It’s like hitting Ctrl+Z on your life

By STU CLAMPITT
news@readthereporter.com

What if you could go back and do it all again? One man in an attic may get that chance, and you can see it happen at The Switch Theatre, 10029 E. 126th St., Fishers, May 29 through June 1 when Hyperion Players stages Rocket Man, a play by Steven Dietz.

The Reporter spoke to Director Daniel Maloy about the play and how, in a small way, he is the Rocket Man.

“The first thing I tell everybody is it’s not the Elton John story, but we will use some of his music,” Maloy told The Reporter. “Rocket Man is a story about a middle-aged man who is not happy where things have ended up in his life, the choices he’s made, the ways he’s hurt people. He talks about the desire to go back and do it again. You know, he hears things like, ‘hindsight’s 20-20’ or, ‘if we can only go back and do something again, maybe we’d do better.’ He’s given that opportunity and things still do not pan out the way he wants them to.”

Maloy calls Rocket Man a serious comedy.

“It’s a funny show,” Maloy said. “It has some really fun moments, but it deals with some really heavy topics, mostly related to regret and grief and how we choose to move on from that.”

Because of those topics, including suicide, the show is not recommended for younger audiences.

This is Maloy’s second time at the helm of this play, and though there are only five people in the cast, one of the actors is one of Maloy’s former professors. Thus, Maloy is himself a bit of a rocket man in that he gets to direct his own professor for a change.

“This is actually my second time directing this show,” Maloy said. “I directed it my senior year in college as a capstone project as well. It was introduced to me by my technical director at the time, my professor in college, whose name is Greg Fiebig, who – in a weird twist of life – is actually in the show this time around. It’s actually kind of fun how 15 years later I’ve got the person who introduced me to the show in the show after graduating from college.”

Maloy said casting this show was surprisingly easy.

“Because it’s not a very well-known play, we had a smaller turnout for auditions than most shows do,” Maloy said. “So in a lot of ways, my job was a little bit easier because I was not given a huge canvas to choose from. But, as it turns out, the right people who needed to audition did audition. So did I have a hard time finding them? No, not really. But do I still think they’re the right people? Yes, I absolutely do.”

Maloy said this is a show audiences will be thinking and talking about long after the curtain falls. He also recommends not doing much internet research on the show before you go.

“My goal is that people walk away talking about it with the people they saw it with, and that they look back on their lives and maybe even start thinking about the things that they regret and maybe how they can move on from those,” Maloy said. “The fresher a palette that people have when they walk in to see it, the better.”

Rocket Man stages at The Switch Theater, 10029 E. 126th St., Fishers, for one weekend only, May 29 through June 1. Showtimes are 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and 2:30 p.m. on Sunday. Get your tickets online at HyperionPlayers.com.