By Lynn Venhaus

This year’s LaBute New Theater Festival dives right into blistering topical commentary on our great societal divide, and while “Safe Space” is one of the playwright’s sharpest one-acts in the fest’s nine-year history, the best play is about a troubled prizefighter who hasn’t been in the news for decades.

“One Night in the Many Deaths of Sonny Liston” by JB Heaps of New York City is a masterfully constructed conjecture about what might have happened the night the former heavyweight champion died on Dec. 30, 1970.

Both plays feature Reginald Pierre, who has frequently been a part of the festival since it began in 2013, and next to his outstanding work as Lincoln in “Topdog/Underdog” that same year, this is his finest hour, as Sonny Liston and as a theatergoer in “Safe Space.”

In a revelatory performance as Liston, Pierre conveys bravado, hurt, resentment, and toughness recounting how, as a celebrated and feared sports figure, he faded from glory as his bad boy reputation persisted.

Considered an outsider, his difficulties adjusting to fame, and those demands that led to his downfall are documented by Heaps in clever dollops of dialogue, as Liston opens up to a professional escort delivering a “Christmas present” from sordid types he does business with, at his home in Vegas.

While only hinted at, these presumed underworld figures are connected to a multi-state mob syndicate. All very shady, the real details are murky, and Heaps weaves a plausible tale because the tango Pierre does with Eileen Engel, playing this mysterious woman, is riveting.

With a world-weary air and looking glamorous in a glitzy evening gown, Engel’s smoothness makes us question whether she’s compassionate or has ulterior motives, and the more Liston spills the tea, what is her story?

As Pierre, who does not physically resemble an imposing boxer, skillfully peels back layers on Liston, he divulges a litany of hard-knock life injustices, his triumphs in the ring, and his torment over being blacklisted by the boxing establishment.

Eileen Engel, Reginald Pierre. Photo by Patrick Huber

Through exposition, Heaps shares key facts about one sharecropper’s son, born in Arkansas, an ex-con who knocked out Floyd Patterson, tussled with Muhammad Ali, hobnobbed with the rich and famous – and is included in the famous artwork on The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover. For real!

Thoughtfully directed by Kari Ely, she lets the drama unfold naturally while Pierre and Engel establish a rhythm, keep each other sharp, projecting both a mutual like and a distrust. It was one of the few plays in the line-up that was gripping until the very end.

The climactic impact is genuine, bolstered by the superb performances but also Heaps’ knowledge of the subject. A second-act playwright at 71, he retired from a television career as an executive producer for Showtime Sports where his shows on boxing won five Emmy Awards. (As they say, write what you know).

Liston’s death has remained suspicious for some 50 years, fueled by knowledge that he was a heavy drinker and used heroin. While no one knew for sure, his age was estimated at 40. His wife, Geraldine, whom he married in 1950, was from St. Louis and there visiting her mother over the holidays. She discovered his body about two weeks after authorities think he died.

Because Pierre gives emotional heft to a tragic, larger-than-life figure, you may want to find out more about the guy, nicknamed “The Bear,” and there is a 2019 Showtime documentary called “Pariah: The Lives and Deaths of Sonny Liston.”

Heaps’ play opens the second act, while “Safe Space” kicks off the presentation.

Engel, Anthony Wininger. Photo by Patrick Huber.

LaBute, the provocateur, through shrewd writing and supple performers, tackles the current state of “us vs. them,” the culture wars and racial friction in the U.S., in “Safe Space.” It is through the theatrical lens that he explores how we got to this point and is today’s state of outrage histrionic or necessary.

Here, he seats a privileged white woman (Jane Paradiso) next to a black theatergoer (Reginald Pierre) for a performance advertised as a special evening for African Americans to come together for this show, although they allowed others to purchase tickets too. The Man attempts to be polite in the shared space, but the Woman feels his agitation, and let the verbal sparring begin.

LaBute, the longtime playwright and screenwriter, has written a new work for every festival, and his highly verbal and rhythmic dialogue is well-suited for one of his favorite themes – political correctness. And add the divisive climate now infiltrating every aspect of daily life, and let the fur fly.

We’re at a point where any little thing we say — whether misunderstood, taken out of context, or deemed inappropriate, will be used against us in the public court of opinion. And is anyone really listening anymore or just shouting to be heard? “Safe Space” touches on all those notes.

The points of view here are strong, so if you wince at any confrontation, be warned. But it is a lively exchange that does come to some sort of truce. And a time capsule entry for 2023.

Paradise is captivating as a woman huffy about being perceived as entitled, but then demonstrating why one could understand that observation and Pierre easily throws shade with some glances and reactions, defensive about why he’s pitching a fit. Both are deft in their delivery, and John Contini astute in his direction of the rapid-fire, razor-sharp piece.

