I guess it’s about time I learned somelines.

    I honestly thought I was a little further along in getting my linesfor the play down, but one practice earlier this week suggested Imay need a little more study.

    After about two years away, I’m returning to the Brookhaven LittleTheatre stage next weekend for our production of “Francine’sWill.”

    Performances are Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2p.m., with future shows the following Friday and Saturday, March2-3, at 7:30 p.m. All shows will be at The Haven on West CherokeeStreet.

    The play takes place in the wake of fake fur company ownerFrancine’s death and centers around her scheming relatives’ effortsto get their hands on her fortune.

    I play attorney Chester Gregson, whose role as executor is to seethat the terms of Francine’s will are carried out. Having been areal-life executor for two relatives in recent years, I have somefamiliarity with the duties.

    Unlike the gold-digging relatives, my character has his ownpersonal goal he is pursuing. Let’s just say observances of thispast Tuesday have been lonely occasions in Chester’s world.

    While I’ve always enjoyed being on stage – this is around my 20thproduction – the thing I’ve never been too fond of the makeup.

    Fortunately for this production, I don’t expect I’ll need too muchsince Chester and I are about the same age.

    Some recent roles, namely Grandpa in “You Can’t Take It With You”and Uncle Henry in “Wizard of Oz,” required a good bit of makeup to”age me up.” It’s good to be getting back down to around my actualage, which is in the 40s.

    One comment about age and acting I’ll never forget came from MarkLenard a number of years ago.

    The actor who played Sarek, Spock’s father in the “Star Trek”television series and movies, was in Jackson for a science fictionconvention and I interviewed him for a story I was working on. Aroutine question to be asked of someone being interviewed is theirage.

    “Actors don’t have ages, we have ranges,” Lenard said.

    I seem to recall Lenard saying his “range” was from the late 20s toinfinity. It may not have been infinity, but his Trek character’slife spanned from the Original Series to late in the NextGeneration version.

    Anyway, back to Earth.

    As I write this column, furniture for the stage is arriving and thecast is lining up costumes and whatever props we’ll need for theproduction. And I’m not alone in buckling down to learn our linesand deliver them on cue.

    Like other actors I know, I associate some lines with specificmovements or items on stage. Getting the furniture on stage andcostumes together is when a production really starts to cometogether for me.

    Rather than mimicking the opening of a briefcase or stepping aroundan imaginary piece of furniture, we can now interact with thosethings. That helps a great deal as far as fine-tuning ourroles.

    Of course, BLT veterans will tell you that along about this timealso comes the “off” night.

    It’s that night of practice where seemingly nobody knows any oftheir lines and it appears there’s no way the play is going to cometogether by opening night. The night generally turns into a biglaugh-fest because everything is going so badly.

    I’ve tended to take this night of goof-ups as a good sign that theplay is on the right track.

    What I think it does is allows the actors a mental break and thenallows us to refocus on the task at hand, and that’s getting readyto give our audience a great performance once the show opens.

    So if you get a chance, drop by The Haven next weekend or thenext.

    That’s all for now.

    Write to Managing Editor Matthew Coleman at P.O. Box 551,Brookhaven MS 39602, or send e-mail tomcoleman@dailyleader.com.