Two local theater companies are taking to the diamond this season. The Lansing Civic Players and Peppermint Creek Theatre Company hope to hit a home run with their baseball-themed shows.
Baseball On Stage
Audience members might recognize the song "Whatever Lola Wants" when the Lansing Civic Players puts on "Damn Yankees," a musical comedy. This is the second weekend for the show.
Joe Boyd is a baseball fanatic. He sells his soul to the devil to help his favorite team win a pennant against the Yankees. The devil, Mr. Applegate, wants to keep Joe from his wife, so he brings in a seductress to distract him.
This is anthropology senior Joe Quick's first time directing a play.
"It's been a rewarding experience. I have a whole newfound respect for directors," he said.
Quick, who has experience acting locally, says directing has been an entirely different experience.
"One of the first things you learn is you're not just worrying about yourself, you're worrying about 30 people and all the people backstage. It's wonderful to sit back and watch everyone's character come into life on stage and to see all the hard work everybody has put into the show," he said.
The production is a large undertaking for the company. There are 27 people in the play with a crew of 20. Quick said the show is like one big family — actually, many of the cast members are family. Quick's wife, brother-in-law and cousin are in the show. His mother and father are the music directors.
"The family dynamic that a lot of us have outside rehearsal also translates here. Of course, it also makes things a little touchy," he said.
Performances are Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. Tickets are $15 for adults, $13 for students and seniors and $8 for children 12 and younger. For more information, call (517)484-9115.
Baseball Practice
"Take Me Out" is the next baseball play up to bat this season. This is the first week of rehearsal for Peppermint Creek Theatre Company.
There are 11 cast members who make up the players of the New York Empires, a fictional equivalent to the New York Yankees, the coach and team's accountant. Artistic Director Chad Badgero said he can already see an interesting interaction between the actors.
"As director working with a big cast of guys … the dynamic of rehearsals is really specific to this show," he said.
Badgero said the baseball theme has really hit home with the actors. Badgero doesn't have a baseball background, but he's become interested in it through the play.
"The monologues just make you have to love baseball," he said.
The controversy in the play arises when the team's star announces he's gay. The winning team needs a boost following the controversy so they bring in a new star pitcher, Shane Mungitt.
Jordan Wills plays the hateful pitcher. "The lines themselves are a little difficult because they are really offensive to a lot of people," he said.
Wills will learn how to pitch and carry himself from friends who have played baseball. Later, he'll also learn to get comfortable being naked for the play.
All the men are nude in some of the locker room scenes.
"It hasn't been an issue yet, but it's definitely something that a lot of us are going to have to get over," he said.
Wills said he likes how the play addresses important issues while being comedic at the same time.
"There's definitely the message of just the majesty of baseball, but then there's the issues of homosexuality and sort of how that can affect heterosexual male bonding and how it can plant something that can spoil that," he said.
But above all, there's the message of baseball.
"It seems like it sort of becomes not as popular and maybe some people have lost a love for it. It really has some great points about why it is the all-American pastime and argues for being the greatest sport ever," he said.
The play opens April 27 at Woldumar Nature Center's R.E. Olds Anderson Rotary Barn, 5739 Old Lansing Rd. in Lansing.