Laurel Button, Colleen Backer. Photo by Patrick Huber.

Like LaBute’s play, the others utilize the intimacy of the black box stage to their advantage. The festival features works that have up to four characters.

The other three dramas in the line-up this year include “The Blind Hem” by Bryn McLaughlin of Oregon, “DaVinci’s Cockroach” by Amy Tofte, and “The Mockingbird’s Nest” from Craig Bailey of Vermont.

I heard someone in the audience compare the offerings to a box of chocolates. The plays, always a mixed bag, are memorable when they are a touch strange and keep us off guard. Others prefer less edge, but different is better than staid.

In any case, the talent is usually affecting, and this year, the format lends itself to their particular strengths. Colleen Backer, who excels at portraying eccentrics, is a jittery scientist named Dana whose work destroys things. Perhaps she’s soulless, she seems guilty about the way her life has gone. Loathe to connection, she does engage with a staff member, Finn, who is having a bad day at an art museum in “DaVinci’s Cockroach.”

They talk about things trivial and big-picture, and you want to know more about the pair, to an extent. But hen Tofte just goes on for far too long. But Laurel Button is impressive as a kooky, colorful young woman for whom art brings joy.

“The Blind Hem” is a melancholy-tinged romance between a college professor and a former student – hence named after the ‘invisible’ stitches in a garment, and is one of those character studies where you have to read between the lines to fully grasp what is happening, and what transpired before we entered their cheap motel room. Anthony Wininger is Robert, a conflicted man fooling himself about life, while Eileen Engel is Kate, no longer in school but still naïve.

They’re fine, although unsympathetic, but does McLaughlin’s play say anything new or explore another facet of an illicit romance that we haven’t seen before?

“The Mockingbird’s Nest” takes on another familiar topic – an aging parent’s dementia but does so with a technological twist. We’ve wound up in the twilight zone, and that’s a clever aspect of Craig Bailey’s piece. But despite Backer and Paradise’s splendid portrayals, the play ultimately loses steam by not trimming what seemed to be a tacked-on ending.

The production crew is efficient in setting the scenes for each show, and Abby Pastorelli’s costume design nails each personality in a simple yet effective way. She also did the artwork shown, which is for sale.

A 10-member panel selects the plays from submissions across the country. It’s nice to see a rebound from the pandemic that halted theater, then delayed its reboot with those pesky variants.

The presentations offer food for thought, an opportunity to see something thought-provoking and watch local performers shine, but best of all, support new work.

Backer, Paradise. Photo by Patrick Huber

St. Louis Actors’ Studio presents the ninth annual LaBute New Theater Festival July 7 to 9, July 13-16, and July 20-23, with performances at 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and at 3 p.m. on Sundays at The Gaslight Theater on North Boyle in the Central West End. For more information: www.stlas.org

By Lynn Venhaus
Known mostly in offbeat roles, versatile actors Colleen Backer and Jason Meyers are a dynamic duo in the irresistible romantic comedy “Outside Mullingar” at the West End Players Guild.

They shine as neighbors – 40-ish singles who are not mingling, and desperation about time passing by is creeping into their humdrum lives. Clearly, they are meant to be together, but their stars have been crossed by shyness, insecurities, grudges, stubbornness, misperceptions, their peculiar families, and past heartbreak.

Only children, they have lived their whole lives on adjacent family farms outside Mullingar, County Westmeath, in Ireland — with a pesky land dispute issue — and cared for elderly parents until they passed. Later, on their own, you’d think there would be an easier path to true love. But when you meet feisty Rosemary Muldoon and gentle, introverted Anthony Reilly, you will find out why it’s been a rocky road.

This confection is from acclaimed writer John Patrick Shanley, an Oscar winner for his original 1987 screenplay “Moonstruck” and a Tony winner for “Doubt: A Parable” in 2005, which also won a Pulitzer Prize. In 2014, he was nominated for another Tony Award for Best Play for this laugh-out-loud rom-com produced by the Manhattan Theatre Club that is also poignant and redolent with local color.

His lilting dialogue has a delightful rhythm to it, and the four-person cast is nimble in delivery, especially with the quirky cultural colloquialisms and customs. Shanley expresses his love for the land, and what makes Ireland so special, too, which is n interesting addition.

This is Shanley’s second play to be adapted into a movie, which came out as “Wild Mountain Thyme” in 2020 with Jamie Dornan, Emily Blunt and Christopher Walken, and cast Jon Hamm as the American cousin Adam, although in the play, you never see Adam, just hear about him. The film is available to stream on Hulu.

Jodi Stockton and Brad Slavik are well-suited to play Rosemary’s plucky widowed mother Aoife and Anthony’s gruff ailing father Tony with droll wit and pragmatic wisdom –while not exactly guiding their children in the most encouraging ways. Oh, those Irish squabbles that never seem to fade from memory.

