Interview: Cast and Crew of THE NORTH PLAN Talk Swearing, Spying, and Skynyrd

Tomorrow night, Street Corner Artists, one of Austin's newest theater companies, will close their production of the hilarious new comedy, The North Plan.

The North Plan tells the story of Carlton Berg, a bureaucrat for the U.S. State Department, who runs off with the top secret enemies list of a ruthless faction that has seized power in Washington creating a state of martial law. Unfortunately for Carlton, the chase has come to an end in a police station in the Ozarks town of Lodus, Missouri. With a pair of Department of Homeland Security agents on the way, Carlton's last hope arrives in the form of fellow prisoner Tanya Shepke, a motor-mouthed redneck who's turned herself in for drunk driving and has a penchant for raising hell.

BroadwayWorld had the pleasure of speaking with Artistic Director Benjamin Summers and cast members Joe Penrod and Indigo Rael about their latest production...

BWW: How would you describe The North Plan?

Benjamin Summers: It's kind of a mishmash of a lot of different things. There's definitely some kind of darker elements to it that are very relevant regarding the Government and the ways in which the Government spies on us. That's at the heart of the play, and I think that's one of the things that drew us to it. One of the things that we really loved about it is that it kind of takes that as its heart, and then it explodes from there. It has this farcical, slapsticky tone at times. It kind of fluctuates between this really funny comedy, and then you stop laughing for a second and you think, "Wait. I'm not sure that's quite as funny"--

Joe Penrod: --"Or whether I should be laughing at that." There's that dark, sinister quality, but then at the same time its got so much humor. It takes place in a time when Martial Law has been declared in the United States, the Government is in chaos, there's a guy on the run who has a secret database and a couple of Homeland Security agents are trying to track him down before that database can be made public.

BWW: Interesting. And of course the whole idea of the Government spying on people is a timely topic right now.

Benjamin Summers: That was one of the things that was so wonderfully ironic. We did the first reading of the script about a year and a half ago and were trying to figure out how to make this work, and then in the last year and a half there's been a lot of spying stuff coming out about the U.S. The character that Rommel [Sulit] plays is very Edward Snowden-esque. I wish that we could say that we had a crystal ball, but we had no idea that all that was going to go down.

BWW: Well it's certainly great timing. So I read up on the playwright, Jason Wells, and I know this is the second time you've done a production of one of his works, the first one being Men of Tortuga.

Benjamin Summers: That was our first show as a company. We launched with that. In fact, we weren't even a fully-fledged company at that point. Rommel and I were sipping whiskey at a wedding reception. I spent five years doing theater in Chicago and he's from Chicago, and we started talking about how much we loved this Chicago style theater if there is such a thing. You know, that kind of blue collar, dialogue heavy, rhythmic, character-based theater. And Rommel said that he had seen Men of Tortuga when he was back visiting his family a few years before that, and it kind of just went from there. We decided to give it a shot, and it went well, and we said, "I guess we should form a company and keep on doing this."

Joe Penrod: And in that production, A. Skola Summers directed, Benjamin was in it, Rommel was in it, I was in it, Gary Peters was in it, so we have a number of actors back again for The North Plan. We struck up an e-mail relationship with Jason Wells when we were doing Tortuga, and Tortuga was such a success that I think it was Rommel who e-mailed Jason and said, "This is going really well. What else do you have?" and the next thing we know, we've received a manuscript of, at that time, the unpublished The North Plan.

Benjamin Summers: We received an early version of it. At that time, it was still being workshopped in Chicago. We loved it, and just went from there. And Jason actually found out through his agent that we we're doing The North Plan now and we've called him and he's given us pep talks to get us ready for this.

BWW: What about Jason's style is so compelling to you and to audiences?

Benjamin Summers: One of the things that I love so much about it is the way in which he uses words. Everything is very, very specific. It all fits together like a puzzle, and he writes a lot of dialogue that overlaps. It's very fast-paced and it sounds like people talking. It doesn't sound like a script.

Joe Penrod: That's the thing. When you look at it on the page, it looks complicated, and if you read it by yourself, it sometimes doesn't make a whole lot of sense. But once you have characters all reading those lines and observing the directions he gives about overlap, it simply comes to life. It's exactly as Benjamin said. It's the way people talk. The interesting thing about his specificity about the overlaps is that when you get it right, the right words come out. Instead of this cacophony of sound, the audience still hears what they really need to hear while other stuff is going on.

