Donna Ruth Duggan Lile
October 2, 2012
Chabert hit with added cuts and job losses
October 5, 2012
The Bayou Playhouse is bringing audiences a double-header this month with two sports-tastic plays that are sure to make anyone giddy about its fifth season.
Bayou Playhouse presents “The Winning Streak” by Lee Blessing and “Who Dats Talking” by Spud McConnell and Mo Brennan through Oct. 28.
“We were always curious about what to do during baseball and football season because people are so preoccupied with that,” Artistic Director Perry Martin says. “We figured by covering baseball and football in one play, we might be able to generate some interest.”
Act One is “The Winning Streak” by Lee Blessing. The show is about Omar and Ry, a typical father-son duo, except they have not met. Both are stubborn and competitive, and both seek love and acceptance but are afraid to admit it.
“Omar is a retired professional umpire who meets his adult son for the first time,” Martin says. “It is not a very comfortable meeting, but the minute Ry shows up into town, Omar’s team goes on a winning streak. Omar convinces Ry to stay for the whole season to see if the Home Team can break the No. 1 winning streak, even though he does not really want a son.”
Omar, played by Randy Cheramie, was behind the plate for many years. Cheramie says Omar became jaded toward the sport, but as soon as he gets back in the stands he falls in love with baseball all over again.
“Omar is a disgruntled, curmudgeonly, sourpuss of a retired major league baseball umpire,” Cheramie says. “He lives alone, never married. He doesn’t have much of a life, and he lives for his baseball team.”
Omar loves the game so much that it has become one of the few relationships he possesses.
“He gets philosophical and almost poetic about the game, saying that it’s the only infinite shape in sports,” Cheramie says. “The sidelines go on forever, and it is the only game with no time limit. That’s what he loves about it. He had to get out of the game to fall in love with the game, but it’s the only part of his life that means anything to him.”
When Omar gets a call from his son, Ry, and his team goes on a winning streak, the superstitious fan inside him decides that his son is a good luck charm.
Ry, played by Travis Resor, is the product of a one-night stand in Omar’s past.
“He just really wants to find out about his family, but it’s a rollercoaster ride for him to get anything out of his father,” Resor says. “He tries his hardest to connect to his father through baseball even though he can’t stand the sport. He finds it extremely boring, but he humors him just enough to get the information that he wants.”
“In the course of this comedy the relationship builds and develops through baseball,” Martin says. “It’s a good, touching comedy because you watch the two uncomfortable men who really don’t even like each other gradually form some kind of strange relationship.”
Act Two is “Who Dats Talking,” written by the husband-and-wife team of McConnell and Brennan.
“It’s a series of monologues featuring many different characters from the ‘Who Dat nation’ who kid around and poke fun at our favorite team, the Saints,” Martin says. “It is just character after character of pure comedy.”
Brennan says “Who Dats Talking” was a collaborative effort with the couple’s friend Reine Bouton, associate professor at Southeastern Louisiana University.
“It is the overall Saints fan experience through the characters of five very different people,” Brennan said. “There are side monologues, with five different people. Spud and I play everyone.”
There is a recently deceased Who Dat who wonders “How can this be Heaven if they ain’t got no football?” and Superdome security guard Zelda Banquette will inform the audience of what is and is not allowed at the games. Then, everyone’s favorite Who Dat, Ernestine, will educate the audience with her own personal interpretations of football terms and positions.
The show lends itself to some of the best tailgating on the bayou.
Martin explains that because the duo wrote and perform their own script, they did not need direction from him.
“They did their own thing,” Martin said. “I read the script and loved it.”
For baseball and football fans alike, this show has something for everyone.
“It should be another full evening here, just two completely different shows linked through sports,” Martin says. “We have some of the best actors in the state on our stage.”
Father and son Omar (Randy Cheramie) and Ry (Travis Resor) share disagreement while watching a baseball game after recently meeting one another.
Husband and wife team Spud McConnell and mo Brennan headline “Who Dats Talking,” the second show of a doubleheader at the Bayou Playhouse.
