Basile Westfield Playhouse staging Neil Simon’s only farce
By STU CLAMPITT
At a large, tastefully-appointed Sneden’s Landing townhouse, the Deputy Mayor of New York has just shot himself. Though only a flesh wound, four couples are about to experience a severe attack of Farce. Gathering for their 10th wedding anniversary, the host lies bleeding in the other room, and his wife is nowhere in sight. His lawyer, Ken, and wife, Chris, must get “the story” straight before the other guests arrive. As the confusions and miscommunications mount, the evening spins off into classic farcical hilarity.
Producer Ka’Lena Cuevas has been involved in community theater since 2016 as an actor, producer, stage manager, props manager and more. As producer for “Rumors,” she is handling public outreach, social media, promotions and several other things.
“I think a lot of theaters underestimate how much the role of producer should be,” Cuevas told The Reporter. “In my experience a lot of it has fallen on the director’s shoulders to do all this stuff and direct. Sometimes the shows suffer as a result. It’s not a one-person job. You need the producer to do all the organizational and administrative stuff to keep the team together so the director can focus on directing. I take it really seriously. I know I do more than other producers, but I just want to take the workload off the director.”
See Sara Castillo Dandurand, Ian Hauer and the full ensemble at Basile Westfield Playhouse. (Photo provided by Indy Ghost Light)
According to Cuevas, only a minority of the cast has ever worked with Director Jen Otterman or worked at Basile Westfield Playhouse.
“With people getting acclimated to directorial styles and how we do things at the playhouse, things popped up,” Cuevas said.
This play has had casting issues and cancellations with both one of the largest and one of the smallest roles. Another stressful part of this production was the set.
“The set looks phenomenal, and we knew it was going to come together, but it was a lot of work. Director Jen Otterman is also the set designer and set builder, and she does phenomenal sets, but they require a lot of work,” Cuevas said.
This is only the second two-level set MSP has built in the new playhouse.
There were also some lighting challenges, requiring MSP to rent scaffolding to readjust some lights for this show.
The show was originally supposed to stage just as all live entertainment went on pause for two years.
“I was supposed to produce this play back in 2020 and then we had a little interruption,” Cuevas said. “We had a different director then. COVID hit and the director moved away. I reached out to Jen and asked her to direct because I knew she’d directed it before at the high school level. She used to teach theater at Hamilton Southeastern. She’s also been in this play way back when.”
All those challenges made this production itself a bit of a comedy – an irony that is not lost on Cuevas.
“It really is kind of a farce within a farce,” Cuevas said. “All the comedic things that came up. Not all of them were funny at the time, but in a couple weeks we can laugh about all the things that caused issues. It’s been busy stuff with lots of moving parts.”
Coming off the pandemic, Cuevas said she thinks a farce is what audiences need.
“Theater is back up and running, but people are still getting used to it, and I think they need a farce,” Cuevas said. “I love drama, but right now we need to just laugh and escape. This is a ridiculous Neil Simon farce. It’s the only farce he wrote. It is a ridiculous and absurd and funny as heck. There is no deeper meaning and that’s what we need: a little escapism.”
Cuevas said Neil Simon wrote “Rumors” because he was going through difficult times in his life and needed catharsis.
“He just wanted to laugh. Come ready to laugh and to escape,” Cuevas said. “It is a play that does not take itself seriously at all. Just come ready to have a good time.”
Photos provided by Indy Ghost Light