Prepare yourself for an excess of kissing and laughter as the Hippodrome Theatre and UF School of Theatre + Dance present a romantic comedy by Sarah Ruhl.
There’s plenty of chemistry going on during the production of Stage Kiss, which kicks off the 44th season of the Hippodrome Theatre this week in downtown Gainesville.
The steamy story by Sarah Ruhl involves two actors who rekindle a torrid love affair after discovering they’ve been cast as lovers in a new play. What follows is a two-hour smooch-fest sprinkled with witty dialogue and topped with a poignant message that should leave audiences feeling warm and fuzzy.
But the most impressive chemistry is not between the actors, but rather between the Hippodrome and the UF School of Theatre + Dance. For the fourth year in a row, the two Gainesville institutions are partnering their resources to present a production the entire community can fully embrace. (But not that way!)
“The annual co-production formalizes what has long been a strong relationship between the two,” said Tim Altmeyer, the UF acting professor directing Stage Kiss. “In the words of Beyonce, they put a ring on it —and it’s a mutually beneficial marriage!”
Stage Kiss will have previews tonight and Thursday night leading up to Friday’s Opening Night performance. There will be eight performances a week through Sept. 25 at the Hippodrome Theatre, 25 SE 2nd Place.
Stage Kiss stars Hippodrome Acting Company members Stephanie Lynge and David Patrick Ford as the play’s reunited lovers and as the characters Ada Wilcox and Johnny Lowell, respectfully, in the play within a play. If the pairing sounds familiar it’s because Lynge and Ford also starred as love interests last year in the Hippodrome’s original production The Snow Queen.
During Stage Kiss, the actors lock lips so often that you expect someone in the audience to shout “Get a room!”
“We totally trust each other and we’re completely comfortable together,” Ford said. “We want you as the audience to look at that chemistry and feel it for yourself. That’s what acting is all about.”
Lynge said she once performed in William Inge’s romance-filled drama Picnic.
“That play had an awful lot of smooching going on, but not this much,” she said, referring to Stage Kiss.
Another Hippodrome veteran, Gregg Jones, plays the role of director in Stage Kiss. His part is so casual yet convincing that when he barks out stage directions, you feel as though you are eavesdropping on a rehearsal for the play within a play (which is cleverly titled Last Kiss).
The remainder of the seven-person cast consists of UF theater students Michael Krek, Summer Pliskow, Andrew Quimby and Brittney Caldwell, each with multiple roles that they execute like pros. After all, the Hippodrome is a professional theater.
“This is such an amazing opportunity!” said Pliskow, a 20-year-old junior from West Palm Beach. “As a student, you’re still in the learning process and trying to figure out your own process of acting. It’s been really great observing Equity actors and their process and to learn from what they do.”
Pliskow previously performed on the Hippodrome mainstage in A Christmas Carol as Fred’s wife. She is even more familiar with her director in Stage Kiss. Pliskow had Altmeyer as her professor last year in Acting III and Acting IV at UF.
“I had him all of last year for classes,” she said. “I loved him. He’s a lot of fun.”
Quimby, a 21-year-old UF senior, also will be making his second Hippodrome appearance. He appeared as Slank in Peter and the Starcatcher, which was last season’s collaboration between the Hippodrome and UF. He’s also been directed by Altmeyer once before, in the UF production of By the Way, Meet Vera Stark.
He is enjoying performing in a play set in the world of theater. Much of the first act takes place during a rehearsal that goes horribly wrong.
“Everything the actors do onstage is so accurate as to how rehearsals go in real life,” Quimby said. “That’s where a lot of the comedy comes from. It takes actual situations that actors are really in and enhances them and heightens them.”
Altmeyer is hardly a newcomer to the Hippodrome. He has performed in more than a dozen productions there, beginning with The Illusion in 1995 and most recently in Venus in Fur in 2012. He previously directed Other Desert Cities, also in 2012.
He sees the partnership between UF and the Hippodrome as a win-win situation.
“Beyond shouldering the financial burdens of the production, this collaboration allows UF students the opportunity to work with and learn from professionals in the discipline,” he said. “And the Hippodrome is given access to a wealth of physical and creative resources that UF and its students and faculty bring to the table.
“In short, this co-production is a merger of some of the region’s strongest theatrical talent.”
Dr. Jerry Dickey, director of the UF School of Theatre + Dance, dropped by a rehearsal for Stage Kiss last week and was impressed.
“We’re just pleased to have this partnership as a way for our students to get their professional feet wet in a company that is so welcoming and embracing and nurturing,” he said.
More than 270 students are enrolled in the UF School of Theatre + Dance, including 30 graduate students in acting and various areas of design. Having a professional theater company such as the Hippodrome just a mile from the UF campus brings with it some perks.
“It’s a natural fit for us to place our students here in a place where we know they’re going to get instruction, be challenged
as artists and produce a really high quality of art,” Dickey said. “We’re thrilled about it!”
Added Altmeyer: “I’m very encouraged by their prospects. Our students think and act like professionals, and they look very much at home at the grownups’ table.”
Meanwhile, UF student Amanda Moore, a second-year MFA candidate, is the costume designer for Stage Kiss. The play’s scenic designer is Mihai Ciupe, a UF associate professor in scene design.
On the surface, Stage Kiss is a love story that uses the theater as its backdrop. A little deeper, and Stage Kiss becomes an examination of what’s involved in developing meaningful relationships.
“Stage Kiss is a two-act examination of love,” Altmeyer said. “The first act is this silly farce about the staging of love in the imagination. The second act is a slightly more serious exploration of the hard work of trying to love someone in real life.”
OK, but what about all that kissing?
“Well, the name of the play is Stage Kiss — it’s called truth in advertising!” he said. “If the play is an examination of love, the kiss is the method by which the examination is conducted. Its constant dissection and interpretation in the play makes us aware of the fact that, in life, every kiss is a performance and that we are constantly, unconsciously, staging them to suit the ‘scenes’ in which we daily live.”
When it comes to Lynge and Ford sharing ample “face time” throughout Stage Kiss, their director doesn’t pay them lip service.
— Noel Leroux
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Stage Kiss
Hippodrome Theatre
25 SE 2nd Place
Gainesville, FL 32601Box office: 352.375.4477
Eight performances a week through Sept. 25
To purchase tickets and for further info, visit the Hipp website.
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