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| Foreground: Campbell Idol as Jesse. Background: Sophie Tananbaum as Hallie, Becky Rusch as Alicia, and Brady Dalton Richards as Matt. Photo by Mikiodo. |
Plot and Background
Matt, a former New York actor, seeks a new start as a high school drama teacher in a small town in Illinois. As he attempts to engage the children on local events by encouraging them to craft a devised docu-play about the question of a nuclear power plant being built in their dying factory town, he encounters Jesse, a troubled young student with acting potential but a strong resistance to engagement as he wrestles with his sexuality. Thoughts:
Play: Rowan's play is well-constructed with a strong line of tension powerfully carried by director Graydon Gund. The dialogue is unstilted and honest, and I care about each character onstage, their wants and needs, as well as their individual hang-ups. I spent the show genuinely concerned for how things would shake out, desperate for a happy ending, but aware of the warning signs that we were headed for trouble. Matt moves into a spare room in the high school counselor's house, and proceeds to help around the house (including raking and burning the titular leaves), inadvertently inciting a crush in the recently-divorced Jane. He continues to unconsciously stir pots when he eschews the idea of putting on a musical (to the intense frustration of student Alicia, who has been counting on landing a leading role as a senior), favoring instead scenes from Shakespeare and Tennessee Williams, until he lands on the concept of the devised theater piece. And finally, in his biggest slip in judgement, he ignores the resistance of both counselor Jane as well as Jesse's hostile (and homophobic) father to encourage Jesse to pursue an acting career. Of course things will go badly. The best intentions, etc.
While Matt is, frankly, not a good teacher for a group of high schoolers still figuring out who they are, he is also simultaneously a good mentor for artists discovering their inner aptitudes: Hallie, the daughter of his landlord/school counselor Jane, shows an innate attunement for how to craft disparate elements from raw interviews into a coherent narrative. He recognizes (as does she) that though she is no actor, she can be a capable playwright (and, though they don't say it, a strong dramaturg). Jesse, meanwhile, demonstrates strong instincts with his connections to Hamlet's struggles, finding a way to externalize his own unspoken pain and fear. Where Matt falls short, continually, is in knowing how to balance his instincts of open vulnerability (no doubt a carryover from his time in the downtown New York theater space) with the boundaries needed to effectively teach teenagers without any lines being crossed. He's already off to a bad start by living in the spare room of the school counselor, which means cohabiting with one of his own students; but when his interest and kindness to Jesse spurs the teenage boy to not only come out to him but to also express his love for him, Matt completely fails to properly establish boundaries to protect not only the vulnerable child but also himself (for that matter, he should have immediately reported when Jesse confirmed his father beat him). Though it's clear he feels protective of Jesse and doesn't want to hurt him, what little he does to enforce boundaries is ineffective. It's also clear he understands on some level that what he's doing is wrong, hiding from Jane the full extent of their connection. Though he never crosses the physical boundary that would lead to actual molestation of a minor, his relationship to Jesse, with its inherent power dynamic and age gap, is not a safe environment for a vulnerable boy, especially when the shit hits the fan.
What follows, then, at least for this audience member, is both a lingering frustration with a deeply flawed protagonist, and a strong protective instinct for the teenage boy, hoping against hope that he will come out of all this safe and with the potential to lead a happy life.
Cast: Director Gund does a masterful job guiding this excellent cast through the delicate navigation of Rowan's story. At its center is Brady Dalton Richards's Matt, a nervy but enthusiastic man who doesn't realize how lost he is. Richards threads the needle well, letting us understand why Matt makes the choices he makes while also not obfuscating how absolutely self-destructive he is. Beside him is the open wound of Campbell Idol's Jesse. Idol is equal parts heartbreaking and heartwarming: he wants so desperately to be happy but doesn't yet know how. He's fragile and angry and trying to be brave. Idol presents this so nakedly and with such emotional presence, you begin to forget it's a performance instead of a person just existing in front of you, trying hard not to cry as his chin trembles. Indeed, all of these performances are subtle and human, the only instances of overacting coming when the students attempt (and fail) to effectively perform Shakespeare with little understanding of the words they're saying. Sophie Tananbaum's performance, then, displays both that ineptitude of Hallie's acting against the simultaneously sweet and tart true nature of her character: this is definitely the daughter of the steady Jane (a grounded performance from Annemarie Rosano), but also firmly her own person who will not be cowed out of her convictions. Carl, Jesse's unemployed alcoholic father, avoids being a full cliched villain due to the nuanced performance of Jonathan Stewart: while he is limited in what he'll allow to be an acceptable performance of masculinity, he does love his son as much as he knows how to, and his injured pride due to the loss of his job informs much of his anger (this doesn't make his behavior okay, but it does make it understandable). Becky Rusch faces a slightly harder challenge, as student Alicia is not as deeply written, but she does excellent work carrying a throughline even as a minor character: stewing as she doesn't get her way without stealing focus, and frankly playing someone absolutely recognizable from anyone's school days.
