‘RUMORS’ WILL ABOUND AT CENTER THIS WEEKEND
RHINEBECK, N.Y. >> A 10th anniversary wedding party for New York City’s deputy mayor turns into a wild farce in the Rhinebeck Theatrical Society’s production of Neil Simon’s “Rumors” at the CENTER for Performing Arts at Rhinebeck.
The play will have two evening performances at 8 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 17, and Saturday, Jan. 18, before concluding with a sensory-friendly matinee on Sunday, Jan. 19.
Michael Juzwak, the play’s director, said the society decided on “Rumors” because it knows it can be tough to draw people in the dead of winter.
“We decided to see a comedy because that would draw people,” Juzwak said. “It’s cold, and you need something to cheer you up in the winter.
“Neil Simon is always very popular. Do any of his shows and people will come to see them because he’s very funny.”
Juzwak said the play starts as New York City Deputy Mayor Charlie Brock and his wife, Myra, are throwing a big party for their 10th wedding anniversary and all their friends are invited. But when their friends arrive, they discover something is really amiss, he added.
“They don’t want the other guests to know what’s going on,” Juzwak said. “Things get misunderstood. People start to make up lies, then the lies get out of control because you have to lie on top of lie.”
As the play progresses, according to Juzwak, the situation becomes more and more absurd. “You get so far removed from the truth you are in a whole another realm. Truth can be tough to find.”
When Neil Simon originally wrote the play, it was set in the 1980s, but this production is set in the present, Juzwak said.
“There isn’t really a huge difference between what’s happening in the ‘80s and now,” he said, “and we wanted to freshen it up a little bit.”
References the jokes rely on are still quite familiar with audiences, Juzwak added, making the move to the present day quite easy.
“The references aren’t locked into the 80s,” he said. “It was quite simple to move it to modern day. We were pretty much able to keep everything the same.”
With the entire cast wearing evening dress, even updating the costuming wasn’t hard, he said. “That’s more timeless.”
Farce presents a unique challenge for the cast, Juzwak said.
“Neil Simon is only farce. With farce, you go very far out in terms of reality, which makes everything absurd,” Juzwak said. It gets very frantic. Everything gets snowballed out of control very quickly.”
He added that farce is one of the hardest things to do in entertainment, whether it’s on the stage, the screen or on the radio.
“It’s not real so you have to make it real. You can’t play comedy.”
It’s up to the cast to make the reality in the face of something because it’s so absurd, Juzwak said.
The cast consists of 10 characters, five couples, including the deputy mayor and his wife, which only adds to the problems when they try to cover everything up.
Despite the fact one of the main characters is the deputy mayor, the play is strictly non-political.
“Neil Simon doesn’t write political type things,” Juzwak said. “He likes to write about the average American and what their life is like.”
Juzwak also said he’s lucky to have actors who have plenty of experience with comedy and farce. In the cast are Tamara Cacchione, Tracy Carney, Austin Lightning Carrothers, David Dancyger, Joe Felece, Andrew Joffe, Cindy Kubik, John Remington, Petie Russo and Elaine Young.
“We’re working in collaboration with them, to bring out all of the humorous moments that Simon wanted,” Juzwak said, adding that he’s enjoyed watching the actors work and having a good time with one another.
“They work so well together,” he said. “Watching them work off each other has been a delight.”
During an interview before the production’s opening night, Juzwak said his biggest worry was making sure he got it right and added he’ll fine-tune the production based on the audiences’ reactions.
“I won’t know that until we get an audience in front of us,” he said. “That’s especially true with a comedy or a farce. You wonder if what you think is funny is what the audience thinks is funny.”
For Sunday’s sensoryfriendly finale, changes to the show will address sound, light and noise because some individuals can be sensitive to light and sound and strobe lights can cause epileptic episodes with others.
The sound will be capped at 90 decibels, strobe lights won’t be used and surprising elements like sudden blackouts will be toned down. In addition, the house lights will be increased by 30 percent and advance notice will be given to parents or special guides of all scenes in the show that have significant noise or harsh lighting.
The theater said the goal is to maintain the show’s integrity of the show, and the script is never changed, so everyone will have the same experience. It cautions that “Rumors” is a farce and there will be a lot of door slamming and screaming, adding that the show does contain a number of surprises.