The Chalks bring fine country music and fun to Parrish Art Museum courtesy of Bay Street Theatre

The last time the Chalks visited the East End, back in February of this year, the three wise-cracking, country-singing, outlaw stage sisters made short work of winning the hearts—and laughs—of a sold-out house at Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor.

Provided by the Lucille Lortel Foundation and Bay Street with an opportunity to develop a script and a show for fictitious sisters who had already been playing gigs in character since about 1993, Judeen (Mary Brienza), Judelle (Kathryn Markey) and Belva (Leenya Rideout) Chalk spent a week rehearsing at the Sag Harbor theater before offering a one-time workshop performance that was followed by a talk-back with an enthusiastic audience.

The feedback was uniformly positive, with the exception of audience reaction to an ending that had the sisters performing in an extraterrestrial venue. The conclusion seemed to confuse some and dismay others, mostly, it seemed, because everyone was pulling for the sisters to overcome the comical obstacles they had been detailing since the beginning of the show—without leaving the planet and the audience behind to do so.

So the smart-aleck sisters did something they showed little sign of being capable of during the bickering and snickering of the show: they listened. Then they went back to New York, went over the video that was made of the workshop and audience reaction, and came up with a new ending that they will be trying out in four shows at the Parrish Art Museum in Southampton over the next two weekends as part of the Bay Street @ the Parrish second stage series for 2010.

In separate telephone interviews this week, the three sisters all said they were excited about returning to the East End, and about the new ending they came up with for the show. The central conceit is still the same: the sisters, stuck in town on “tour bus arrest” after an altercation at an earlier gig, are compelled to perform “community service” in the form of a special concert.

During the enforced community service concert that comprises the show, the three talented musicians and skilled improvisational actors tell, in songs and stories, about the sisters’ ill-fated career in recording gospel music for Burning Bush records, failed relationships, bad business decisions, and the kind of sibling contentiousness guaranteed to keep the “fun” front and center in dysfunctional.

“We had a great experience at Bay Street in February with the workshop,” Ms. Brienza said. “We went home and reworked the script, because it was clear at the conclusion of the story that the audience wanted to stay with us.

“We tried to not be sappy and to stay smart-alecky to the end, to do it our way,” she said. “Now we are telling a story that’s engaging. I’m really excited about what we’ve come up with.”

Because the end of the show has changed, the final song has changed, too. Like almost all the other Chalks songs—frequently satirical lyrics set to charming and sometimes heartbreakingly beautiful music—the final number was written by one “sister,” in this case Ms. Brienza, and was then “massaged” into its final form in a collaborative effort.

Script writing follows a slightly different collaborative process, Ms. Brienza said, as all three sisters “know the arc of the story we want to tell, and after we improvise around the table, we then incorporate some of the improvisation” in the script.

Ms. Markey, aka Judelle Chalk, echoed her colleague’s commentary on the new script, and the role of improvisation in the Chalks’ writing process and approach to performing. After reworking the ending, Ms. Markey said, the three women now have “a well-crafted piece that includes our natural spontaneity.

“With all the live performing we’ve done,” she continued, “we always leave room in any written material for improvisation, for

that

audience

that

night. That’s the thing that never fails, because it acknowledges what’s going on—the unique audience experience of that night.”

Along with the new ending, the Chalks will be trying out two new video pieces at the Parrish: one to cover the sisters arriving at the venue just before the beginning of a show, and one for just after the end. After their exit and the final video, Ms. Markey said the sisters will set up the standard country music meet-and-greet table, where audience members can meet all three Chalks, get a Chalks album, load up on homemade Chalks Trailer Park Bark, and even snag some Chalks temporary tattoos.

Ms. Rideout, the alter ego of Belva Chalk, noted that writers often talk about how almost every piece “goes through many hands” between the completion of an original draft and the final work. “In a way,” she said, “the audience at Bay Street in February was one of the sets of hands that the script went through.”

In a reprise of last February’s interview, all three women were asked to sum up the Chalks’ show in three words. Channeling her character, Judeen, Ms. Brienza came up with “badass, wiseass, kickass.” Ms. Markey, using a phrase for her third word, offered “rollicking, raucous, good time.”

Belva Chalk, as younger sisters are wont to do, made it personal: “Judeen is bossy.”

The Chalks will perform at the Parrish Art Museum in Southampton on August 20, 21, 27 and 28, at 8 p.m. For ticket information, call 725-9500 or visit baystreet.org.