Design: Praise once again to director Gund for the smooth transitions from scene to scene, each sliding smoothly in and out, often with one character holding the egg (to borrow a phrase from soap operas) to carry us from the end of one scene to the beginning of the next. It's fluid, it maintains an emotional throughline, and it keeps the story from losing tension or dragging through more complicated transitions. This work is reinforced by Evan Frank's straightforward scenic design of a weather-worn planked-wood platform dressed only with a plain wooden desk and three utilitarian wood-and-metal chairs. These are easily repurposed scene to scene to take us to Jane's house, to the high school, to a lonely car ride, and more. Reesa Graham's props are hidden here and there within the desk and, of course, carried on by characters. They pair well with the color palates of warm and cool colors in the costume design of Ricky Lurie and Q Le: the warmth of autumn and burning leaves for Jane and her daughter Hallie; the cool blues and greens for antagonists Carl and Alicia; the attempt to blend the two in Matt's blue denim shirt over brown slacks; and the black-and-gray scale of Jesse, who seems to belong in neither world. David Castaneda's lighting design further continues this vision, with any sense of darkness and danger represented not by full darkness but by a framing dim blue.
Running: Now playing at A.R.T./New YorkTheatres (TOSOS Theatre Company) - Opening: September 30, 2026. Closing: October 17, 2026.
Category: play
Length: 2 hours, 15 minutes, including intermission.
Playwright: Tom Rowan
Director: Graydon Gund
Team: Barry Childs (Supervising Producer), Evan Joseph Frank (Set), Q Le and Ricky Luri (Costume), David Castenada (Lighting), Morry Campbell (Sound), Reesa Graham (Props), Michael Tosto (Stage Manager), Eve Devitt (ASM), Paul Siebold / Off Off PR (Press Representative).
Cast: Campbell Idol, Brady Dalton Richards, Annemarie Rosano, Jonathan Stewart, Sophie Tananbaum, Becky Rusch.
Cast: Director Gund does a masterful job guiding this excellent cast through the delicate navigation of Rowan's story. At its center is Brady Dalton Richards's Matt, a nervy but enthusiastic man who doesn't realize how lost he is. Richards threads the needle well, letting us understand why Matt makes the choices he makes while also not obfuscating how absolutely self-destructive he is. Beside him is the open wound of Campbell Idol's Jesse. Idol is equal parts heartbreaking and heartwarming: he wants so desperately to be happy but doesn't yet know how. He's fragile and angry and trying to be brave. Idol presents this so nakedly and with such emotional presence, you begin to forget it's a performance instead of a person just existing in front of you, trying hard not to cry as his chin trembles. Indeed, all of these performances are subtle and human, the only instances of overacting coming when the students attempt (and fail) to effectively perform Shakespeare with little understanding of the words they're saying. Sophie Tananbaum's performance, then, displays both that ineptitude of Hallie's acting against the simultaneously sweet and tart true nature of her character: this is definitely the daughter of the steady Jane (a grounded performance from Annemarie Rosano), but also firmly her own person who will not be cowed out of her convictions. Carl, Jesse's unemployed alcoholic father, avoids being a full cliched villain due to the nuanced performance of Jonathan Stewart: while he is limited in what he'll allow to be an acceptable performance of masculinity, he does love his son as much as he knows how to, and his injured pride due to the loss of his job informs much of his anger (this doesn't make his behavior okay, but it does make it understandable). Becky Rusch faces a slightly harder challenge, as student Alicia is not as deeply written, but she does excellent work carrying a throughline even as a minor character: stewing as she doesn't get her way without stealing focus, and frankly playing someone absolutely recognizable from anyone's school days.
Design: Praise once again to director Gund for the smooth transitions from scene to scene, each sliding smoothly in and out, often with one character holding the egg (to borrow a phrase from soap operas) to carry us from the end of one scene to the beginning of the next. It's fluid, it maintains an emotional throughline, and it keeps the story from losing tension or dragging through more complicated transitions. This work is reinforced by Evan Frank's straightforward scenic design of a weather-worn planked-wood platform dressed only with a plain wooden desk and three utilitarian wood-and-metal chairs. These are easily repurposed scene to scene to take us to Jane's house, to the high school, to a lonely car ride, and more. Reesa Graham's props are hidden here and there within the desk and, of course, carried on by characters. They pair well with the color palates of warm and cool colors in the costume design of Ricky Lurie and Q Le: the warmth of autumn and burning leaves for Jane and her daughter Hallie; the cool blues and greens for antagonists Carl and Alicia; the attempt to blend the two in Matt's blue denim shirt over brown slacks; and the black-and-gray scale of Jesse, who seems to belong in neither world. David Castaneda's lighting design further continues this vision, with any sense of darkness and danger represented not by full darkness but by a framing dim blue.
***
Running: Now playing at A.R.T./New YorkTheatres (TOSOS Theatre Company) - Opening: September 30, 2026. Closing: October 17, 2026.
Category: play
Length: 2 hours, 15 minutes, including intermission.
Creative Team
Playwright: Tom Rowan
Director: Graydon Gund
Team: Barry Childs (Supervising Producer), Evan Joseph Frank (Set), Q Le and Ricky Luri (Costume), David Castenada (Lighting), Morry Campbell (Sound), Reesa Graham (Props), Michael Tosto (Stage Manager), Eve Devitt (ASM), Paul Siebold / Off Off PR (Press Representative).
Cast: Campbell Idol, Brady Dalton Richards, Annemarie Rosano, Jonathan Stewart, Sophie Tananbaum, Becky Rusch.
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| Sophie Tanabaum as Hallie, Brady Dalton Richards as Matt, Becky Rusch as Alicia, and Campbell Idol as Jesse. Photo by Mikiodo. |
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