‘Southern-fried’ style comedy opens Feb. 3
Published in the February 1 – 14, 2017 issue of Morgan Hill Life
By Staff Report
The Pintello Comedy Theater will open “Farce of Habit,” its second world-premiere show, Feb. 3. It’s a Southern-fried comedy sequel to their first premiere, “Farce of Nature,” in 2014. The new show features actors playing the wacky Wilmore family at the Gilroy-based playhouse.
Both plays were written by the trio of playwrights Jessie Jones, Nicholas Hope and Jamie Wooten who will attend the opening night Feb. 3.
The play will run for four more weekends, Friday and Saturday evenings through Feb. 25, with one Sunday matinee on Feb. 12. The performers are Derek Barnes, Barbara Bottini, Angela Doss Santiago, Dena Gregory, Maureen Haney, Jim McCann, April Ouellette, Jeff Patereau and Kel Whisner. The play is directed by Marion Pintello.
Morgan Hill Life asked the three playwrights about their latest farce and why they encourage South Valley residents to have a night of hilarity with the Pintello Comedy Theater.
Describe the comedy playwright team of JonesHopeWooten and what makes your comedy play experiences different for audiences than other playwrights’ productions.
Jones: We have to tell you how outrageously happy we are to have another premiere here at this wonderful theater and to get to work with Marion and Rod and Whitney and Charley and Simon again. We just can’t get enough of those Pintellos. Nicholas, Jamie and I have been writing together for more than 15 years. We started writing strictly for theater 11 years ago and we only write comedies. We try to make our plays full of wit and good humor and provide our audiences a chance to leave their troubles behind and enjoy a couple of hours of good, clean, laugh-out-loud fun… and couldn’t we all use some of that?
“Farce of Habit” is a sequel of sorts to “Farce of Nature.” In what new comic directions might this play take the audience?
Hope: “Farce of Habit” is our second play about the Wilburn family of Mayhew, Arkansas, but it’s also a stand-alone play in its own right. There’s no need to have seen the first comedy to get a kick out of what happens in this one. This play is even wackier than the first and, happily, we’ve gotten confirmation of this from the Pintello Comedy Theater cast. Audiences will laugh at the mayhem that engulfs the characters, the crazy costumes and the massive storm that’s headed for The Reel ‘Em Inn fishing lodge… and expect a nun or two thrown in for good measure.
Why might you encourage South Valley residents to attend the world premiere of “Farce of Habit,” especially if they are not familiar with the fun of farces?
Wooten: This is a wild comedy, unlike much of what we see on television today. And even better, it’s live which adds to the fun and excitement. It’s fast-paced, zany comedy more in the vein of classic Carol Burnett. We go for big laughs, not smiles, and over-the-top hilarity rather than understatement. We’ve never met a silly gag we haven’t embraced. Audiences are guaranteed to have loads of fun because, after all, it is a Pintello Comedy Theatre production.
This is your second time having a play performed by Pintello Comedy Theater. How would you describe working with this Silicon Valley region theater group?
Jones: :Actually, the Pintellos have produced many of our plays at their theater including “The Dixie Swim Club,” “Always a Bridesmaid, “Christmas Belles,” and “The Red Velvet Cake War.” And it was because they had done so that we became good business friends over the years, which led us to ask if they’d be interested in producing their first Jones Hope Wooten world premiere. They jumped on it and their production of “Farce of Nature” was exquisite — the cast, the crew, the set and costumes, the publicity, the whole she-bang. We had a ball watching the show, so we knew we wanted them to produce another world premiere. And here we are!
Editor’s note: See review of play by theater writer Camille Bounds on next page.
