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More than a year and a half ago, Caldwell Theatre co-founder Michael Hall handed off the artistic reins of the Boca Raton stage company he had run for 36 years. But he suspected it was just a matter of time before we would be back directing a production there, and that time is now.
Opening Friday evening is Hall’s staging of Next Fall, the Tony Award-nominated play from last season that he has been itching to direct since he happened upon it off-Broadway in 2009.
As he often did on scouting trips to New York, he called up two of his favorite actresses — Pat Nesbit and Vicki Boyle — who had appeared often on the Caldwell stage over the years, and asked them what they should see.
“Nesbit said, ‘Well, a friend of mine has written a play. I was on tour with him in ‘Biloxi Blues.’’ So they bought tickets and we went, not knowing anything about it. At intermission, we just kind of looked at each other, saying, ‘Wow, this is wonderful,’ ” and Hall began working on getting the performance rights to Next Fall for the Caldwell.
Nesbit’s friend is Geoffrey Nauffts, artistic director of the Naked Angels theater troupe, and his play concerns an unlikely gay couple — 15 years apart in age, one a devout Christian fundamentalist, the other a staunch atheist. As the play begins, the younger partner, Luke, has just been in a car accident that lands him in an intensive care unit, as relatives and friends hold vigil in the hospital waiting room.
Over the course of 15 scenes that flash back and forth cinematically over a five-year span, we get to know Luke, his lover Adam, Luke’s homophobic father Butch, his divorced mother and Adam’s boss at a candle shop, where he is underemployed.
The Caldwell seems a natural fit for the play, since Hall has long championed gay-themed works there, from Bent to The Boys in the Band to Gross Indecency: The Trials of Oscar Wilde to Take Me Out. As Hall recalls, “The first time we did ‘Bent’ we were terrified, but that was a long time ago. And it was a standing-ovations screaming success. So we knew then that subject matter would not be a problem here.”
Besides, Hall does not consider Next Fall to be a gay play. “I think it’s a play about religion or lack of it. I think this play really is about someone who totally and truly believes in a faith and someone who really does not,” he says. “While, yes, two of the characters are obviously gay, but it could be two genders. There are other major issues in the play and it’s very today. Times have changed. I think the majority of people think, ‘We’re not going to be shocked anymore. That’s just a part of life.’ And ‘Next Fall’ isn’t trying to shock anyone.”
If anything, the play wants the audience to consider its own view on religion and faith. “You’re not going to change your feelings, but I think you will question what is possible,” says Hall. “And who doesn’t wonder, regardless of whether you were brought up religious, or agnostic or atheist, who doesn’t think about what happens and why are we here? Nobody’s going to preach to you, but there are some very big questions being asked.”
Ask Hall which side of the religion issue he personally comes down on and he will launch into a memory that he shared with the Next Fall cast.
“When I was a teenager, I was chosen to be one of thousands of Presbyterians from around the world to go to Grinnell, Iowa, to attend an international conference of Presbyterian youth. We were housed in Grinnell College, a religious school. And after the first day of all this singing and such, there was a little movie theater across the campus. I wandered over and on the marquee it said, ‘Grinnell Native Jean Seberg in Saint Joan.’ Well, guess who went AWOL (from the conference).
“That was a pivotal moment in my life, because of Shaw, Saint Joan, the movies, Jean Seberg — even though I didn’t know who she was at the time. I guess the theater is my church. And so, where am I coming from? Lots of questions, no certainty at all, but with a great regard for people who believe. I wish I could be that.”
As to what speaks most forcefully to him in Next Fall, Hall ponders for a minute and says, “I think I find it very intriguing how people who come from totally different beliefs, ages and places, if they allow themselves to listen to each other, there will be hope for growth and peace in the world. I think it happens to Butch in the play, because finally he is willing to realize that certain things are true that he didn’t think should be or could be.”
If there is one thing that Hall is certain of, it is that he has enjoyed getting back into the director’s chair. “It’s sort of like old times, because I never really left. I’m usually here once or twice a week,” he says of the Caldwell. “(New artistic director) Clive (Cholerton) and I find ourselves e-mailing at 3 o’clock in the morning. It’s been really good to be able to do the things that I have wanted to do, and then be able to step back and direct a play.”
And if he could direct one production a season, that would be ideal, says Hall. “We’re talking about next season. One a year would be really great. That would give me the time to really prepare it and cast it, which usually takes more time that you have.”
He is enjoying retirement, which has included travels to Russia, France and Germany, as well as writing a family history. “I work as much, if not more, but I don’t have any deadlines,” Hall says with a satisfied smile. “I can write all day and don’t have to be somewhere for a meeting to raise money.”
NEXT FALL, Caldwell Theatre Co., 7901 N. Federal Highway, Boca Raton. Sunday, Feb. 20 – Sunday, March 27. Tickets: $27-$75. Call: (561) 241-7432 or (877) 245-7432.
