Stiles’ first major role required some major research

Megan Stiles can be seen all over campus, literally. Her face is featured on every poster for… Megan Stiles can be seen all over campus, literally. Her face is featured on every poster for “The Boundary,” Pitt Repertory Theatre’s upcoming play.

“I had the flu for three weeks, and I had to take that photo” Stiles said with a slight grimace. “Luckily it turned out OK.”

Stiles, a third-year theatre arts major, plays Katie, a young marine training overseas during the Gulf War. Moving in and out of the past, Katie shares her experiences through her letters home.

“The reality of being in war is not something I’d want to think about,” Stiles said, “but people do it everyday for us.”

For the role, Stiles learned correct military salutes and marches. She also did research about the war — finding out what it would be like to experience mustard gas — something her character goes through. But she acknowledges that “you can only do so much paper research” when it comes to war.

However, the play is not as much about war as it is about family, Stiles said.

“It’s a battle within [Katie’s father] Willy. Willy’s life is falling apart,” she said.

Exploring the complex relationship between father and daughter, Stiles and the entire cast benefited from insight offered by the playwright, Tammy Ryan. Having the playwright on hand is an exceptional opportunity for a production. Ryan helped the actors explore different paths with their thinking and character development.

Not cast until her junior year, this is Stiles’ first major role in a main stage production. Her experience with her past productions, namely “Ubu” and “Hotline,” helped give her the confidence in her role as Katie.

“One day recently,” Stiles said, “it turned from words in the script to the experience I was having.”

As a result of having lost her script, she found a sort of freedom with her acting. Getting to work with the set also helped her conceptualize the show. Reflecting the inherent boundaries of the play, the set design gave Stiles an added depth to what they’re doing.

“It puts me in the world I need to be in,” she said.

This world, both real and surreal, includes a visual division between the home front and the war. The two worlds are contrasted by the white, raked stage of the home front, which has Arabic letters scrawled across its floor, and the blue world of the war, its boundary further emphasized by a looming chain-link fence.

Despite her recent entrance on the Pitt Rep stage, Stiles is no stranger to acting. As a child, she had an agent and did local commercials.

Nevertheless, Stiles always saw music in her future, not acting. She played the violin professionally in high school with Eugene Reichenfeld’s String Sinfonietta. But as a result of working with a chiropractor for a short time, she entered the University as a pre-med student with plans to pursue that particular field of medicine. Stiles, however, found she didn’t like taking biology classes, but loved her introduction to performance course.

“It sucked me in and here I am,” Stiles said with huge grin.

Confessing that she seems to be on the five-year plan, Stiles doesn’t want to make acting a career after she graduates. She is considering stage management as an option, having stage managed a few shows here at Pitt, since the work is a bit steadier. But these are only thoughts at the moment.

This summer, Stiles and a friend are going to Los Angeles, where they will stay on a houseboat outside the city, in order to explore the film scene.

“Our goal is to get a concept of what it’s like between the two genres,” she said.

Hoping to find jobs on a movie set, even if it’s just delivering coffee, Stiles’ face lights up with anticipation as she thinks about the adventure that awaits.

“I have no idea where my life will take me and that’s really exciting,” Stiles said. “I never know what’s going to happen next.”

“The Boundary” begins April 6 and runs through April 17 in the Henry Heymann Theatre. Tickets are $10. To order tickets or for more information, call (412) 624-PLAY.