Video: Wimberley Players Reflect on 'Stay' by Sheila Cowley, September 13 - October 6, 2013

David McCullars' video with glimpses of the performance and comments by the cast of







production of

Deanna Lalich, Aaron Johnson (photo: Wimberley Players)

Stay

by Sheila Cowley

Sept. 13 – Oct. 6, 2013

Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m., Sundays at 2:30 p.m.

Reserved Seating $18; Opening Night $20; Students $9 with ID, except opening night.

450 Old Kyle Road, Wimberley, TX -- click for map

A Texas premiere! A gripping psychological drama about a marriage on the brink whose pulse refuses to stop throbbing. It’s the story of dark, complicated relationships and the nature of trust, love, sacrifice, and ultimately letting go. Stay revolves around an eye surgeon who, in a desperate attempt to keep her husband from leaving her, convinces him that he’s been blinded in an accident. As she struggles to keep him, her lies grow and become all too real.

Featuring comments by Will Mercer, Deanna Lalich and Aaron Johnson

with them and Leigh Shelton in scenes from the play

Video by David McCullars 

(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)

Stay by Sheila Cowley, Wimberley Players, September 13 - October 6, 2013

by Michael Meigs

The Wimberley Players give Sheila Cowley's Stay a quality production with a strong cast and superb production values. This piece by the Florida playwright had its premiere with the Players Theatre in Sarasota, and its transfer between local theatres ready to try out new work is an encouraging sign that not all such venues are in lockstep with the likes of Arsenic and Old Lace, Neil Simon and the Texas gothic comedies of Jones, Hope & Wooten.

Deanna Lalich is Leanne Abrams, a quietly moody physician separated from Mark, her journalist husband of twenty years, played by Aaron Johnson. He's one of those lost sheep that keeps returning; although he has a new girlfriend, he inevitably gravitates back to the apartment to pick up clothes, books and the mothering of his perhaps-soon-to-be-ex-wife. Early in the opening act Mark deposits a legal document requiring Leanne's signature, presumably necessary for some sort of no-fault divorce.

Flashbacks designated by special lighting effects take us back to the couple's earliest years, when Mark had just gotten his big job and Leanne was on her way to med school. Playwright Cowley explores repeatedly the dynamic between them, with Mark's excited, distracted talk about The Places He'll Go and Leanne's ever-patient tracking and correcting of his schedules. We hear this trope again and again, with Leanne always resorting to a wistful, unsubstantiated, "It'll be all right. . . ."

These two appealing actors work that territory as far as it can be worked, but their relationship never becomes more vivid or understandable. Cowley is asking us just to assume the best and believe that they're real people. Though Leanne turns out to be an opthalmologic surgeon, a wizard in transplanting corneas, we never hear her talk about medicine other than to lament that a girl patient of hers is still waiting for transplants. Cowley has Mark the journalist bubble about the exotic destinations that his media organization is sending him to, and evidently has been sending him to for the past twenty years, but other than that the character doesn't have a thought in his head. The two don't give us any real insight into their de facto decision not to have children, and we hear almost nothing about their history or relationship, other than his bouncing off the walls with enthusiasm like a five-year-old and her solid acceptance of him like an eternally indulgent mommy.

Aaron Johnson, Deanna Lalich (photo: Wimberley Players)

The title Stay voices Leanne's yearning for her husband, and the promotional photo of the blindfolded Mark and the contemplative Leanne suggests the central ploy of this plot. Applying her medicines, Leanne deceives Mark into thinking that he has been in a car accident and has only just roused from lengthy unconsciousness to find himself with eyes blindfolded, utterly dependent upon the wife he would sort of like to stay with if only he wasn't fascinated by his much younger female editor and feeling obliged to stay with that woman, who's pregnant by him.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

STAY by Sheila Cowley, Wimberley Players, September 13 - October 6, 2013

(450 Old Kyle Road, Wimberley, TX -- click for map)

present

Stay

By Sheila Cowley
Sept. 13 – Oct. 6
Fridays& Saturdays at 7:30 p.m., Sundays at 2:30 p.m.
Reserved Seating $18; Opening Night $20; Students $9 with ID, except opening night.

 

Aaron Johnson, Deanna Lalich (photo: Wimberley Players)

 A Texas premiere! A gripping psychological drama about a marriage on the brink whose pulse refuses to stop throbbing. It’s the story of dark, complicated relationships and the nature of trust, love, sacrifice, and ultimately letting go. And yet these are real people: we’ve known them; we’ve been them.

“Stay” revolves around an eye surgeon who, in a desperate attempt to keep her husband from leaving her, convinces him that he’s been blinded in an accident. As she struggles to keep him, her lies grow and become all too real.

You will never forget the final scene.

(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)

Auditions in Wimberley for Stay by Sheila Cowley, July 9, 2013

The Wimberley Players proudly announces auditions for Stay by Sheila Cowley, directed by David McCullars, Tuesday, July 9, 2013 starting at 6:30pm to 9:30pm. 

Stay is a psychological drama about a marriage on the brink whose pulse refuses to abate. It is the story of darkly, complicated relationships and the nature of trust, love, sacrifice, and ultimately letting go. Two men, two women, ranging 20s - 50. These are real people: we’ve known them; we’ve been them. Stay is a brand new play which has been staged only once by the Players Community Theatre in Sarasota, FL (August of 2012).

Eugenie Bondurant, Kevin Sario, Sarasota Players (photo: Cliff Roles)

Please schedule a time slot ahead of time to avoid a long wait. Callbacks Thursday, July 11, 2013, from 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.

Rehearsal period: 6 weeks, starting the first full week of August. Exact dates and times will be based on conflicts provided at audition time. Performances: September 13 - October 6 (Fri & Sat at 7:30 pm, Sun at 2:30 pm)

What to expect in the auditions: If you would like to perform a 1-2 minute dramatic monologue, we would love to see it. In addition, sides from the play will be sent out prior to the audition date that you can prepare as well. Please arrive 10 to 15 minutes early to fill out an audition sheet. IMPORTANT: Please bring all conflicts for the rehearsal period at this time.

What to expect in the Callbacks: If invited, you will be grouped in different combinations and asked to read selected scenes together. Each group will be given time to read together and prepare prior to performing on stage.

Click for character descriptions at AustinLiveTheatre.com