At the Humana Festival, "Wellesley Girl" displays untapped potential

L-R: Jeff Biehl, Pun Bandhu, Lynda Gravátt, Kelly McAndrew
Photo: Bill Brymer

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One of the great things about the Humana Festival of New American Plays is the valuable exposure it gives to new playwrights.  Their work is sometimes rough around the edges or even, as is the case with Brendan Pelsue's Wellesley Girl at this year's festival, a bit of a mess.  But as far as artistic growth goes, there's just no substitute for the experience of seeing one's work performed by a professional company for a paying audience.

The concept behind Wellesley Girl is intriguing, especially during our fractious political season.  Set in the year 2465, the play takes place in a walled enclave in New England whose 435 inhabitants are, as far as they know, the sole surviving population of the United States of America.  They're all members of Congress, and the Supreme Court is now one woman—the only one with legal training and the books to back it up.

Barney O'Hanlon, Rachael Leslie
Photo: Bill Brymer

Their stable if limited world is threatened when an army from Texas suddenly and inexplicably shows up, insisting that they are the real U.S. government and making a list of impossible demands.  The population soon splits into two camps, one insisting on negotiation and another on "scorched earth", which appears to mean abandoning the enclave and fleeing into the wilderness.  Neither alternative makes much sense, though, since the invading army appears to be invincible and the water supply outside of the enclave is supposedly poisoned.  Only the enclave's filtration system makes it drinkable.

This setup has the potential to offer a satirical look at our current political dysfunction and possibly an examination of how people behave when there are no good choices.  Unfortunately it offers neither.  The arguments among the enclave's residents become little more than shouting matches and the moral dilemma they face becomes buried in political maneuvering. 

L-R: Philip Taratula, Jeff Biehl
Photo: Bill Brymer

The plot also doesn't hold up to much scrutiny and much of it simply makes no sense.  If the water is poisoned, what are the mighty Texas forces drinking?  How did they even find out about the New Englanders in the first place, given that there appears to be no communication infrastructure?  If the army has them surrounded, how will they escape to the woods? 

Worse yet, the feeble final scenes seem to indicate that the playwright simply wrote himself into a corner and couldn't find a way out.  When the final blackout came, nobody clapped because it wasn't clear whether or not the play had actually ended.

The show isn't without its moments.  A scene in which Donna, The Supreme Court (Lynda Gravátt) hears arguments at her kitchen table with a hand-made "SCOTUS" sign in the center have real charm.  And Barney O'Hanlon's robot Hank is a wonderfully precise piece of acting.  Indeed, the cast as a whole is quite good, even if some of the characters they portray are a bit one-dimensional.  There's also some real comedy in the public meetings before they descend into chaos.  But ultimately this play's reach far exceeds its grasp.

That said, this is still an interesting first effort, for all its flaws.  Mr. Plesue is clearly an original voice and, given that he is still working on his M.F.A., it's reasonable to assume that he might have a bright future ahead of him.  Very few creative people get everything right the first time, after all.

Wellesley Girl runs through April 10th in the Pamela Brown Auditorium at Actors Theatre of Louisville as part of the 40th Humana Festival of New American Plays.

Future tense

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St. Louis doesn't often show up as the location for movies or television shows. Like most of the Midwest, we tend to be ignored.  As far as most of the entertainment industry is concerned, the only thing between New York and L.A. is Chicago.

Terraformed St. Louis in Defiance

That's why it's rather surprising that there are two TV series (one in production and one in the works) that both take place in a future St. Louis.  The one in production—SyFy Channel's Defiance—appears to the the usual mix of A&A (action and aliens) in a dystopian setting.  And while it's set in St. Louis, it's being filmed almost entirely in Canada.  Our city shows up in a bit of b-roll the producers shot here a while back but that's about it.  No local production, no local actors.

The show that's in development—Gateway: the City's Reason—is pretty much the alpha to Defiance's omega.  It's set in 2063 in a St. Louis that has solved its environmental problems and found a way to run sustainably.  There has been no alien invasion and things are not collapsing.  There may, however, have been a price to pay for all that, and it might have something to do with a mysterious organization known only as "The Circle."

It's being written, produced (by The Arbor Group), and cast right here in St. Louis.  I can personally attest to that since I'm in it.  My character, known only as "The Gardener" is rumored to be a former member of "The Circle."  More than that I cannot say.

Want a sneak peak at Gateway?  Happy to oblige.  Here's the trailer.  If you're a local theatre fan you will probably recognize most (if not all) of the cast.

The producers are using this to raise funds for the project via crowdsourcing, so feel free to spread the word.