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class=headline1>Comedy at Actors’ <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Summit</st1:place></st1:City>; bio-musical at Beck </SPAN><SPAN
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<DIV class=content style="MARGIN: auto 0in"><FONT size=3>Reviewed by: FRAN
HELLER Contributing Writer<BR><BR>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’ <st1:City
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Summit</st1:place></st1:City> through Sept. 30.
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=content1><FONT size=3>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.</FONT></SPAN><SPAN
style="COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><BR><BR><FONT size=3><SPAN
class=content1>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.)</SPAN><BR><BR><SPAN class=content1>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.</SPAN> <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></DIV>
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<DIV><SPAN class=content1><FONT size=3>Each coach in “Rounding Thirdâ€
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.</FONT></SPAN><SPAN
style="COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><BR><BR><FONT size=3><SPAN
class=content1>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.</SPAN><BR><BR><SPAN
class=content1>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.â€</SPAN><BR><BR><SPAN class=content1>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.</SPAN><BR><BR><SPAN class=content1>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.</SPAN> <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></DIV>
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class=content1><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">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 “rockâ€
musical interludes and Cory Molner’s anemic lighting, which lacks sufficient
differentiation between bleachers and playing field.</SPAN></SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA"><BR><BR></SPAN><SPAN
class=content1><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">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.</SPAN></SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA"><BR><BR></SPAN><SPAN
class=content1><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">More
than a play about baseball, “Rounding Third†is about raising children in a
ruthlessly competitive culture, obsessed with success.</SPAN></SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA"><BR
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