Mount Vernon-Lisbon Community Theatre will be opening the curtains on their production The House of Blue Leaves Saturday, Oct. 9. The show also has performances Sunday, Oct. 10, Thursday, Oct. 14, Friday, Oct. 15 and Saturday, Oct. 16. Sunday, Oct. 10 is a matinee, with curtains rising at 2 p.m. The evening shows all have curtain times of 7:30 p.m. Masks are requested for the indoor theater, and social distanced seating is available. The show is presented at First Street Community Theatre in uptown Mount Vernon.
Director Kerry Covington describes the show The House of Blue Leaves as a mad-cap farce that has a little something for everyone.
The House of Blue Leaves is set in Sunnyside, Queens on Oct. 4, 1965, the day Pope Paul VI visited New York City. Artie, a songwriting zookeeper, is joined at various times in his apartment by his mentally ill wife Bananas, his girlfriend Bunny, his AWOL son Ronnie, the glamorous Corrinna Stroller (a movie star with a hearing loss), Artie’s old partner Billy and several nuns who are trying to see the Pope.
Covington said she has been wanting to direct this play as an adult, as it was a production that originally got her interested in theatre.
“I was a student at Jefferson High School in Cedar Rapids when our drama instructor Rick Andersen from Mount Vernon decided this was his first show with us,” Covington said. “It was one of the first shows I remember laughing and crying to, and I was only running lights for the show.
“I knew if there was a chance to direct this show in the future, I wanted to do so.”
That chance came when MVLCT announced the show this season, and Covington came to direct her first show with the theatre troupe.
“The support I’ve gotten from members of this troupe has been amazing,” Covington said. “This is one of the more technically challenging shows I’ve ever directed, and this group has helped me at every turn. It’s a show I never would have been able to pull off on my own without the support I’ve seen here.”
Covington’s connections with the show also extend to Katie Starks, who plays the role of Bananas Shaughnessy. Starks was also involved in the Jefferson High School production of House of Blue Leaves.
“It’s been nice to have that connection to the show that originally got me addicted to theater, and working together on this show as an adult,” Covington said.
For Starks, this is her third time being a part of a production of The House of Blue Leaves, and she landed the role she has wanted to play in previous productions with Bananas.
“I’ve always wanted to play Bananas since I read the play when I was 16,” Starks said. “The character is a complicated nut to crack, and I’ve seen that part played a lot of different ways. It’s fun to finally have my own crack at the character.”
Starks said having 20 different versions of that character she’s seen has probably been the biggest challenge, as she had to find out exactly how she was going to play the role.
Kristin Hamilton plays the other love interest to Artie Shaughnessy, Bunny Flingus.
“This is probably my favorite role I’ve ever played,” Hamilton said. “It’s been fun to develop her complexities as a character. There’s a lot more to her than meets the eye.”
Of course, that complexity comes with a lot of lines, which Hamilton noted is probably the hardest part of the character.
Joe Wetrich, fiancé to Hamilton, auditioned for the show as well and plays the role of Billy Einhorn.
“This is probably the first play I’ve ever done,” Wetrich said. “I’ve been in a lot of musicals, which play with a lot more broad emotions of characters on stage.”
Wetrich said it’s been a wonderful cast to work with, and it has been wonderful getting to know so many people in the MVLCT theater troupe in his first performance with them.
Greg Stoll plays Artie Shaughnessy. It’s his first time with the MVLCT theater troupe, but not the first time a member of his family has been involved in one of their shows.
“My daughter Irish has been involved in the productions of 100 Dresses and the recent Shakespeare in the Park production of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream.’”
Stoll has been friends with Covington for a few years now, and when she presented him with a copy of the script, he instantly fell in love with it.
“When it was announced that Mount Vernon-Lisbon Community Theater was looking to do this play, I knew I had to be a part of it,” Stoll said.
Stoll recommends people should come out and see the show, because it’s a show which will provide a good escape after the last two years.
“It’s a show without any clearly defined antagonists or protagonists,” Stoll said.
“It’s a show that can’t be set anywhere but on that particular day in 1965, but there’s still a timelessness to the production,” Starks said. “It’s equal parts dark and funny, and there are moments that will break your heart.”
Artie Shaunghessy (played by Greg Stoll) and Bananas Shaunghessy (played by Katie Starks) act in a scene, with Bunny Flingus (Kristin Hamilton) in the far left background.