Kevin Stidham, Matt Foyer and Thomas Fiscella in "Honus and Me: A Baseball Card Adventure"
For the past few weeks, I’ve been living in a highly creative and fulfilling process where the theater stage manager’s call of “Places, please!” and the baseball umpire’s shout of “Play ball!” have exactly the same meaning. It’s a poetic intersection of art and sport, a place where the baseball field and the proscenium stage share not only the same space, but the same potential for drama. It’s a place where deftly sliding into third base is as important as hitting your marks for lighting.
Thomas Fiscella
I’m acting in MainStreet Theatre Company’s production of Steven Dietz’s Honus & Me, a story about young Little League loser Joey Stoshack, who accidentally finds the most valuable major league baseball card in the world, the “Honus Wagner T-206″. It’s a $2.8 million windfall with which Joey intends to forever solve his family’s overstressed domestic and financial challenges. But unexpected twists of time and fate create a friendship between young Joey and one of the greatest baseball players in history, 1909′s Honus Wagner himself, and propel them both on an adventure beyond the limits of their imagination. Even with elements of fantasy, the show is steeped in real baseball history and players, including a fateful matchup against Detroit Tigers legend Ty Cobb.
Like many of my friends in the arts, I come from a very sports-oriented family. An oft recounted story in my family describes my father’s diligent attendance of a performance of West Side Story on a national tour stop in my hometown of Detroit. During the show, he had an earpiece plugged into a transistor radio stashed in his pocket. Very surreptitiously, it was of course tuned to the Detroit Pistons NBA Finals game — at a very low volume. And by all accounts, Dad was equally enjoying both performances immensely.
Cody Lyman and Kevin Stidham
Just like my father, I love watching a great game, but I confess I didn’t have a deeper knowledge of the great American cultural traditions and history of baseball until we dove headlong into our rehearsal process. During rehearsals we’ve referenced Ken Burns’ rich documentary series on the game, along with its extensive companion book, and pored over volumes of baseball memorabilia, including songs, stories, and well-preserved images of baseball cards — much like the cards which figure prominently in designer Tom Buderwitz’s vibrant set. We’ve read vivid accounts of pitchers, batters, catchers, outfielders, umpires, owners and of course, the fans in the stands. It’s been one of the most fun research processes I’ve had while working on a show.
One of the main characters I inhabit in the show is known simply as “The Sportswriter.” He represents the newspaper writers who reported on baseball during the early 1900s, but he seems also to be that familiar voice we hear in our minds today as we read the accounts of those fabled days and players of the game. He guides Joey, and the audience, into this world — painting pictures of imagination perhaps not much unlike (though not as prominent) as Wilder’s onstage Stage Manager in Our Town.
Kevin Stidham
The actors, including seasoned theater artists Matt Foyer, Matthew Henerson, Ann Marie Lee, Cody Lyman, Jacob Sydney, Kevin Stidham and Jayne Taini, along with our director (“coach”) Abigail Deser, have witnessed and shared how, equally as much of our “civilian” friends, we’ve been engaged in this “national pastime.” During rehearsals, we’ve been reminded how most of us in the company have a strong connection to the sport. We played the game in our youth, our kids play it today, our fathers coached. We’re still fond of our hometown teams, and during breaks we’re checking our cell phones to follow the race to the playoffs — often with the same fervor and enthusiasm we’ve been putting into the development of our performances. Clearly, there’s a common denominator in sport.
Our producer and MainStreet artistic director Mireya “Murry” Hepner has recognized that common denominator as a way to expand the typical family theater audience. In order to broaden the attendance for this show (and develop audiences for future shows), MainStreet has teamed up with an Inland Empire minor league baseball team for the Dodgers, the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes. During a recent Quakes game (where members of our cast led the crowd in singing “Take Me Out To The Ballgame”), fans of the team learned about the show and the Equity-quality family theater located in their own backyard. How cool to have our theater t-shirts shot out into the excited crowd! Ideally, baseball fans who might not normally be interested in attending any kind of play will be intrigued enough by Honus & Me to come see our production.
Ann Marie Lee, Kevin Stidham and Matt Foyer
Watch any college or professional game, and it’s clear to see how organized sports have always had fundamental elements of live theater: the spectacle, the ritual, the unknown ending of a skilled improvisation, players are measured and critiqued upon their performance. And in these ways, as players of a game, they’re not unlike the players of our stages. As a ballplayer famously asked in Field of Dreams, “…Is this heaven?” Well, this time, it’s definitely not Iowa — it’s Rancho Cucamonga.
Honus & Me, produced by MainStreet Theatre Company. Opens Oct 1. Plays Sat. 1 pm and 4 pm; Sun. 1 pm. (no perf. Oct. 3). Through Oct. 16. Tickets: $14-16. Lewis Family Playhouse, 12505 Cultural Center Drive, Rancho Cucamonga.909-477-2752. www.lewisfamilyplayhouse.com.
Thomas Fiscella originated the role of “Baba” (the father) in The Kite Runner, the stage adaptation of the best-selling novel, at the San Jose Rep and Arizona Theatre Companies. Notable work in Southern California includes: Fiddler on the Roof (Tevye, CLO South Bay Cities) Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune (Johnny, International City Theatre), and Tranced (Laguna Playhouse). He’s a member of L.A.’s Circle X Theatre Company, and a lifelong hometown fan of the Detroit Tigers.
***All Honus & Me production photos by Ed Krieger