BWW: How do the two shows compare? Are there any similarities or differences between the shows?

Benjamin Summers: Well, they're similar, but they are very different at times. The thing that I thought of is that Men of Tortuga had a tension to it that almost imploded by the end of the show. But with this one, there are similar themes about power struggles and the Government and this future that is uncertain and a little scary. But with this one, it sort of explodes and then just goes chaotic from there.

BWW: You said a lot of the people who worked on Men of Tortuga are involved with this show as well. What is it like to bring everyone back?

Joe Penrod: For me, I moved away from Austin a year ago, but we were already planning to do this production, and when I talked to A. Skola and Benjamin about my impending move, they said, "If at all possible, we'd like you to come back and do the show." And my desire was to come back to Austin occasionally and do theater, so that worked out very well. The interesting thing is that when we did Tortuga, it was a challenge to learn this style. But we're accustomed to Jason's style now, so for those of us who have done one of his shows before, we fell right into it. It felt like we started at a higher level.

Benjamin Summers: The exciting thing is that we did bring in some new folks, Indigo Rael being one of them. Indigo is new to Jason's dialogue, so she could probably give you some insight into what it's like to work with his dialogue as a newcomer.

Indigo Rael: Luckily for me, my character isn't a great listener. I'm typically talking over everyone else. But yeah, Jason uses a lot of "you knows"-

Benjamin Summers: And swear words.

Indigo Rael: Yeah, in rehearsal I'd be like, "Is there a 'f***ing' before this?"

BWW: It's got to be challenging when someone does write dialogue that is so accurate in terms of how we speak because there are so many filler words and nuances in how we talk that's not normally put on stage.

Indigo Rael: Exactly.

Benjamin Summers: Jason's really a genius in terms of writing laughs that aren't set-up/punch-line jokes. They sound naturalistic, and when you read them on the page, sometimes you don't realize it's a joke until you get it up on its feet, and then it's incredibly funny. With Men of Tortuga, we were discovering new jokes the entire run of the show. That was one of the things we were so excited by. It did not stop opening night. It really just kept growing. I bet we could have done that show for another month or two and still found new things in it.

BWW: So Joe and Indigo, do you want to explain your characters and how they fit into the show?

Indigo Rael: Sure. My character is Tanya Shepke, and while this show kind of has a liberal perspective, my character does not. She sort of becomes an unlikely hero of the show with her conservative viewpoints.

Joe Penrod: My character is Dave Pitman, and he's a Department of Homeland Security agent, one of two that's been sent from Washington to try to track down this fellow who's run off with this database that we've got to get back. So I'm not of the liberal persuasion, either.

BWW: I noticed on the website that there's a lot about the Lynyrd Skynyrd soundtrack. How does that fit into the show?

Indigo Rael: That has to do with my character. She suggests that whenever the Government makes new money, that, well "The founding motherf***ers can kiss my ass. You should put Skynyrd on that." [Laughs] She's got some ideas about how she would run the country.

Benjamin Summers: This is a woman who, after all, turned herself in for a DUI. That's how the play begins-

Joe Penrod: The morning after she drove the vehicle.

Indigo Rael: One of her lines is, "I turn myself in. I'm obligated by law to report a crime if I see it, right?" That's something we realized later that's a part of this world. After Martial Law is declared and you're obligated to report a crime, she interprets that quite literally.

Benjamin Summers: That's kind of one of the sweet things about her. She's one of the more honest characters in the story.

Indigo Rael: Oh yeah! I'll tell you exactly what I'm f***ing thinking.

BWW: Well this sounds like a lot of fun. Is there anything else that any of you would like to share about The North Plan?

Indigo Rael: It's such a treat to work with these actors and be a part of their family. The rehearsal process is so easy when you're working with professionals. And I'm happy to find my typecast as the bad-ass chick. Give me more strong "f*** you" characters.

Benjamin Summers: Echoing what Indigo said, this is the first full year of productions for Street Corner Artists, and we really are trying to create a family of artists that has fun together. My perspective is you can always tell when the actors are having fun, and we don't get paid enough to not have a good time. It seems like everyone in the show is having a good time, and I know that will come across to the audience.

Joe Penrod: Mission accomplished.

THE NORTH PLAN, produced by Street Corner Artists, plays its final performance tomorrow night, Saturday 12/21, at 8pm. Performances are at Hyde Park Theatre at 511 W. 43rd St, Austin, 78751. Tickets are $20. For tickets and information, visit www.streetcornerartists.org.

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