1. ALMOST OPPOSITES ATTRACT: A MUSICAL ROMANTIC COMEDY is a recent play you’ve submitted to The Baltimore Playwrights Festival. What is it about?
Almost Opposites Attract is a love story that spans over half a century. George Dwyer and Abigail Sorenson met during their first month as freshmen in college. They were an immediate and passionate love match, staying together until almost graduation when George proposed marriage and Abigail answered “no.” An emotional explosion followed, and for twenty-five years not a word passed between them.
Now at their 50th college class reunion, they remember when they were thrown together during the 25th reunion, and their surprising reconciliation with both their shared memories and each other. Now suddenly alone, they decide how they will face their future, together at last — because “the memories come back, and memories are made, when we dance.”
2. Please tell us how you approached the writing of the book, music and lyrics to ALMOST OPPOSITES ATTRACT.
Almost Opposites Attract was conceived six years ago with an invitation to my 50th high school reunion. What if a certain old girlfriend attended? (In fact, she didn’t.) A college reunion, however, seemed to offer more possibilities. Enter George and Abigail, two lovers whose romance had ended badly and who are thrown together at their 25th college reunion. Will almost opposites still attract?
So yes, the title was present at the creation, as was the mythical Rankin College in mythical Prineville, Indiana, by the banks of (the real) Wildcat Creek.
I started writing with the most important scene, the reconciliation, and very soon found myself writing lyrics and music. My first thought: “Omigod, this wants to be a musical.” The song was “The Memories Come Back,” and 42 rewrites and revisions later it remains the theme of the show.
The end result in September 2015 was a one-act musical which I directed at two different one-act festivals. The revised second version enlarged the characters of George and Abigail’s spouses, giving them a song. I copyrighted it and started work on other shows, but George and Abigail had different ideas and kept bugging me. They wanted to end up together.
Eventually I hit on the 50th class reunion, while at the same time further developing the 25th, enhancing the characters of the spouses and showing George and Abigail interacting with their college friends.
Not a trained musician, though I’ve taken piano and theory lessons, I felt I needed musical help, so I invited Sara Nelson to do the new music. She wrote the music for all but two of the new songs, and the finished music score is approximately half hers.
3. The play takes place in different time periods. How did you meet the challenge of maintaining clarity about the time of the action, especially if production values might be sparse?
This show is written to not require much scenery and tech, though it can be done with a lot of both. Audiences will fill in many of the details if you let them, meaning Almost Opposites Attract can be done black box. After all, the original one-acts were allowed only a ten-minute setup on an empty stage at festivals!
Almost Opposites Attract is two stories: George and Abigail’s reconciliation at the 25th reunion, and what they decide is their future at the 50th. For clarity, two non-speaking student roles from the one-act were refashioned as guides for the audience. They are first seen as 25th reunion registration staff, and unlike the rest of the characters, they break the fourth wall and directly address the audience.
To use 2021 as an example, in the first scene they welcome George and Abigail’s friends to the 25th reunion of the Class of 1996. They let the audience know they are in a time machine and will be traveling to 2046, where they will meet George and Abigail at the 50th reunion. At the end of that scene is a dialog sequence that sets up a flashback to the 25th reunion, which is where we meet the younger George and Abigail.
Every time the two students appear together, the audience knows a 50th scene will follow, which in turn will flash back to the present. (To avoid dating the show, there is no technology shown in the 50th scenes, and only cell phones and a laptop in the 25th.)
4. Tell us about yourself.
I grew up in New York, went to college in Pennsylvania, moved to Maryland in 1970, and had a 42-year career as a multi award-winning reporter, editor, publisher and finally public affairs officer at a Navy base. I also became involved in several community theater groups in suburban Washington as actor, director and lighting and sound designer. After a 15-year hiatus coaching my sons’ baseball teams, I returned to community theater, this time in Southern Maryland. I also started writing plays after my retirement in 2011. The first one-act Almost Opposites Attract was my third completed play. Since then I have completed two other one-acts and a full-length straight play. I have also continued directing, sound designing and acting.
5. What are you working on now?
I have two one-acts in different stages. The first is Green Room, which is intended to also go with two other one-acts to make an evening under the umbrella title The Stage Is a World. Another one-act, The Law of Averages, is a two-hander in the early writing stage, and I’m doing research for a play based on the famous “Yes, Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus” editorial. And, of course, I am seeking that first full production of Almost Opposites Attract.
6. What is coming up next for you?
First up is directing the Tom Dulac play Breaking Legs for New Direction Community Theater. It’s scheduled for the first two weekends in June — assuming the pandemic allows. In the fall comes auditions for the world premiere of my Christmas play, The Ghost Before Christmas, based on a little-known Charles Dickens novel. It is being produced by Twin Beach Players in North Beach, Md. and directed by Sid Curl. Also on my schedule is directing my one-act, The Beauty of Natural Love.