When I began writing plays, I tried to keep the cast size to eight, since anything above that was unrealistic. Then, I couldn't write for a cast larger than four. Now four is too large, and a two-person play is considered to have a large cast. Currently, I'm getting ready for a staged reading of a one-person play (more on that some other time).
This is why I was so excited to see the Drilling Company produce Herself by Tim McGillicuddy, which boasts 10 different actors. (There are actually more than 10 characters, so there is some doubling.) The story is ostensibly about Maureen (played by Kathleen Simmonds), who inherits a bar from her brother in Galway, Ireland, and returns home from New York where she's managed to make a new life for herself abroad.
What the play is really about, though, is the community built around that pub. The pub has served not just as a bar, but as a soup kitchen and homeless shelter, thanks to the kind-heartedness of its manager, Paddy (Drew Valins). Its vibrancy is accentuated by the regulars, including the charming young Anna (Meg Hennessy), the garrulous Mary (Una Clancy), the uppity Brenda (Mary Linehan), her fiancé Aiden (Patrick Hart), and local contractor Matthew (Dave Marantz).
To tell the story, though, that's not enough. McGillicuddy has made necessary to the plot Maureen's father Martin (played by the show's director, Hamilton Clancy) and Jane (Natalie Smith), the pregnant girlfriend of Maureen's deceased brother. Complicating matters is her crush on an old flame who later entered the priesthood to become Fr. Michael (Skyler Gallun).
The show is currently playing in the Gural Theatre on West 53rd Street, so head over to Hell's Kitchen to check it out while you still can. The final performance is April 20th.