Jodi Stockton, Colleen Backer and Brad Slavik. Photo by John Lamb

In this distinctive Shanley scenario, the women seem to be stronger in lessons learned from life than the men do – and aren’t afraid to admonish them about it. Recognize your own family members? They may be a tad stereotypical, but they resonate.

The snappy repartee is one of the most fun aspects of this beguiling show – the parent and child scenes as well as the ones with a feisty Rosemary and a testy Anthony. She is often antagonistic, and he is frequently defensive, so sparks fly in a genuine way – and they convey the more complicated suppressed yearning and desires.

Backer and Meyer aren’t usually cast in “regular people’ roles, often unconventional – and good at it, as they are both current St Louis Theater Circle Award nominees for comedic work last year. But with abundant zeal, they are very sweet together as this couple finding their way. In fact, it would be swell if they were cast together again.

The almost sold-out audience on Feb. 17 was rooting for them – you could hear a few cheers, shouts, and whoops.

WEPG has produced other engaging Irish plays before – “The Lonesome West” last year and “Bloomsday” by Steven Dietz the year prior, and it’s a good fit, with their modest stage and intimate setting.

But perhaps none more adorable. Director Jessa Knust, with assistance from Karen Pierce, recognized the humor in the idiosyncratic characters, and ensures they are endearing, even when they are arguing.

And they stage the “Will they or won’t they?” framework with cleverness and sharp moves by swift Backer and Meyers, who are terrific at physical comedy.

Morgan Maul-Smith’s sound design is strong, and enhanced by Celtic music and pop hits by the Irish band The Corrs that entertains before, in bumps and after this spirited 90-minute show without an intermission. And the cast nailed the dialects perfectly the night I was there.

The artisan designers did fine work – Tracey Newcomb on costumes, Jacob Winslow on set, Karen Pierce on lighting, and Knust on props.

Timed to be a Valentine’s treat, “Outside Mullinger” is a marvelously performed hopeful tale about affairs of the heart that is not ordinary at all, and all the more delightful because of its daffy characters and Irish warmth.

As Irish novelist James Stephens once said: “What the heart knows today the head will understand tomorrow.”

West End Players Guild presents “Outside Mullingar” from Feb. 10 to Feb. 19, with performances Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., Thursday Feb. 16 at 8 p.m., and Sundays Feb. 12 and Feb. 19 at 2 p.m. at Union Avenue Christian Church, 733 Union Boulevard in the Central West End. Tickets for all performances of “Outside Mullingar” are on sale at www.WestEndPlayers.org/tickets or at the box office before the show.

Jodi Stockton and Brad Slavik. Photo by John Lamb

:September 2021 will mark the restart of St. Louis Actors’ Studio’s Fourteenth season themed “The Lost Episodes”.The world is finally returning to normalcy and with that, STLAS is excited to get back at it. Producing word-class, thought-provoking entertainment at our intimate Gaslight Theater. We cannot wait to see you in the fall! Season subscriptions are the best way to experience St. Louis Actors’ Studio–you get a discount and no-hassle ticket exchanges and reserved seat signage. Let’s come back strong – get a group together this season and make a year of it!Our 2021-22 season, “The Lost Episodes.”

“The Zoo Story/The Dumb Waiter”
by Edward Albee/Harold Pinter
Directed by Wayne Salomon, Starring William Roth*
September 17 – October 3, 2021

Classic early one act plays by two giants of the theatre.  Edward Albee and Harold Pinter.
THE ZOO STORY – A man sits peacefully reading in the sunlight in Central Park. There enters a second man. He is a young, unkempt and undisciplined vagrant where the first is neat, ordered, well-to-do and conventional. The vagrant is a soul in torture and rebellion. He longs to communicate so fiercely that he frightens and repels his listener. He is a man drained of all hope who, in his passion for company, seeks to drain his companion. With provocative humor and unrelenting suspense, the young savage slowly, but relentlessly, brings his victim down to his own atavistic level as he relates a story about his visit to the zoo.

“Edward Albee is a voice unparalleled in American theater.” —NY Times.
“The dialogue crackles and the tension runs high.” —Associated Press.
“Darkly comic and thrilling.” —Time Out NY

THE DUMB WAITER: As the New York World-Telegram & Sun describes: “In the basement of a long-abandoned restaurant, two hired killers nervously await their next assignment. Barred from daylight and living public contact by the nature of their work, they expend their waiting time in bickering. So eerie is the situation that everything becomes comic, or grotesque, or both. Ben re-reading a newspaper and exclaiming in disbelief over the news items, Gus fussing with an offstage stove and offstage plumbing. Ben bludgeoning Gus into silence if he as much as mentions their work. Gus worrying that someone had slept in his bed. So then the ancient dumbwaiter comes to life, the suspense becomes almost unbearable—that expertly has Pinter put the nerves of his characters and audience on edge.

