Motorsports Park regularly hosts Kart racing, too
April 3, 2013
Andrew Calise Freeman
April 8, 2013
Le Petit Theatre de Terrebonne is bringing the love and intrigue of America’s favorite pastime to the stage with Richard Dresser’s “Rounding Third.”
Director Edwina Yakupzack says the comedy is about two completely different sides of the coaching spectrum with personality traits that anyone involved in sports will recognize.
“It’s about two little league coaches,” Yakupzack says. “One’s a ‘killer’ who wants to win at any price and only the best kids get on his team. The other is one who just wants the kids to have fun and it does not matter if you win or lose, it is how you play the game.”
“That’s because his kid is a nerd,” adds Steve Crispino, playing Don, the cut-throat coach whose son is the star pitcher for his team.
“Are you talking about Frankie?” returns Reggie Pontiff, playing Michael, the assistant coach who is a newbie to town with zero baseball experience.
The story unfolds between the two men fighting to lead a team, with personalities as comparable as night and day. Don is a tough, working man who thinks the point of coaching is to teach kids how to win and Michael is a corporate executive who simply wants to bond with his son.
“It’s a cute play,” Yakupzack says. “It is a very funny play and we thought it would be a good one to end the season with since it is starting baseball season. We thought it would be apropos. It is definitely a comedy and you do not even have to like baseball. These two characters are fun on their own.”
Yakupzack says she and the cast have put their own spin on the show, including the characters and script.
“We had a terrific tryout; only two people showed up,” Yakupzack says, amused. “We have had a good time with it. It had some colorful language, but we knocked that out and it broke their hearts.”
“It’s appropriate for kids and adults now,” Pontiff says.
“Now that somebody took a pen to most of the fun stuff,” Crispino adds jokingly.
Yakupzack says the casting was not what she originally had in mind.
“I actually had them cast in opposite roles of the characters they are playing now,” Yakupzack says. “They said they wanted to try it the other way, so I said we could try it but if it wasn’t right, I was going to change it back. They were right.”
Crispino says after the first practice it was obvious that there should be a role reversal.
“We kind of picked our own characters because it is who we are; the jerk and the nerd,” Crispino says.
Overall, the trio says they are really enjoying the show because of the close and constant interaction.
“You can’t not have fun when you have this many lines,” Crispino says.
“And this cast; the cast is great,” Pontiff jokes about the two-man cast. “Our cast party is actually going to be in Edwina’s [Yakupzack] car.”
Michael (Reggie Pontiff) and Don (Steve Crispino) threaten one another in Le Petit Theatre de Terrebonne’s “Rounding Third,” a two-man play about baseball that probes intrinsic questions concerning youth sports.
