No one could have guessed that by the time the show was in rehearsal, the United States would be involved in another war.

        Jeanne Blessing, Sue Breving, Dee Anne Bryll, Kathie Labanz, Cheri Misleh and Melissa Urriquia play four Army nurses, a Red Cross volunteer and a USO country singer whose stories are told in vignettes that cover recruitment, the hospital, the jungle, on-duty, off-duty. Michael Ireland plays all the men who pass through their lives, taking a piece of their hearts.

        The actresses are theater veterans — they have something like 130 years of stage experience among them — and most of them have shared a stage at one time or another.

        They sat down one evening recently to talk about the show and about America at war.

        Ms. Blessing: “I'm 36 —”

        (At this point she is agreeably jeered and shouted down by her slightly more mature co-stars.)

        Ms. Blessing: “— I was born in '65, and I don't remember Vietnam. I hope this isn't going to be the same thing.”

        Ms. Labanz: “(The show) is timely. I think we'd all rather it wasn't.”

        Ms. Breving: “It's interesting because Vietnam was the war where veterans came home and were egged, ridiculed, spat on.

        “This war is about patriotism, but questions still come up. Do we want to send our men into combat? It's a complex issue.”

        Ms. Bryll: “I feel like this (experience) woke me up a lot. The play talks about the horrors of being in that place, and we see the images of Afghanistan on TV . . . ”

        Ms. Breving: “And we have to ask ourselves, has there been a life-changing experience, as actresses how do we relate to what we're witnessing on the news?”

        Ms. Blessing: “Remember the first night of the Gulf War? I remember wanting to be with people.

        “Since I was cast,I've been doing research. There are a lot of personal Web sites that tell stories and have photo journals. I watched Deer Hunter — ”

        Ms. Misleh: “I went to see Black Hawk Down. I made myself not turn away.”

        Mr. Morehead: “We were lucky enough to get in touch with Barb Brown, a retired Army nurse who served in Vietnam in '68-'69. She came and talked to us and that was invaluable.”

        Ms. Urriquia: “Working on this finds us reflecting on our lives a lot — ”

        Unanimous nods of agreement.

        Ms. Urriquia: “A tour of duty was one year, and I'm thinking, what have I been doing for the last 365 days?”

        A Piece of My Heart continues at 3 p.m. today and 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday at Westwood Town Hall (Harrison, Epworth and Montana avenues.) Tickets $10. Call 598-8303 or visit www.thedramaworkshop.org.

        Back to "Othello': Aaron Todd Douglas returns to Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival and to the role of Othello starting Thursday. Guest actor Walker Richards was felled by vocal problems, which first delayed the opening by a week, then forced him to drop out of the show.

        Mr. Douglas, a Cincinnati native and Walnut Hills High School grad, played Othello for the festival during the 1997-98 season. He's now based in Chicago where he's a member of the Congo Square Theatre Company.

        Othello will run Feb. 28-March 31 at Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival, 719 Race St., downtown. 381-2273.

        Provocative "Venus': There's no contest as to what is this week's — and maybe all of winter's — most provocative stage entry.

        Venus isn't just a regional premiere for Miami University's theater department but a regional premiere of the work of playwright Suzan-Lori Parks, on top of New York theater with Topdog/Underdog.

        Venus is inspired by the Hottentot Venus, an African woman taken from her home in 1810, transported to London and exhibited in a circus.

        Ms. Parks examines issues including objectification of people and cultures, our fascination with what is foreign and how people are often caught up by appearance rather than substance. Venus won an off-Broadway Obie Award for best play in 1996.

        Venus, directed by Paul Jackson,plays at 8 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday and 2 and 8 p.m. Sunday in the Gates-Abegglen Theatre of the Center for the Performing Arts. A pre-show discussion is scheduled for 6 p.m. Friday in Souers Recital Hall.

        Tickets $8. (513) 529-3200. (If Venus leaves you wanting more, Theatre of the Mind has a staged reading of Ms. Parks' In the Blood, her contemporary urban revision of The Scarlet Letter, planned in May at Ensemble Theatre.)

        Still on stage: Larry Behymer was a senior in high school when the curtain first rose on Beechmont Players in 1959.

        He joined the company for its first production, The Solid Gold Cadillac and 143 shows later, he's still there.

        Mr. Behymer is among the players in naughty British farce When Did You Last See Your Trousers? opening Friday at Kreuger Auditorium on the University of Cincinnati Clermont campus.

        “I like people,” Mr. Behymer says about his 40-plus years in community theater.

        Mr. Behymer credits his mother's interest in the arts with getting him started and his high school teacher Roger Grooms with keeping him on course early on.

        He did try a professional run in the '60s, appearing in summer stock shows like Picnic with Burt Reynolds. But then he fell in love and the young lady said she wasn't going to go to New York and starve, so here he stayed.

        “I kept theater as a hobby and never regretted” not pursuing a professional career, says the divorced father of two and grandfather of six.

        Mr. Behymer, also a director, has his fingers crossed that Beechmont's play-reading committee will be intrigued by at least one of the titles he submitted for consideration next season. He wouldn't mind directing Ladies in Retirement.

        If that doesn't work out, he says “I'll be back on stage.”

        Trousers runs 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday, March 8-9 and 3 p.m. March 9. 682-9090.
       

        Contact Jackie Demaline by phone: 768-8530; fax: 768-8330; e-mail: jdemaline@enquirer.com.
       

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