BY KATHI SCRIZZI DRISCOLL
STAFF WRITER
When Patty Carreau-Souza was playing the mean-spirited, self-pitying orphanage director Miss Hannigan in ''Annie,” a little girl standing nearby was watching the sweet, upstanding Grace character and sighed, ''Wouldn't you like to play her?”

Playing the two daughters of Mama Rose at various ages in the Falmouth Theatre Guild production of "Gypsy" are, front row from left, Teresa Wilander of Mashpee as Baby June and Emily Brady of Waquoit as Baby Louise and, second row from left, Lily Jayne D'Olimpio of West Barnstable as adult June and Lindsey Garuti of Plymouth as adult Louise. Photo by JEANNIE CAFARELLI

Carreau-Souza prefers the larger-than-life character parts, the tough, independent, challenging parts instead.

''I'm not much for the ingenue, fluffy types roles,” she says. ''I like a role I can sink my teeth into.”

Which is why, while having fun playing the scene-stealing stripper Electra in a past production of the musical ''Gypsy,” Carreau-Souza also was coveting the lead of Mama Rose Hovick.

Now she's getting the chance to play her, traveling 45 minutes from New Bedford to Falmouth Theatre Guild to play the ambitious stage mother immortalized on stage and screen by such stars as Ethel Merman, Rosalind Russell and Angela Lansbury.

''I think it's one of the roles any woman who does musical theater would want to have,” she says. ''It's a challenge.”

Mama Rose is described by Falmouth Theatre Guild as ''a part every belter dreams of playing” - ''the mother of all stage mothers” who lives through one child star daughter and whose other daughter becomes stripper Gypsy Rose Lee. Mama's songs in the Arthur Laurents-Jule Styne-Stephen Sondheim musical include ''Everything's Coming Up Roses,” ''Some People” and ''Mama's Turn.”

Carreau-Souza isn't intimidated by the powerhouse portrayals before her - which also include those of Bette Midler, Tyne Daly and Bernadette Peters.

''The way to sing the songs, it seems to me, has to go in a certain direction, with a lot of emotion, but I don't try to imitate people,” she says. ''You have to find the meaning in (what the character does). She's very driven, strong-willed and determined, and that always has to be there.”

Carreau-Souza, who works in a real-estate law office, has been performing since childhood, including professional gigs in Florida and with New Bedford Festival Theatre. Favorite roles include Sheila in ''A Chorus Line,” Frau Schneider in ''Cabaret,” Eve Harrington in ''Applause” and prostitute Nancy in ''Oliver.”

Yup, not a fluffy ingenue among them.

Payomet Performing Arts Center in Truro has a full schedule of plays, performers, concerts, lectures and - new this year - movies scheduled for its ninth summer season. The independent film series runs Monday nights, drama classes will be held Friday mornings and the Cape Cod Storyteller Project is back for Saturday mornings.

Theater highlights include: the Cape Cod premiere of ''Lillian,” William Luce's one-woman play about Lillian Hellman, starring Caitlin Gibbon, July 5-29; ''Pantomime,” a comedic allegory exploring subjects ranging from slavery to marriage to theater, by Derek Walcott, starring Gustave Johnson, Aug. 9-Sept. 2; the return of an updated ''Jimmy Tingle's American Dream,” featuring the comedian's political commentary, July 10, 17 and 24; Cyndi Freeman's one-woman comedy ''I Kissed Dash Riprock,” Aug. 3-4; ''Thomas Jefferson Presidential Press Conference,” starring Bill Barker, Aug. 15; and ''An Evening with Louisa May Alcott,” starring Jan Turnquist, Aug. 22.

All shows are in the 130-seat Payomet tent, at Highlands Center @ Cape Cod National Seashore, 29 Old Dewline Road, North Truro. More information and reservations: www.ppactruro.org or 508-487-5400.

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