Arts Center Theatre on Marco has opened its season with “Baggage.” Executive Director Hyla Crane says a big reason they chose this comedy is the playwright.
“Sam Bobrick is better known for his TV writing, a comedy writer who wrote for things like ‘Captain Kangaroo,’ ‘The Flintstones,’ ‘The Andy Griffith Show,’ ‘Get Smart,’ ‘Bewitched,’ The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour’ and ‘Saved by the Bell,’” said Crane.
Although air travel is no joke right now, Crane says that “Baggage” advances this year’s theme.
“We want people to feel, when they come to the Arts Center Theater, that they're there to laugh, to have a good time, and to not have to think about their worries, their troubles, the human condition, problems in the universe,” Crane added. “They're just there to laugh.
Crane also hopes that the theater’s year of comedy will induce folks from Naples and beyond to visit Marco for a show.
“Marco is a beautiful place to come visit,” Crane noted. “All of our Saturday and Sunday performances are matinees, so you can come, have lunch, see a show, and have dinner, and then head back to the real world beyond Marco.”
Best of all, the trip doesn’t require air travel, although right now it does involve “Baggage.”
The comedy is onstage at Arts Center Theatre through Nov. 23.
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In “Baggage,” two difficult single people, Phyllis and Bradley, both trying to heal from their respective disappointing relationships, get their luggage mixed up at the airport. After a very disagreeable first encounter, the two decide to help each other get over their heartaches by forging a friendship that eventually leads to the two discovering that while they may be too difficult for anyone else, they are perfect for each other.
As a playwright, Boback wrote or co-wrote more than 40 plays, including “Murder at the Howard Johnson’s,” “Weekend Comedy,” “The Crazy Time,” “Getting Sara Married,” “Remember Me?” and “Hamlet II (Better Than the Original).”
Patty Ziesig directs Jean Rowles (as Phyllis), Ron Trebilcock (as Bradley), Carolyn Davis (as Mitzi) and Glenn Davis (as Jonathan).
“In selecting the plays we’re doing this season, a lot of what we did is finding directors we really wanted to work with,” said Crane. “I'm really interested in connecting the right director with the right show, because then, I think, it brings a kind of passion to the project. And ‘Baggage’ was a play that Patti Ziesig really, really wanted to do. She may have done it previously, and I think that when you put those kinds of component elements together, it makes things even more special.”
“Baggage reminds us that everyone has a past and that it’s possible to find connection, humor, and hope even after life’s toughest moments,” said Ziesig. “It’s a perfect story for audiences who love smart comedy with heart.”
Many on Marco Island know Ziesig, who co-founded the Island Theatre Company, formerly The Island Players, in 2011.
“Baggage” is the first of five comedies Arts Center Theatre will produce this season. Crane expects the focus on comedy to be augmented by the theater’s intimacy. It seats only 80 patrons.
“Because it is tiny, there is a strong sense of community,” Crane noted. “This is Marco's community theater, and when people gather within that space, just as there is when people come to the Marco Island Center for the Arts, that they are part of the arts family and that we are their art home on the island. There's a sense of warmth and camaraderie with a theater that's so small.”
“Baggage” is onstage through Nov. 23. It’s a play that underscores that love can arrive in the most unlikely of ways, notwithstanding the “baggage” you may be carrying.
Support for WGCU’s arts & culture reporting comes from the Estate of Myra Janco Daniels, the Charles M. and Joan R. Taylor Foundation, and Naomi Bloom in loving memory of her husband, Ron Wallace.
