Fairview Heights native Terry Meddows takes on the challenge of ‘Grey Gardens’

For more than two decades, Fairview Heights native Terry Meddows has carved a niche as a versatile actor in St. Louis regional professional theater.

His latest role as George Gould Strong in the musical “Grey Gardens,” however, just might be his most challenging yet.

Meddows, a 1979 graduate of Belleville East High School, has been a member of Actors Equity Association since 1990, and works with various companies performing in musicals, comedies and dramas. This month, he’ll be ensconced with Max and Louie Productions at the Jewish Community Center for the highly anticipated show.

“I am so excited to be in the St. Louis premiere of ‘Grey Gardens.’ People in the St Louis metro area will finally get the chance to see this remarkable musical,” Meddows said on break during rehearsal.

“The show is beautifully constructed and has a wonderful, albeit very difficult, score. Working with such great material is always a pleasure for any actor,” he said. “It’s a tough show, but this cast is vocally alone – so solid.”

The musical is based in part on the Maysles brothers’ acclaimed 1975 documentary about the aunt and first cousin of Jacqueline Kennedy, Edith Bouvier Beale and her daughter Edie. They once lived an opulent lifestyle of aristocrat privilege, but by 1973, were threatened with eviction from a decaying 28-room East Hampton mansion because of sanitation and building code violations.

The first act features the women at ages 47 and 24, when Little Edie was an aspiring actress of striking beauty. She became her mother’s caretaker, and the second act, when they are ages 56 and 79, and living an isolated existence in a world of their own, explores the dynamics of their dysfunctional mother-daughter relationship.

The musical opened on Broadway in 2006 and earned three Tony Awards, including acting honors for its two leads Christine Ebersol and Mary Louise Wilson. It was later adapted for an HBO film starring Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore.

Meddows’ character Strong was Big Edie’s accompanist, songwriter, social companion, confidante and soulmate, he said. He performed on radio and at cabarets in New York and Paris.

“When Gould met Edith in the late 1930’s, the Bouvier name was still associated with great wealth and social status. He is said to have dedicated over 80 songs to her. He may have lived at Grey Gardens for a short period of time,” Meddows said.

“Though the musical depicts him as a flamboyant homosexual, his family staunchly disputes that he was gay. Lois Wright describes him and Edith as lovers. It is rumored that the real reason Edith forced Little Edie to come home from New York City was because she was threatening to reveal illicit photos of her mother with Gould to her father,” he said.

“I enjoy portraying ‘Gould,’ which he is referred to by Edith in the show, because he is a gay cynical bon vivant who wears a carefree mask hiding the fact that he is very lonely aand drowns his sorrows in massive amounts of alcohol and cigarettes,” Meddows said.

“I get to sing some very beautiful, yet very challenging music, and I get to share the stage with some of the most incredibly talented performers I have ever had the pleasure to work with. The whole cast is extraordinary, especially Debby Lennon who plays Edith in 1941 and Little Edie in the 70's.”

Meddows is used to challenging material. During the past five years, he has been singled out for his portrayals of eccentric and indelible characters.

In the inaugural year of the St. Louis Theater Circle Awards in 2013, he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama for his role as Gottfried in “Way to Heaven” at New Jewish Theatre and was among the Best Ensemble in a Comedy Award winners for ‘Jacob and Jack,” also at New Jewish Theatre.

The next year, he won the St. Louis Theater Circle Award for Best Actor in a Comedy for his role as Estragon in the St. Louis Actor's Studio production of “Waiting for Godot,” which also won Best Ensemble in a Comedy.

In 2015, he received another St. Louis Theater Circle Award nomination for Best Ensemble in a Drama for the New Jewish Theater's production of “The Diary of Anne Frank,” in which he played the refugee dentist Fritz Pfeffer.

