The great opera singer Maria Callas was passionate, disciplined and completely dedicated to her art.
Sounds a lot like soprano Betty Craig, who will be playing the great diva in Arizona Onstage Productions' "Master Class."
"She inhabits my soul," said Craig, taking a break from studying the script to talk on the phone.
"I can't tell you how many hours I've put into this show. … I want to bring the best to this role."
"Betty's very disciplined," says Kevin Johnson, who is directing the often funny Terrence McNally play.
"She does all her research and she keeps me on my toes."
The setting is a fictionalized master class given by Callas, after she has lost her voice but still bursting with a passion for the art and passing it on to the students.
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"As she works with three students, she at first seems to be incredibly mean, icy," says Johnson. "She's had that reputation. She's strict, but she knows she can do her art perfectly, and that it's her destiny to share."
Callas had a deep, deep passion for her art. That's something both the director and the star of this production seem to share.
"Master Class" opened on Broadway in 1995, and won the 1996 Tony for Best Play. It was that Broadway production that first made Johnson fall in love with the play's humor, drama and story.
He held off staging it until he could gather the right cast, headed by Craig.
"I knew she could definitely fill the shoes," says Johnson.
The key to that big task, says Craig, is understanding this: "She is driven by her love of the art and the music. She loved it. She couldn't think of anything else but her music."
And that's something she understands well, says the soprano, who is well-known in Tucson for her musical gifts as both an actress and as a songstress with the 3Bs with Jeffrey Haskell and Jack Neubeck.
"She felt that composers have wonderful gifts to give singers, and it's up to the singers to find the truth and beauty in them and to bring them to life for the audience," Craig says.
"I always know when people request a song, they do it because it means something to them emotionally. I try to find the story in the song for them. In that sense, I honestly understand what Callas is saying."
The play gives "glimpses of her life, of her stormy world," says Johnson.
But ultimately, what "Master Class" is about isn't so much Callas, as art and artists.
"What the audience learns is that art is about the human soul, and why artists need to create," says Johnson.
"They can't avoid it. It's something they are destined to do and to be."
If you go
"Master Class"
• By: Terrence McNally.
• Presented by: Arizona Onstage Productions.
• Director: Kevin Johnson.
• When: Preview is 7:30 p.m. Thursday; opening is 7:30 p.m. next Friday. Continues through Jan. 23.
• Where: The Temple of Music and Art Cabaret Theatre, 330 S. Scott Ave.
• Tickets: Previews are $15; regular performances, $27.50; discounts available.
• Reservations/ information: 882-6574, 1-800-838-3006, www.brownpaper tickets.com or www.arizonaonstage.org
• Running time: 1 hour, 40 minutes, with one intermission.
• Cast: Betty Craig; Kristé Belt; Katie Mendelson; Elliott Jones; Brian Levario; Erich P. Covey.
• Et cetera: Contains mature language and subject matter.
Win tickets to "Master class"
Arizona Onstage Productions has three pairs of tickets to give away for opening weekend. To be eligible, go to azstarnet.com/contests and answer the following question:
Where was Maria Callas born? The deadline is Monday.
Winners will be randomly selected from all correct answers.
Contact reporter Kathleen Allen at kallen@azstarnet.com or 573-4128.
