Actress made presence known

Published: Sunday, September 30, 2007 in the Sarasota Herald Tribune
by Columnist Jay Handelman

Sara Marshall knew how to make an entrance on stage. And if she didn't get your attention when she walked on, she would surely get it before her final bow.

Some might say she was a ham. Others would call her a scene stealer, even if she didn't do it intentionally.

"It was just that large persona she had," said Denny Miller, who had the occasion to work with Marshall in various shows over the years.

How ever you describe her, no one could doubt or question her passion for the theater, which she repeatedly demonstrated during the 46 years that she lived in Southwest Florida.

Marshall may have made her presence known, but she passed away with little notice about 10 days ago at age 83. She deserves more than that, if only because of the influence she had over a generation or two of students.

Besides her acting in community and professional theaters, for more than 20 years, she was a dedicated teacher of English and drama at Palmetto High School, where she spread her joy of the language and the literature of theater.

In an interview some years ago, she recalled directing an uncut version of Shakespeare's "Macbeth," with costumes borrowed from the Asolo Repertory Theatre and actors changing into their costumes in the school library.

Most of her students had never seen a play, let alone been in one. But she got them through it and helped them understand the text, language and story.

Her job, she told me, was to show her students "how to do a play and to do it well."

She was most proud of her ability to turn many students on to the theater.

"I think I really helped build a lot of audiences," she said. "Once you learn what's involved in putting on a show, I think you learn to appreciate theater in a different way than just watching it. I think a lot of my students were more likely to go to the theater as they grew older because of it."

And they might have gone to see their teacher play a wide range of roles, including Elizabeth I in "Elizabeth the Queen" or Amanda in "The Glass Menagerie," Blanche in "A Streetcar Named Desire" or Nora in "A Doll's House."

In more recent years, she got to play some older women, many of them feisty, such as Daisy Werthan in "Driving Miss Daisy" at the Venice Little Theatre and the elderly but spirited Appalachian Annie Nations in "Foxfire" at the Island Players.

Audiences especially took notice when she played a few crotchety mothers and grandmothers who arrived on stage with the help of noisy walkers or canes. In at least one show, the other characters apparently didn't take notice. In "37 Postcards" at Florida Studio Theatre in 2000, she played a mother whose daughters thought had been dead for over a year.

Marshall also directed in community theaters on occasion, including an Island Players production of "Steel Magnolias." Actress Georgette Thomas said Marshall "understood the need women have for the relationships that are formed in 'beauty shops.' "

I would often see her at opening nights of Asolo Repertory productions, where she was preparing for her volunteer work as a narrator for performances for the visually impaired, something she once described as quite a challenge, but a fascinating way of experiencing theater. And it kept her involved.

Her favorite role, she told me in 1989, was Rosepettle in "Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mama's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad," at the Manatee Players in 1984. She played a woman whose tragic flaw is that she is a perfectionist.

"She is flawless, and that makes her a monster," she said of the role that included "one great speech that runs about 22 minutes with little interruption."

She later called it the "show I had to have a hole in my head to do," because she suffered a blood clot in her brain after the first five performances and missed the rest of the run. The clot was removed successfully through surgery.

That was a rare occasion when something stopped her from getting the show on the stage.

In 1986, while directing "Breath of Spring" for the Island Players, she had to fill in for the leading lady, who dropped out late in rehearsals for her own health reasons. Marshall was nervous about it.

"I have a good cast and everybody knows what they have to do," she said at the time. "The terrible thing is that I can't see what's going on. Things look different from the stage."

For audiences, the stage usually looked better whenever Marshall was performing.