Kevin Kline Award nominations included Best Supporting Actor for his role as Karlmann in Echo Theatre’s production of “The Ugly One” and Best Ensemble for the New Jewish Theatre’s production of “Awake and Sing.” He was in the Best Ensemble winner, “The Probe,” staged by HotCity.

He was named the Best Actor in St. Louis in the RFT’s Best of St. Louis publications in 2003 and 2004.

Growing up with two sisters and a brother on Lanaghan Drive in Fairview Heights, in a subdivision later torn down to make way for a shopping center (“my childhood home is located somewhere in the middle of Lowe’s”), Meddows had stars in his eyes early.

“I wanted to be a movie star. I used to beg and barter with my parents to stay up late at night and watch old movies on the Bijou picture show and the late, late show. I loved old movies – still do,” he said.

His parents, Cyril and Marlyn, were supportive.

His first stage appearance was in a production of “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” at Pontiac Junior High. “I played Sydney. I was terrible,” he said.

But he never forgot his mentor Bonita Ahring. In high school, he participated in speech and performed in plays, giving nods to his mentors Charles Zeller, Frank Winslow and Phillip Paeltz.

He spent a year at Illinois Wesleyan University, then returned home. His first Equity job was in “1776” with Theater Factory in 1990.

“Interesting fact -- Tom Murray and I were both in it, and now we are both in ‘Grey Gardens’ together. We have not been in a show together since then, so it’s a nice reunion,” he said.

In the 1990's, he primarily worked as an actor on The Goldenrod Showboat in St. Charles.

“I loved it. I made a lot of great lifetime friends and I had steady work for over six-seven years. You learn quite a lot performing in a dinner theatre five-six days a week for that many years,” he said.

In the winter of 1993, he played Bob Cratchit in a national tour of “A Christmas Carol,” and toured the southern states.

“I played in the Galveston Grand 1894 Opera House, one of the most beautiful theatres that I've ever seen,” he said.

Meddows, who lives in the Shaw neighborhood of St. Louis, is grateful for the current positive arts climate.

“There has always been a strong, close-knit theater community in St. Louis. I love my life and career here,” he said. “But I regret not moving to a bigger city like New York. I was too afraid to take the plunge.”

Nevertheless, he is appreciative of the opportunities to learn and grow as an actor.

“The Goldenrod taught me how to keep a role fresh during a long run, he said. “I tend to grow and do my best work with difficult material like ‘Virginia Woolf’ or ‘Waiting for Godot,’ especially if I am working with a director who understands my talent and knows how to keep pushing me out of my comfort zone.”

“I love being able to open up, be vulnerable and to let the character come alive through me. I also love the incredible connection/chemistry that can happens between two actors,” he said.

Other performers sing his praises. Donna Weinsting, who portrays Big Edie in “Grey Gardens,” has worked with Meddows a number of times.

“Terry is always a pleasure to work with. He attacks every role with complete professionalism, making each role uniquely his own. On a personal level. he is always generous to every actor, willing to do whatever it takes to put them at ease and earn their trust. He is quietly modest about his great talent and on top of that, he's a great guy to hang out with after rehearsal and unwind over a beer. I love Terry Meddows,” Weinsting said.

Meddows knows he picked the right career path.

“I know this sounds horribly corny but I have to act. If too much time passes without work, well, let’s just say I am not a fun person to live with,” he said.

“I also hate those rare occasions where you know you are not working at the top of your game. When you have those shows where you fail -- and everyone has them -- you think to yourself ‘Why do I do this to myself? It would be less painful beating myself in the head with a brick!’”

But he maintains that the arts must be a vital part of life.

“Theater at its best is so visceral, alive and immediate. Theater can be such a powerful reminder of our humanity in all of its glory and horror,” he said.

“As for ‘Grey Gardens,’ he wants people to see it because it will make them think and feel.

“I hope they find these people relatable, and there’s something humane and touching about it.”

This story was originally published July 8, 2016 at 5:32 PM with the headline "Fairview Heights native Terry Meddows takes on the challenge of ‘Grey Gardens’."