Fate of Inland Classical Theatre’s ‘Mary Stuart’ actors determined by a coin toss

For its first full production, a coin toss will determine who rules and who dies for Inland Classical Theatre’s “Mary Stuart,” opening on Thursday at Blue Door Theatre. Directed by Inland Classical Theatre artistic director Abby Burlingame, the play tells the story of Queen Elizabeth I imprisoning her cousin, Mary, Queen of Scots.

“I remember seeing ‘Mary Stuart’ when I was probably in my early teens over in Seattle,” Burlingame said. “… I remember, even though I was probably fairly young, just being absolutely spellbound by it. These two powerful figures and Queens, at like loggerheads for two hours on stage and being completely captivated.”

Inland Classical Theatre f focuses on the classics, but Burlingame talked about how this story has a lot for a modern audience.

“It’s about women in positions of power, and how even women back then were struggling with the same things that we struggle with today,” Burlingame said.

Sydney Anderson and Jayme Worrell will star as the queens. Worrell prefers Elizabeth while Anderson favors Mary, but say they’ve enjoyed the challenge of preparing for both roles.

“That is actually what really intrigued me about the process, because I’ve been acting for 10 years, and it’s not like anything I’ve done,” Anderson said. “I was really interested in this process where I got to explore multiple roles in the show, and also work in partnership with someone this closely.”

Part of their queen preference lies in their age gap; Anderson is 22 and Worrell 46.

“The Queen Elizabeth literally has a line in reference to Mary, where she says she is younger, and I’m here looking down the barrel of 50 going, ‘Yeah, OK,’ ” Worrell said. “So, finding that, putting myself back in that younger woman’s mindset and doing it effectively – that has been a little bit more of a reach for me.”

Anderson said she enjoys bringing life to Mary. This isn’t her first time playing a historical figure where the audience knows what happened to them before the play even begins. She played Joan of Arc, and brought the lessons from that show to this one.

“The No. 1 piece of advice that I was given through that production where I was playing Joan of Arc was start off with so much life and so much love that the audience thinks, ‘Oh, maybe Joan doesn’t die tonight.’ ”

For Worrell, this has been a recent return to acting, performing “5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche” for Hitchhiker’s Theatre in September after a 20-year hiatus. Despite their age gap, Worrell said she looks up to Anderson and learned a lot from her in this production, and “5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche,” which Anderson directed and Burlingame was an actor.

“So my experience in community theater, I’m talking 20 years ago, it was a different style then, and directors would yell at you and they would cuss you out,” Worrell said. “I always make the remark about Sydney Anderson was the first director I had who didn’t throw a clipboard at the cast. And I am dead serious on that.”

Worrell gives a lot of credit to the cast on this production, since they have to adjust to the queens.

“I come on stage and I’m going to play one of these roles that I know very well, and I do my lines, I do my blocking, I’ve got that,” Worrell said. “Our cast has to adjust to us, and it can be very, very different. Like someone’s queen might be kinder than someone else’s queen. One queen might smile more than the other one. One queen might be downstage when the other queen is upstage. The poor cast are really doing the heavy lifting on this.”

Burlingame said for her first full production with Inland Classical Theatre, she wanted to take a big swing.

“I think Spokane has an incredible, completely underrated art scene, particularly out of the region,” Burlingame said. “Outside of Spokane, it’s not really on anyone’s radar. There’s cool stuff happening here, and the support within the theater community is incredible here.”

She said there are a lot of different ways to look at the coin toss. For those who like role-playing games or even sports, this is an interactive element, gamifying your experience. But also Burlingame talked about how the coin flip emphasizes the art form.

“It’s really fascinating to see how the energy can change just by swapping out another actor into that role, you can get completely different performances, because we’re all unique individuals, and then it just reinforces the live element of theater,” Burlingame said. “I think that’s what sets theater apart from other forms of media that we have, like television, or the movies. It’s always going to be the same. There’s an appeal to that. But theater, I don’t ever want us to forget that it’s live and happening in front of us.”

To ensure both actors have the chance to play both roles, the Saturday shows will be set. The first Saturday Anderson will be Mary; second Saturday Worrell will be Mary. Burlingame said if you want a chance to see them play both roles, the Saturday shows are your best bet.