“A distinguished gift for sheer, old-fashioned theatrical effectiveness, including the use of melodramatic suspense and the hint of sinister forces lying in ambush.” —NY Post Statesman

“Comfort”
By Neil LaBute
Directed by Associate Artistic Director, Annamaria Pileggi,

Starring Kari Ely* and Spencer Sickmann*
December 3 – December 19, 2021

A new play by STLAS friend and associate Neil LaBute in which a successful author and her son meet after some time apart and revisit their troubled relationship. What’s at stake? Whether or not the instinctive bond between mother and child can survive not just the past, but also two new book deals.

“Mr. LaBute is writing some of the freshest and most illuminating American dialogue to be heard anywhere these days.” —NY Times.

“No contemporary writer has more astutely captured the brutality in everyday conversation and behavior: That kind of insight requires sensitivity and soul-searching.” —USA Today
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“It is tight, tense and emotionally true, and it portrays characters who actually seem part of the world that the rest of us live in.” —Time.

“Hand To God” by Robert Askins
Directed by Associate Artistic Director, John Pierson

Starring Eric Dean White* and Colleen Backer
February 18- March 6, 2022

After the death of his father, meek Jason finds an outlet for his anxiety at the Christian Puppet Ministry, in the devoutly religious, relatively quiet small town of Cypress, Texas. Jason’s complicated relationships with the town pastor, the school bully, the girl next door, and—most especially—his mother are thrown into upheaval when Jason’s puppet, Tyrone, takes on a shocking and dangerously irreverent personality all its own. HAND TO GOD explores the startlingly fragile nature of faith, morality, and the ties that bind us.

“The fearsome critter [Tyrone], who takes possession of a troubled teenager’s left arm in Robert Askins’ darkly delightful play really inspires goose bumps as he unleashes a reign of terror…But he’s also flat-out hilarious, spewing forth acid comedy that will turn those goose bumps into guffaws.” —The New York Times.

“Furiously funny…Askins’ most impressive talent is his ability to make us laugh while juggling those big themes that make life so terrifying: death, depression, alcoholism, sexual guilt, emotional repression, religious hypocrisy and the eternal battle between your good puppet and your bad puppet.” —Variety.

“A scabrously funny scenario that steadily darkens into suspense and Grand Guignol horror, this fiery clash of the id, ego and superego is also an audacious commentary on the uses of faith, both to comfort and control us.” —The Hollywood Reporter.

“I don’t know which I want to do more: Sing Hallelujah—or wash its dirty little mouth out with soap. …Clearly a singular vision is at work here, with playwright Robert Askins venturing successfully into territory—satire—rich with potholes.” —Deadline.

“HAND TO GOD is so ridiculously raunchy, irreverent and funny it’s bound to leave you sore from laughing. Ah, hurts so good.” —New York Daily News.

9th Annual LaBute New Theater Festival
July 8-31, 2022
A Celebrated month-long festival of world premiere one-act plays.

*Member Actors’ Equity Association


Click Here to download the order form! 

The Gaslight Theater is still closed due to the pandemic, but St. Louis Actors’ Studio will be presenting a free Zoom play by Hanna Kime, She is a John Burroughs graduate and currently resides in Chicago as a playwright. The play is called “Now More Than Ever” and will be screened for three nights only March 18-20 at 8 pm.

It is free to watch the live stream event, but you must register here: What’s On Stage | St. Louis Actors Studio (stlas.org). Donations are encouraged.

It is roughly a 45-60 minute one act directed by Annamaria Pileggi and starring: Colleen Backer, Jens Tulio, William Humphrey, Phil Leveling and Ebby Offord. Stage manager is Amy Paige.

Premise of the play: After the coronavirus crisis forces a major regional theatre to go remote and lay off half their staff, their remaining box office associates must attend an emergency Zoom training session from marketing on how to cold call patrons to solicit donations while promoting the theatre’s thrilling new slate of online content.

Her recent works include THE TARGETED (2020 O’Neill Finalist, 2021 BAPF Semifinalist, Selected for Broken Nose’s “Off/Nights” Development Series), THE BEST DAMN THING (2021 O’Neill Semifinalist, Selected for the Up: Renewal Reading Series), and DROP (Produced through Side Street Studio Art’s Going Dutch Festival).


She has been fortunate enough to develop her full-length works with Jackalope Theatre Company, Sideshow Theatre Company, The New Colony, Broken Nose Theatre, and First Floor Theater, where she currently serves as Literary Manager. She is a member of the Wampus Cat Collective. She graduated from the University of Chicago in 2018 with degrees in English and Gender and Sexuality Studies.