When F. Scott Fitzgerald declared that “there are no second acts in American lives,” he surely was not referring to Lou Tyrrell.
The founder of Florida Stage (formerly known as The Pope Theatre, formerly known as Theatre Club of the Palm Beaches) has recently begun his third act, opening yet another theater organization.
After an ill-advised move to the Kravis Center in 2009, he closed Florida Stage, the region’s premier theater company for new, mostly American works. But he was back in action quickly with a new operation three years later, re-inventing himself as the producing director of the theater component of Delray Beach’s storefront phenomenon, The Arts Garage.
After a slow start there, Tyrrell’s new troupe was beginning to develop a following when he abruptly announced earlier this year that he was resigning from the Arts Garage post. But the 65-year-old director is not one to be idle long, as proven by his announcement in September of yet another new venture — Theatre Lab, the professional resident company of Boca Raton’s Florida Atlantic University. Ever genial and low-key, Tyrrell gains the imposing title of Dorothy F. Schmidt Eminent Scholar in the Arts at his new artistic home.
With a bare bones start-up, Tyrrell launched Theatre Lab this week with staged readings of new, or newish, scripts in two programs — Making Musicals and Play Slam. The former kicked off last weekend with Chris Miller and Nathan Tysen’s Fugitive Songs, a song cycle described as “half musical/half hootenanny,” on the subject of people on the run. This weekend, Theatre Lab presents Vote for Me: A Musical Debate, by Drew Fornarola and Scott Elmegreen, an interactive look at today’s political landscape. The program continues with two more musical readings on subsequent weekends.
I sat in on the first Play Slam, Stephen Sachs’ Bakersfield Mist, about the confrontation between a trailer park former bartender who believes she has discovered an unknown painting by drip artist Jackson Pollock, and an effete, disdainful art expert who has arrived from New York to authenticate the painting or — more likely — denounce it as a fake.
If that plot sounds familiar, perhaps you saw the 2006 documentary, Who the #$&% is Jackson Pollock?, which chronicled the true story of truck driver Teri Horton, who found and bought for $5 a splattered canvas as a gag gift for her friend, but soon learns that it may be a Pollock worth millions. In an effort to authenticate it, however, Teri has to go up against the art establishment, which is lockstep against her and her improbable windfall.
Or perhaps you recall the line-up for Florida Stage’s 25th anniversary season — the season that never happened because the company went belly up first. Bakersfield Mist was one of the plays announced for that season, and Tyrrell has now been able to produce it, at least in reading form.
The play does not seem to have the breadth of the doc, focusing instead on the verbal tug-of-war between the unschooled owner of the painting and the art expert. But Sachs adds some eloquent dialogue for the latter and some broadly comic zingers for the trailer park hopeful. And for the reading, Tyrrell has the considerable talents of Equity actors and Carbonell Award winners John Felix and Laura Turnbull, who can make just about any script sound better than it is.
Tyrrell expects to call on the resources of FAU for potential synergies with his play selections. Typical, perhaps, was the post-show discussion after Bakersfield Mist led by assistant professor of art history Karen Leader. In addition, Leader will be screening Who the #$&% is Jackson Pollock? for her class on Tuesday evening and is opening it to the public for those who want to compare how the two media — film and theater —approach the same material.
Next up for Play Slam on Wednesday, is a new play by Deborah Zoe Laufer (The Last Schwartz), one of Tyrrell’s more prolific discoveries. The play is called Informed Consent, about the ethical issues surrounding genetic breakthroughs that predict one’s medical future. Play Slam also has two more readings scheduled, on subsequent Wednesday evenings.
By next season, Tyrrell expects to have a more conventional theater space on the FAU campus where he can offer fully staged production. For more information about Theatre Lab or for reservations, call 800-564-9539.