09/25/2025
Today marks the first performance of our last week to preview “ , Too . . . You” and it is very hard to say goodbye for the year. In order to accommodate the working schedules of the ten players who cover eighteen roles, we are having our Cast and Crew party Friday night after the show, even though we have two performances left after that. Every seat is spoken for. The drama is literally SRO for all shows this week. Although the play will be re-written after we depart, now that we have seen and performed it in three dimensions, we know we’ve struck a public chord. To wit, the instincts of the members of Exclamation Theater, Inc. in early 2015, when they started saying that someone needed to create some kind of theatrical commentary with regard to an unfolding case in California where a young woman who had been walking home from a party was r***d in a secluded area of a campus while unconscious, were spot on. Ultimately, through conversation, marginal note-taking, outlines, steadfast, tenacious attention to courtroom news, special writing sessions, and late-night telephone calls, we arrived at a “working script” over ten years, which we have implemented here in Pittsburgh, PA in September 2025.
After further revision, we hope to take this cultural statement to, at least, the Philadelphia Fringe in 2026 and, if we receive grants, to other Fringe Festivals. Once we have revised the current script, we will copyright it again.
Getting to this moment has been an adventure. From January through May of this year, it had been our intention to present the previews for two weeks at the Philly Fringe and we located two venues. Unfortunately, they both required that audiences pay for neighborhood parking, which impressed us as inordinately high. As far as we have ever been able to determine, no nearby parking was willing to write a contract with us or anyone else for reduced-fee parking. When all seemed lost, Anne Lainge, whom some of you will remember as one of our wheelchair actresses, contacted me from her community outside Pittsburgh, suggesting that we move the show there, and giving me the name of a farmer, who was willing to put the show up without charge on his land. It turned out that “Stan,” which is only how he wishes to be known, owned a half-acre, adjacent to his farm, accessible by a short country road, off a highway. On Sundays, his church used the property and met under what I can only call a very large RV roof, which meant that we could perform on other days, but not Sundays. He allowed vehicles to park near the shelter. We borrowed chairs from a funeral home, decided to avoid conventional advertising in favor of mere word-of-mouth, charged no gate fees, although we did accept donations, and run it for sixteen performances through September. We cast locally – also by word-of mouth. We used no sound enhancement and minimal lighting.
This is what happened: Elaine Briggs somehow materialized. Elaine was part of our “Directors-in-Training” initiative more than twenty years ago. She became AD and certainly full-Director when I had to be away. We could not have brought this off without her. There were actors and potential actors everywhere. This is the first play in years where I had understudies for every role. As far as I know, no one complained about anything, and took the script completely seriously. We had the joyous experience of bringing five people who had never performed before into the fold! We opened all rehearsals to anyone who wanted to attend. Once in performance, we could barely make audiences leave. They wanted to stay and talk and speak of their own experiences. Many in the Cast are asking if they may follow us to Philadelphia in 2026. When we strike Saturday night, we will have to say farewell to all this greater Pittsburgh success and to these wonderful, exceptional people, although we wish they could follow us as well.
Thank you, folks ~ audiences, crew, and performers alike. There are some extraordinary people in this world. We hope to see as many of you as possible in 2026!
