NPR host Peter Sagal makes stop at FAU.

NPR host talks shop with theatergoers

Before he had the job of quizzing people on current events on national radio broadcasts, Peter Sagal wrote plays.

The host of National Public Radio’s “Wait, Wait ... Don’t Tell Me” made a stop at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton Sunday to dust off one of his pieces and talk shop with students and other theater aficionados. Sagal’s show was a sellout of the 95 seats of FAU’s Theatre Lab.

“I hope they’re entertained, I hope they are moved to some contemplation of their lives, but mainly I hope they decided it was a fine way to spend a Sunday afternoon in Florida,” Sagal said of the audience just before the show.

Sunday’s play, titled “Most Wanted,” is set in Florida and was originally written in 1996, though was never produced on stage.

In Sagal’s story, two grandparents kidnap their infant granddaughter and run away to Florida in order to spend more time with her, highlighting a rocky relationship between the two and their daughter.

The performance, which was read by a cast of local actors and actresses, drew frequent laughter and applause from the audience.

Sagal got a chance to see his play on stage at the request of Theatre Lab’s artistic director Louis Tyrell, who Sagal said he has known through theater circles for about two decades.

After the reading, Sagal talked to the audience about his playwriting process. He said he finds it difficult to write in addition to doing his radio show.

Sagal said “Wait, Wait ... Don’t Tell Me” is more of a mix of quick humor and improvisation, while writing plays is an iterative process that takes more time than he has.

“It’s entirely different,” he said. “If I could figure out a way to do both, I would.”

The event capped off the school’s New Play Festival, which featured readings of new pieces created by local playwrights.

The Theatre Lab is FAU’s resi-

dent theater company that started in 2015. It put on five days of plays for the festival that ended Sunday.

Students get the opportunity to help out with the organizing. Lauren Palmieri, Theatre Lab’s company manager, said the festival helps volunteers get an inside view into the production process.

“They get a really good look at what happens in a professional situation,” Palmieri said. “It lifts the curtain on what happens behind the scenes in theater and the processes.” Peter Sagal wrote “Most Wanted” in 1996, though it was never produced on stage.

JIM RASSOL/STAFF PHOTO