A real dog of a role leaves actress wagging her tail.

Byline: FRED CRAFTS The Register-Guard

DON'T LET THIS get around, but Karen Bednarz is a dog. Or thinks she is. Really. And she doesn't mind if everybody knows it, either.

Bednarz's alternate persona is Sylvia, a dog.

"Sometimes I just sit on the carpet or I lay down and pick at my foot," she says. "I try not to be too obnoxious or too obtrusive about it."

All kidding aside, Sylvia is the centerpiece of A.R. Gurney's award- winning adult comedy of the same name - which opens Friday at the Cottage Theatre - about a man whose love for his French poodle nearly ruins his 22- year marriage.

Bednarz plays Sylvia. She wears knee pads and crawls around on all fours, rolling over, chasing balls, barking and begging to be petted.

And Bednarz says she loves it.

"Some of the words I say, I try to make either a howl or a barking sound. Also, when I sit on the couch, I don't just sit on the couch; I spin around a few times like dogs do until they get comfortable and figure out exactly where they want to be. I go up to characters in the middle of their lines and nuzzle them to get them to rub my head."

Her director, Richard Hill, likes the little touches Bednarz has given the character.

"Early on, she was just another cast member. But through evolution and fine-tuning her part, I'm now thinking of her not as a human any more," Hill says. "She's playing the role convincingly enough that I think of her as Greg's dog."

An unabashed "dog person," the 24-year-old actress is basing her character on her own dog, Snickers, a "Labrador- mutt mix" she has had for 14 years.

"I'm an only child," she says, "so I always say that Snickers is my sister." Still, Sylvia is much different from Snickers.

Sylvia can talk.

In the play, Sylvia is adored by her new master, Greg (played by Howard Hummel), but barely tolerated by his wife, Kate (Andrea Hummel). Trying to win them both over gives Bednarz an opportunity to play two sides of her doggy personality.

"Kate is an uppity Westside New Yorker who is very high maintenance and knows precisely what she likes,' Bednarz says. `She likes a clean house, and she likes Sylvia off the couch.

`When Sylvia's around her, I tend to play up the French poodle in her and try to be a little bit more like Kate. But when Sylvia's around Greg, she goes back to being a street-smart dog."

Further, she has intense doggy-type interactions with the characters Tom (Davis Smith), Phyllis (Carol Woodland) and Leslie (Marie McDonald).

The role requires great athleticism, which is fine with Bednarz. She has been a circus aerial specialist and an acrobat (she was a Cirque du Soleil audition finalist), and she has participated in basketball, golf, soccer, softball and volleyball - not to mention roller skating, skydiving, snowboarding and swimming.

"My master, Greg, has taught me to do tricks, so there's one scene where I come on stage and I fetch a ball," Bednarz says. "I roll over and I do all those crazy dog things.

`It's rare that Sylvia's sitting still."

Perhaps her favorite moment comes when Sylvia chases a cat: "I'm not a cat person at all. It's really easy for me to get that emotion and really go after that cat."

Bednarz is making her local debut as an actress. Her "day job," as the Eugene Opera's marketing and public relations director, has kept her plenty busy so far, but now she wants to tap the theater skills she honed at Southern Illinois University.

In the past, she has had lead roles in "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum," "Lie of the Mind," "Big River," "Of Mice and Men" and "Lend Me a Tenor."

Now living in an apartment complex, Bednarz has been unable to have her dog Snickers with her (her parents are keeping her with them in Chicago). To get her "dog fix," she and her partner, Peter Geddeis, Eugene Opera's executive director, have been volunteering to work with the dogs at the Greenhill Humane Society.

Even though Sylvia is the title role, Bednarz has been careful to hold her doggy schticks down to a minimum.

"I know when it's Sylvia's time to shine," she says, `and I also know when I need to step back and be in the background.'

Actors often end up identifying with their roles, and Bednarz is no exception.

Impersonating a dog "has made me appreciate them more," she says. "It makes me think about what they're thinking.

`When I see a dog barking now, I say, `I wonder if it's saying anything like what A.R. Gurney would have it say?' '

Arts reporter Fred Crafts can be reached by phone at 338-2575 and by e-mail at [e-mail].

SYLVIA

WHAT: A.R. Gurney's comedy about a talking dog and its mismatched masters; directed by Richard Hill

WHEN: 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays from June 14 through June 29; matinees at 2:30 p.m. June 16 and 23

WHERE: Cottage Theatre, 700 Village Drive, Cottage Grove

HOW MUCH: $10 though the The Bookmine, 942-7414, and at the theater box office, 942-8001, one hour before curtain

CAPTION(S):

Greg (Howard Hummel) and his dog, Sylvia (Karen Bednarz), face off against Greg's wife, Kate (Andrea Hummel). Pet project