'Outside Mullingar' makes state premiere at Players

Your Key to the Door Weekly | Wisconsin

Peninsula Players Theatre brings Academy Award-winning screenwriter and Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright John Patrick Shanley's romantic comedy "Outside Mullingar" to a Wisconsin stage for the first time when it opens a three-week run Aug. 19.

Shanley's sweet and prickly love story was a 2014 Tony Award nominee for Best Play. Set in rural Ireland, it features Anthony and Rosemary as 40-ish next-door neighbors and homebodies, which suits their introverted personalities well. Rosemary has been smitten with Anthony since childhood and he is oblivious to the fact. When Anthony's father threatens to disinherit him, Rosemary steps in to save the farm and her dream of lasting romance. Shanley is a first-generation Irish-American, and "Outside Mullingar" is his first foray into his Irish heritage.

Shanley's body of work includes more than 25 stage plays, including Tony and Pulitzer winner "Doubt: A Parable," and screenplays, including "Joe Versus the Volcano" and "Moonstruck," the latter of which earned a Best Original Screenplay Oscar and acting Oscars for Cher and Olympia Dukakis. Shanley also wrote the screenplay for "Doubt" and the lyrics to an opera with the same title.

Shanley became inspired to write "Outside Mullingar" when his father, who was raised outside the village of Killucan near the town of Mullingar in County Westmeath, Ireland, asked to be taken home to the family farm. Meeting his cousins struck a chord with Shanley and awakened his Irish spirt.

"When I was listening to people talk in the kitchen of the family farm my cousin now runs, I got it," Shanley said in an interview with the Seattle Times. "The verbal culture is incredible there. Everything my aunt and uncle and cousins were saying was publishable. You could just quote them verbatim."

Shanley was motivated by the obvious love, loyalty and strong bonds between his relatives.

"We're afraid of sincerity," Shanley said. "To be sincere and let it stand, without further discussion. I'm saying this is how they are, my particular family."

Peninsula Players is the first professional theater in Wisconsin to produce the work.

"'Outside Mullingar' was on Broadway last year and I got a copy as soon as I could," said Greg Vinkler, Players artistic director. "When I finished reading the last word, I put it down and knew I wanted to put it into this season. It is poetic, wistful, uplifting and funny. Theatergoers agree -- the recent production at Northlight Theatre (in Chicago) was extended by popular demand."

Vinkler will direct the cast, which has Players veterans Jay Whittaker, Maggie Kettering, William J. Norris and Peggy Roeder. Vinkler has directed 27 productions for Players including "Chicago" and "Lombardi," and performed in 45, most recently the role of Gov. Ned Newley in the season-opening "A Real Lulu."

Whittaker has appeared with Players in "The Mousetrap," "Rumors," "Dial M for Murder" and others. New York credits include "Rose Rage" at the Duke on 42nd Street and "Frank's Home" at Playwrights Horizons. His regional stage credits include performances with The Old Globe, The Shakespeare Theatre and various Chicago theaters, and television credits include "Chicago PD," "Prison Break" and "Dustclouds."

Stage credits for Kettering ("Lend Me a Tenor") include performances of "Season in the Line" with House Theatre and "My Kind of Town" with TimeLine Theatre, both in the Chicago area, and "Romeo and Juliet" and "Comedy of Errors" with Michigan Shakespeare Festival.

Norris ("Master Class," "The Elephant Man") has played in nearly 200 productions in more than 44 years at such Chicago theaters as Northlight, Goodman, Victory Gardens, Steppenwolf, Chicago Shakespeare, Marriott Lincolnshire and Meadowbrook. His regional credits include various locations in Europe. He has been honored in his profession for his work as actor, director and writer with awards that include an Emmy, a Joseph Jefferson (for Chicago-area theater), five Artisan and five L.A. Critics Circle awards.

Roeder ("Lend Me a Tenor," "Miracle on South Division Street") recently finished her fourth season at Asolo Repertory Theatre in Sarasota, Fla. She has numerous Chicago stage credits and has earned four Jefferson Awards, three After Dark Awards and three Artisan Awards. Her film credits include "Groundhog Day," "Road to Perdition" and "Stranger Than Fiction."

Designing the homesteads of "Outside Mullingar" are regional and award-winning designers. Jeff Award-nominated scenic designer Jack Magaw, who worked on "Heroes" and "Sunday in the Park with George" at Players, did off-Broadway work with "The Who & the What" with Lincoln Center Theater along with work at numerous Chicago theaters. Also returning to Players is Chicago-based lighting designer Emil Boulous ("Lend Me A Tenor").

Costumes are designed by Jeff Award winner Kärin Simonson Kopischke ("Chicago," "Dial M for Murder"), whose designs have been seen in theater and opera productions as well as on film. Also returning is Jeff Award-winning sound designer Christopher Kriz ("The Game's Afoot") and properties designer Jesse Gaffney ("Miracle on South Division Street," "Butler").

Peninsula Players was founded in 1935 by a brother-and-sister team, Caroline and Richard Fisher, who dreamed of an artistic utopia in the northwoods where actors, designers and technicians could focus on their craft while being surrounded by nature in a contemplative setting. That dream lives on as professional actors, directors and designers work side-by-side with college interns while living on Players' 16-acre campus and presenting a variety of works in the stage house and 600-seat, all-weather audience pavilion that opened for the 2006 season. Its location along the shore of Green Bay provides a serene location for patrons, where they can relax prior to performances and picnic on the grounds while watching the setting sun over the waters of Green Bay or enjoy the ambience of the beer garden and other gardens.

John Patrick Shanley's "Outside Mullingar" runs from Aug. 19 to Sept. 6 at Peninsula Players, 4351 Peninsula Players Road, Fish Creek. Show times are 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays and 7:30 p.m. Sundays, except for the closing performance at 4 p.m. Sept. 6. Individual ticket prices are $36 to $42; discounts are available for season tickets and groups. For tickets or more information, call 920-868-3287 or go to www.peninsulaplayers.com.