Theatre with an adult ensemble of acting colleagues, some of whom she's worked with in summer productions in Westport, some of whom she's had in acting classes over the years. The interaction of the young people at St. Andrew's and the adult actors is reminiscent of her 2nd Story years at School One in Providence.

"One of 2nd Story's great functions has been to turn teenage kids on to theater and get them working with adults," Hegnauer explained, during a conversation in her apartment at St. Andrews. "If you develop a combination of friendship and trust with kids, it just can't be beat. In their relationships with the adults, they find someone to admire who is not just driving big cars and looking so high-powered."

"There have to be things other than sports that they are offered that they might be able to excel at, that could give them a feeling of accomplishment," she emphasized. "I hope we can become established here as a place to go see theater and to have kids realize their own potential."

Hegnauer has been thrilled by the results of students bringing up all their grades because they are doing well in theater. At the same time, she knows how hard it is for theater to compete with the hype of other media, with the slick camera angles or quickly shifting images of film and television. Young people often lack patience with the process, with the whole concept of doing something over and over and over to get it right, she noted.

"Yet that's all that theater is -- learning to solve one problem after another," she reflected. "That's the challenge for the cast and crew and for the audience."

St. Andrew's is breaking ground for a new building next spring which, among other things, will house a small theater, complete with rehearsal room (or another theater) and adjacent dressing rooms. Just outside the theater a small amphitheater is planned to fit into the hillside. Hegnauer could barely contain her excitement as she unfurled the blueprints.

"The East Bay could really use this," she pointed out. "And I know that's part of the reason I'm here -- this will enhance the school, the community, the arts in the state. I just can't not do theater -- I've tried to avoid it, but the work is its own reward and the success is in the process."
--J.R.

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