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Local Feature  Posted on: 11/12/08 Written by: , email: Staging ‘Wrecks’ Ed McMullen was a bit of a latecomer to acting. He was in his 30s when he appeared in his first production in Schenectady. It didn’t take him long, though, to realize community theater wasn’t his calling. Community theater tends to be “safe,” he said, and he and a core group of theater friends like to put on shows that are a bit of a risk, both for themselves and the audiences. “We want to give them something that’s going to make them think,” he said. That mindset led to the creation of McMullen’s production company and its latest show, Neil LaBute’s “Wrecks,” which will be staged at ZuZu’s Wonderful Life Café in Albany on Nov. 15, 16, 21, 22 and 23. McMullen launched his company, D&M Productions, in the mid-1990s with Paul Dellio. Like McMullen, Dellio was excited by the thought of having a hand in plays that branched out beyond standard community theater fair. “Things can get a little limited in the community theater area,” Dellio said. Over the years, the two collaborated on plays such as “Murder in the Cathedral,” “Faith Healer,” “Molly Sweeney,” and “You Can’t Take it With You.” Their partnership dried up when work and other commitments cut into their theater time. D&M Productions went dark until two years ago, when McMullen decided to revive it. As a rule, he said, he likes to keep productions small, with minimal casts and settings. Part of the reason is that he finances his productions himself, but beyond that, he thinks that smaller productions allow actors to really sink their teeth into their roles. “There’s much more actors can do,” he said. “It’s much more concentrated.” “Wrecks” has one of the McMullen’s smallest casts yet. It’s a one-man show, starring McMullen as Edward Carr, a man who recently lost his wife. At her wake, Carr looks back on their long and happy marriage, taking a trip down memory lane that Dellio thinks will endear him to the audience. A simple love story, though, isn’t the type of play LaBute writes. “He’s kind of the bad boy of film and theater,” Dellio said. “He’s constantly sticking his finger in the eye of everyone.” As such, the story takes a twist at the end that both floored and fascinated McMullen. “I was shocked,” he said, remembering the first time he read the play. “I just didn’t see it coming.” So when another play McMullen was planning to put on fell through, he called Dellio and asked him to consider directing “Wrecks.” Dellio read it, and he, too, was hooked. “It’s very rich,” he said. “There’s an intensity about it. It really asks us to consider things in a whole different light.” When the two got together to rehearse, McMullen found he didn’t have trouble being the show’s only star. He’s so comfortable on stage that “it’s easy enough to be out there without the support of another actor,” he said. But the process of learning his lines did present some difficulty. The play is about 75 minutes long, requiring McMullen to memorize about 30 pages of dialogue. “When I was younger, my memory was a steel trap,” he said. “It’s not quite as sharp as it used to be. I find I have to work harder.” Not that he’s complaining. McMullen’s interest in acting was piqued when he was just a teenager and saw Marlon Brando in “On the Waterfront.” But McMullen was a jock in high school; he didn’t really have the time or inclination to act. “I never got on stage,” he said. “It didn’t seem to be the thing to do. I was involved in a different crowd.” After that initial show in Schenectady, though, “I was hooked,” he said. Dellio is his favorite director and describes the pair’s collaboration as free of egos and star trappings. Instead, each works to help the other realize his vision -- and the writer’s vision -- of the play. “The end product is not what either of us envisioned,” Dellio said. “It’s really kind of a birthing process.” The end product with “Wrecks” has a little bit of everything. The show is deep, but it’s funny, Dellio said. McMullen called it “quite beautiful.” And of course, there’s the “jolt” at the end, which neither McMullen or Dellio wanted to give away. “On the surface, it’s a nice story about a husband,” McMullen said. “He’s your guy next door, so to speak. But he pulls something on you that you don’t see coming.” Tickets for “Wrecks” are $15. Show times are 8 p.m. on Nov 15, 21 and 22 and 2 p.m. on Nov. 16 and 23. ZuZu’s Wonderful Life Café is at 299-301 Hamilton St. For information, call 522-7273. You can contact with any questions. Also, feel free to post comments below. Comments powered by Disqus |
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