Philly playwright puts gun control in spotlight
Philadelphia playwright Ginger Dayle was eager for her actors to learn all they could about guns and gun control before they staged Roseburg, her new political drama about gun violence in America.
Philadelphia playwright Ginger Dayle was eager for her actors to learn all they could about guns and gun control before they staged Roseburg, her new political drama about gun violence in America.
The New City Stage Company production opens Saturday at the Adrienne Theater after a two-day preview Thursday and Friday. The play, which closes July 31, will devote one of its closing nights to an audience of delegates from the Democratic National Convention.
Dayle said that, to prepare, her cast of nine actors read about mass shootings from Columbine to the Orlando massacre and brushed up on legislative history.
Last, but certainly not least, they learned how to handle a gun.
"It was important we expose them to other points of view, but also the experience of shooting. So we took everyone to a gun range in South Philly," said Dayle, whose works include Hinckley, which her company staged in 2013, a play about Ronald Reagan's would-be assassin. "We had reserved the range in advance, but the day we showed up happened to be the day after the Orlando shootings. It made us realize just how important it is to talk about this issue."
Roseburg is built around an equally eerie, equally horrific coincidence. The two-act play juxtaposes two events 47 years apart in the town of Roseburg, Ore.
One section re-creates a 1968 speech delivered by then-presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy that called for gun-control legislation. The latter half dramatizes the October 2015 mass shooting at Umpqua Community College just outside of town. The shooter, 26-year-old student Christopher Harper-Mercer, killed nine and injured seven before shooting himself in the head.
"Some of the news reports about the shooting featured footage from Bobby Kennedy's speech, [for which] he was heckled," Dayle said. "These two incidents show that when it comes to gun control, not a lot of things have changed in nearly 50 years."
Dayle, who grew up in Washington Crossing, founded the nonprofit New City Stage Company 10 years ago this month while studying theater at Villanova University. "It's so hard to break into this business," she said, "and I wanted to create a theater company that would give opportunities to students to experience a professional production."
Roseburg stars New City Stage producing artistic director Russ Widdall, playing Kennedy as he did in the company's 2014 production of the one-man show RFK. Since it's part of the company's educational outreach program, the rest of the cast is made up of current students and recent graduates from several colleges in the region, including Temple University, Muhlenberg College, and DeSales University. Temple alumnus Jackie DiFerdinando, 24, plays Harper-Mercer. "It's been wonderful to be able to work with Russ and Ginger," said the Cheltenham native, "who have done such great things with their career. I have to say, though, I was shocked when Ginger cast a woman [as Harper-Mercer]. . . . That's been really challenging."
Most of the young actors had never before been exposed to work with such overt political content, including Muhlenberg graduate Joshua Tewell.
"One of the things we do at the end of the play is to provide some really frightening statistics," he said. "We provide all the places that have been affected by gun violence over the decades, and it's really depressing, really scary."
DeSales graduate Mark Marano says that, while the play clearly takes a stance on the issue, it doesn't preach.
"I think the objective of political theater has to be to hold a mirror to the world and show the logic or the insanity of your society," he said. "If you do that well, then you can show why some people take the political stances they have. That's when people can respond with their own opinion."
Widdall says political works have become the new staple at New City Stage. The company, he said, will endeavor to become an outlet expressly committed to developing original political drama. "I think there's a new generation of theatergoers," he said, "that are really interested in plays about current issues."
For proof, just look at what's happening in New York, said Dayle.
"Political theater is hot right now," she said. "The hottest selling show on Broadway is [Hamilton], a play about Alexander Hamilton! And I don't think that's just because it's got . . . great music. People are interested in the source material."
A lifelong activist who has volunteered for various causes, including abortion rights, Dayle is developing two new plays, one about the Richard Nixon-John F. Kennedy debates during the 1960 presidential elections and a second about former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. She said she was excited the Democrats would be in town during the last week of production.
The DNC has provided free advertising for Roseburg, promoting the show to delegates and volunteers, said Dayle, who plans to reserve the house for one of the show's last performances for DNC visitors.
While she's not afraid to wear her politics on her sleeve, Dayle said, she welcomes playwrights of all ideological stripes.
"For me, political theater should address current events from all sides. The idea is that people should walk out of the theater wanting to talk about it," she said. "Even if they hate it, I hope they'll still want to talk about it, to debate and argue."
215-854-2736
THEATER
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Roseburg
Previews Thursday and Friday. Opens Saturday. Through July 31. At The Second Stage at the Adrienne Theatre, 2030 Sansom St. Tickets: $15-$45.
Information: 215-563-7500, www.NewCity
Stage.org.
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