 Sally Cohn
ACTORS TIM RYAN (LEFT) AND JOHN M. JACKSON
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Growing up, my two brothers and I spent our share of time playing ball. Richard, who is four years younger than me, in particular takes his baseball seriously, especially as a Red Sox fan living on the edge of New York City. When a coaching vacancy opened up on his son's team, he jumped at the chance.
As Richard learned, and as he expresses in the play Rounding Third, which opens next week at the Vineyard Playhouse, "It's about how the adults treat the kids on the team and each other."
The play is a story of sand lot baseball, where it began for many of us. It celebrates the thrill of a long drive to centerfield, daring base-running and the agony of a strikeout. But it also examines larger themes, among them the age-old conflict in sports between virtue in the conduct of the game and winning at all costs.
The play is directed by M.J. Bruder Munafo. It opens in previews Wednesday, July 27, and then has its formal run from Friday, July 29, through August 13.
Richard has been a playwright for nearly 30 years. His television credits include the Life and Times of Molly Dodd, Bakersfield PD, Madigan Men and The Job with Denis Leary. A few of his plays are Something in the Air, Gun-Shy, The Downside, Better Days, Below the Belt and Good Vibrations, the Beach Boys musical which recently played on Broadway.
Inspiration for Rounding Third arrived in the most mundane manner. As Richard tells it, his son Sam, 9, came home from little league practice one afternoon and announced the team strategy for the playoffs.
When certain kids were on base, the coach would give a signal indicating that when the kid got to the next base, he should slide and pretend to be injured. That way, a faster runner could be brought in," he recalled.
"Sam asked the coach, 'Isn't that cheating?' And the coach responded, 'No, Sam, that's called strategy.' Naturally, I was horrified. But I also saw a very clear way into a story about what we teach our children about competition."
The story evolves through the delights and despairs in a season of little league baseball. The audience assumes the role of the team, in that all the pre-game speeches and post-game analyses are spoken directly to them.
The way the lines are delivered can bring a squirm or a twitch from the audience. Do we really talk to our children that way?
The play also explores the relationship between the team manager and his assistant.
"The play only has two characters because I wanted to focus on the unfolding story of the two mismatched coaches attempting to get along," Richard said. "Don, a veteran win-at-all-costs coach, is teamed with Michael, a newcomer who believes that the kids should just have fun. They clash over their philosophies and almost everything else, with the audience standing in for the team, which is caught in the middle."
John M. Jackson assumes the role of Don. Mr. Jackson played an admiral on the television show JAG - and he knows baseball; he has been a coach for 15 years. The role of Michael is played by Tim Ryan, who has numerous television experience and has appeared twice at the Vineyard Playhouse.
"We're discovering a lot of little things about the relationship between the two men and their children," said Ms. Munafo, who feels the play deals with the ethics of little league.
Rounding Third opened in Chicago in 2003 and soon after ran off-Broadway in New York City. Productions also were staged in San Diego, Calif., and in Worcester and Lowell. It received national exposure recently when CNN filmed a feature on competition in kids' sports.
"I think part of its appeal is that it deals with an issue that is very much in the air. We put so much pressure on children to succeed, whether it be athletically or academically, that there has to be a cost," Richard said.
"It seems to strike a chord. Virtually everyone grows up either playing or watching the game," he added. "And everyone has had the tough-guy coach or gym teacher like Don."
Ticket cost ranges from $20 to $35. Seventeen productions are scheduled over the next two weeks, including double-headers on Thursdays with shows at 4 and 8 p.m. Curtain is also at 8 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, and at 7 p.m. on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Call the Vineyard Playhouse at 508-696-6300 to reserve your box seats for the most engaging game in town.