Tulsa World: Stalking project became too real for actress

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Stalking project became too real for actress

Courtneay Sanders plays a stalked woman in the live suspense drama "Boy Gets Girl," a Playhouse Theatre production at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center. Courtesy

By KAREN SHADE World Scene Writer
Published: 10/29/2009 2:22 AM
Last Modified: 10/29/2009 4:29 AM

The last time Courtneay Sanders played the role of a stalked woman, she found herself waking to strange phone calls at 3 a.m.

She considers herself fortunate that nothing else happened.

"I've had people who were very persistent, but not life-threatening," Sanders said.

The actress, theater instructor at Oral Roberts University and founder of Playhouse Theatre has been in rehearsals for "Boy Gets Girl," a dramatic thriller playing through Saturday at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center.

Sanders auditioned for the role while a graduate student at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. It became her thesis project, and Sanders went to great lengths to flesh out her character and study the issue of stalking.

"When I did the show last time, it was at U of A and so my number was in the (school's phone) directory," she said. "When the show was running, I would have people calling me at 2 and 3 in the morning, and they were saying insane things to me. That was pretty unnerving."

When Playhouse Theatre cohort Chris Crawford proposed adding the show into the group's current season, Sanders considered it. Why would she agree to perform such a demanding role again?

First, the rehearsal period this time would be significantly shorter compared to the 1 1/2 years she spent with the role as her thesis project. As an artist, Sanders was also curious to see what she could do with the role several years later.

Sanders plays Theresa Bedell, a New York reporter, who finds herself set up on a blind date with a man who turns out to be more dangerous than he first appears. Theresa eventually declines to date Tony again, but he turns stalkerish.

Crawford directs the production. Rather than becoming a play about an issue, however, the intensity of "Boy Gets Girl" is wrapped up in uncovering the real people behind the stereotype facades. "Not everything is as it seems," in this story that throws out a series of characters of surprising depths, she said.

BOY GETS GIRL

When: 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday

Where: Liddy Doenges Theatre of the Tulsa Performing Arts Center, 110 E. Second St.

Tickets: $25; PAC box office, 596- 7111, tulsaworld.com/mytix

Karen Shade 581-8334
karen.shade@tulsaworld.com By KAREN SHADE World Scene Writer

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