How to go
What: “Guest Artist” by Mad Anthony Theatre Company
When: 8 p.m. Feb. 17 to 20, 2 p.m. Feb. 21
Where: Fitton Center, 101 S. Monument Ave., (513) 863-8873
Cost: $10 for preview night Feb. 17, all others $15 for members, $17 non-members
HAMILTON — Sometimes coming face to face with your hero isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
That’s one facet of the play “Guest Artist,” the latest production by the Mad Anthony Theatre Company, opening Feb. 17 at the Fitton Center for Creative Arts.
The minimalist play consists mostly of the interactions between two characters at a bus station in Steubenville, Ohio. One character is a naive young man named Kenneth, an apprentice at a professional theater company. The other is his idol, Joseph Harris, a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright.
When Kenneth meets Joseph, he finds out that Joseph’s career is on the skids, he hasn’t written in a long while, and he has slid into alcoholism. Even so, the author still has a thing or two to teach the apprentice.
“There’s a lot of discussion about what makes art and what are the responsibilities of the artist in the world we live in today,” director Henry Cepluch said.
The play was written by Jeff Daniels, the actor who starred in the films “Terms of Endearment,” “Pleasantville” and “Dumb and Dumber.”
Mad Anthony staged another of Daniels’ plays, “Boom Town,” last year. It went over very well, Cepluch said, so the company decided to try another of Daniels’ works.
Daniel Britt, who plays weather-beaten Joseph, said the play is about “facing the truth within ourselves.”
Britt said Joseph speaks in three voices: the full-of-himself voice, the voice of the teacher, and “the most honest voice that cuts through all the clutter.”
Playing a character who is a bit out of his comfort zone is appropriate for Ben Schneider, because he is most experienced with musicals.
“I thought about what an interesting challenge this would be for me as an actor,” Schneider said. “Now I really have to rely on another performance for support. Sometimes I focus on music so much I forget about acting.”
Schneider can’t do that in this show about introspection, and he likes that.
All show times are at 8 p.m. except Sunday, Feb. 21, which is a matinee performance at 2 p.m. A special preview performance will be at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 17 and tickets for that are $10. Tickets for all other shows are $15 for members and $17 for nonmembers.
Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2836 or erobinette@coxohio.com.
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