[NEohioPAL] ROUNDING THIRD Review "to savor" in the Cleveland Jewish News -- Actors' Summit

[Thackaberr at aol.com]

Comedy at Actors’ Summit; bio-musical at Beck 
 
 
Reviewed by: FRAN  HELLER Contributing Writer

In Richard Dresser’s two-person comedy  “Rounding Third,” the name of 
the game is baseball … for the 10-year-old  set, also known as Little 
League. It’s at Actors’ Summit through Sept. 30. 
Winning at all costs, espoused by  competitive coach Don (Keith E. Stevens), 
or just having fun, preached by  nurturing assistant coach Michael (Daniel 
Taylor), are the two polarities in  this lighthearted comedy. In the course of 
the play, each dad will discover  himself in the other. The play’s strength 
lies in its evenhanded approach to  both philosophies.

With its short, snappy scenes, breezy one-liners, and  stereotypical 
characters n one a macho meathead, the other an effeminate nerd n  the play has all 
the elements of a sitcom. (Dresser writes for television as  well as the stage.)

But like all good comedy,  there’s an undertow of dead seriousness. As for 
relevance, one only has to  pick up sports pages to see examples of “
winning at all costs,” whether  it’s alleged steroid use by home-run hero 
Barry Bonds or Patriots’ football  coach Bill Belichick’s illegal 
sanctioning of videotaping the opposing  team’s strategy. 
 
 
Each coach in “Rounding Third”  represents opposite ends of the 
socio-economic spectrum. Don is an uneducated  housepainter; Michael, a stressed-out 
corporate man trying to spend some  “quality time” with his son, a klutz 
who has never played baseball  before.

Moments funny and sweet are there to savor. Both men are lonely:  Don’s 
marriage is souring; Michael’s wife has died. Like an odd couple, the  men 
reach out to one another in uneasy alliance, with little in common other  than 
wanting what’s best for their sons.

One of the pivotal speeches is at the close of Act I. For  workingman Don, 
Michael’s “feel-good” world is not the real one. “In the  real world, 
everything’s hard. Jobs are hard, money’s hard, being alone’s  hard, 
being with someone else is impossible. Ever notice who the happy people  are? 
Winners. Everyone else is 30 seconds away from blowing their brains out.  You 
want to give these kids something? Make ’em  winners.”

Despite Don’s roughhouse  bravado, he’s a great coach and really cares 
for the boys on his team. Michael  discovers that underneath his laissez-faire 
attitude, he wants his son to  succeed at baseball.

Stevens and Taylor are  both first-rate. Under Constance Thackaberry’s 
unwavering direction, the duo  play off each other and interface with the 
audience (as the unseen sons and  their parents) with equal comedic skill. Michael’
s slouch and meek behavior  serve as a perfect foil to Don’s steely glare, 
cowboy swagger (he’s always  hitching up his pants), and blunt speech. 
 
 
I  would have liked a more substantive set beyond the modest suggestion of  
chain-link fencing and a singular bench. The same goes for the “rock”  
musical interludes and Cory Molner’s anemic lighting, which lacks sufficient  
differentiation between bleachers and playing field.

Dresser  was inspired to write his play by a real-life incident with his own 
son’s  Little League team. In teaching the kids “strategy,” the coach 
was, in fact,  teaching them to cheat. (Dresser uses this same incident in his 
play.) When  Dresser became a coach, he discovered he wasn’t much 
different from Don in  wanting his team to win.

More  than a play about baseball, “Rounding Third” is about raising 
children in a  ruthlessly competitive culture, obsessed with success.




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