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Play set in Youngstown to get local premiere
By GUY D’ASTOLFO
YOUNGSTOWN
“Harry’s Friendly Service” finally will be produced in the city where it takes place.
The play is set in Youngstown in 1977, a time when the collapse of the steel mills had begun and life as we knew it was changing. It will be produced at the Youngstown Playhouse in March 2017.
The comic drama is set in a gas station in downtown Youngstown, where an eclectic group of friends congregate.
Written by Boardman native and Pittsburgh resident Rob Zellers, the play got its world premiere in 2009 at the O’Reilly Theater in Pittsburgh, a production of Pittsburgh Public Theater.
The Youngstown Playhouse run will be only the second time “Harry’s” is presented.
The Playhouse’s 2016-17 season has the theme “Telling Our Stories,” a reflection of its effort to present locally written material and to revisit works that were originally created for the local theater.
The 2016-17 season includes other plays written by local playwrights.
“Nativity” is an original musical retelling of the Gospel of St. Mark created by Youngstown’s Karen Clark-Green, Mark T. Jackson and Lauren Spurlock. “Nativity” will be on stage in December.
Then, in February 2017, two new one-act plays by Bernie Appugliese, who is also the operations manager of the venue, will be staged.
Appugliese was impressed with “Harry’s Friendly Service” and Zellers.
“I love the script and I love the author,” he said. “[Zellers] has a wonderful and real voice, and everyone will immediately know and love his characters. Of course he should premiere his plays in Youngstown, as he loves this city and its stories. The Youngstown Playhouse is thrilled that he is entrusting us with this and future projects.”
Appugliese said the Playhouse is striving to become an exporter of new works, and not just an importer. “We have exciting and beautiful stories to share with the rest of the world,” he said.
Zellers has written a handful of plays set in Youngstown. Another of his works – “Mr. Wheeler’s” – also might be produced at Youngstown State University Theater. Professor Matthew Mazuroski of YSU’s theater department said he is interested in doing the play, which is set in a fading fast-food takeout place on the city’s South Side in the present day.
Mazuroski also will direct “Harry’s Friendly Service” at the Playhouse.
“[Mazuroski] reached out to me after he read an article in The Vindicator about another play I am writing, ‘Smoky Hollow,’” said Zellers. “I went to YSU to meet with him, and talk turned to ‘Harry’s Friendly Service.’”
Zellers explained that “Smoky Hollow” is not ready yet, so Mazuroski expressed interest in “Harry’s” and “Mr. Wheeler’s.” That meeting set the wheels in motion that led to getting “Harry’s” on the 2016-17 Playhouse schedule.
“This is a perfect time to look back on that era from this perch in 2016,” said Zellers, referring to the uncertainty of the 1970s.
“[Youngstown] had a personality and a voice at that time,” Zellers continued. “Did we lose it? It’s my job to ask.”
Mazuroski also was impressed with Zellers’ work.
“I fell in love with the characters,” he said of “Harry’s,” adding, “[Zellers] has a very clear voice. And I am fascinated by the idea of doing plays about the community in which they are being produced.”
It’s too early to know if “Mr. Wheeler’s” will be added to the YSU Theater schedule, but it’s being considered for the fall of 2017, said Mazurosky.
“I would love to be able to do it at YSU,” he said. “It would be a world premiere by a Youngstown playwright, and here in Youngstown. Plus, the characters are in their early 20s [similar to YSU students], and they are trying to figure out if they should stay here or if they can afford to leave. They are feeling stuck because of family connections and economic conditions, and it’s a feeling that a lot of our students deal with.”