This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:17] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Hello and welcome to The Drama Book Show.

[0:19] David Rigano: My name is David Rigano.

[0:21] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Welcome back.

[0:23] David Rigano: It's been some time.

[0:24] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Yeah, we haven't, we really batch recorded earlier in that reward.

[0:28] David Rigano: Yeah, we did.

[0:29] Mark-Eugene Garcia: We did five in a row and then I think that was right when I left for London.

[0:34] David Rigano: And then, yeah.

[0:35] Mark-Eugene Garcia: And you had a busy January.

[0:37] David Rigano: I had a busy January.

[0:38] Mark-Eugene Garcia: And as did Dylan. Like we all, we all three were very busy.

[0:42] David Rigano: But now we're back at the bookshop and back around again.

[0:45] Mark-Eugene Garcia: There's a Burt Bacharach display here that makes zero sense to anyone else but me and David and anyone in the store.

[0:53] David Rigano: But yes.

[0:54] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Can I, maybe this isn't not like I'm just itching to start the episode this way. We're not just back in the bookshop, but I am on the shelves.

[1:04] David Rigano: You were on the shelves.

[1:05] Mark-Eugene Garcia: As of yesterday.

[1:06] David Rigano: Yes.

[1:06] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Yes, we finally got what we deserved.

[1:08] David Rigano: Finally, thank you.

[1:10] Mark-Eugene Garcia: My play What We Deserve was published by Next Stage Press officially starting February 1st and the USPS was hellbent on not letting it get to the store.

[1:20] David Rigano: They did not want us to get what we deserve.

[1:22] Mark-Eugene Garcia: But now we have what we deserve on the signed copy display on the new plays display and on the shelf right next to Green Grow the Lilacs.

[1:32] David Rigano: No, there we go.

[1:33] Mark-Eugene Garcia: There we go.

[1:33] David Rigano: By Lynn Riggs.

[1:34] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Yes.

[1:35] David Rigano: Yes.

[1:35] Mark-Eugene Garcia: I was putting that on the shelf yesterday when they came in.

[1:38] David Rigano: And, uh, after we took the photo.

[1:40] Mark-Eugene Garcia: We took a photo and sent it to David.

[1:42] David Rigano: It's on my Instagram.

[1:42] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Oh, hey, I didn't know that.

[1:44] David Rigano: That's amazing.

[1:44] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Because we, I was so excited. Like it's one that I've been following the trajectory of how it's gonna get here. Gene, if you're listening, I did get your message and we were all just hoping and praying that it arrived in time.

[1:55] David Rigano: But it's here.

[1:55] Mark-Eugene Garcia: And yes, Gene, thank you for all of your help. The post office has been hellbent on, it's not just one shipment.

[2:06] David Rigano: This is the second shipment because the first one got lost, and my personal copies got delivered across the street.

[2:12] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Yeah.

[2:13] David Rigano: It has just, the post office has not wanted me to get what we deserve.

[2:19] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Yeah.

[2:19] David Rigano: And I don't want to say it's like cursed or anything, because it's not.

[2:22] Mark-Eugene Garcia: It's, uh, and I encourage you to buy it and read it and most of all do it.

[2:26] David Rigano: All of you theater.

[2:29] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Yes.

[2:31] David Rigano: But it's here.

[2:32] Mark-Eugene Garcia: We're happy it's here.

[2:33] David Rigano: We're happy to talk about it in a couple months too.

[2:35] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Yeah.

[2:35] David Rigano: Yeah.

[2:36] Mark-Eugene Garcia: It's gonna be, gonna be very exciting.

[2:38] David Rigano: Another Next Stage Press that we have here.

[2:40] Mark-Eugene Garcia: And very good friend of the store.

[2:41] David Rigano: Very good friend of the store is our friend Doug DeVita.

[2:44] Mark-Eugene Garcia: And I think that when Doug did his first event here, which when Doug does an event here, it's a production.

[2:51] David Rigano: It's an event.

[2:51] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Yeah.

[2:52] David Rigano: It's, I don't think we were recording for the podcast at that time.

[2:55] Mark-Eugene Garcia: We weren't recording for the podcast.

[2:56] David Rigano: I watched the event from the security cameras because I was at home with COVID.

[3:02] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Really?

[3:03] David Rigano: Yes.

[3:04] Mark-Eugene Garcia: I don't remember.

[3:05] David Rigano: We had a double event week for the first time ever.

[3:07] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Uh-huh.

[3:07] David Rigano: And I missed both of them because I had COVID and had to stay home.

[3:11] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Yeah.

[3:11] David Rigano: So that was for Fable.

[3:13] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Yes.

[3:14] David Rigano: Which is a play about the creation of Gypsy, a musical fable.

[3:20] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Truly.

[3:20] David Rigano: Yes.

[3:21] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Specifically all of the ups and downs that they went through getting the real-life Dainty June to sign off on the show getting made.

[3:31] David Rigano: And then he came back with his play Goddess of the Hunt.

[3:34] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Which I cannot say without singing Master of the House.

[3:38] David Rigano: I Goddess of the Hunt.

[3:39] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Yeah.

[3:40] David Rigano: Yes.

[3:40] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Also, I just put these stickers on here. It was the winner of the 2025 Regional Awards from Broadway World.

[3:47] David Rigano: That's, yeah.

[3:48] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Yeah.

[3:48] David Rigano: Which was incredibly exciting.

[3:50] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Very exciting, especially since you and I are Broadway World Regional Award nominees.

[3:57] David Rigano: Yes.

[3:58] Mark-Eugene Garcia: It's happy to be numbers.

[3:59] David Rigano: Also known as losers.

[4:01] Mark-Eugene Garcia: But we lost with some good people.

[4:02] David Rigano: We lost in some good companies.

[4:04] Mark-Eugene Garcia: We lost with Sutton Foster and Carrie Fisher.

[4:06] David Rigano: And that's just those two and us.

[4:08] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Yeah.

[4:09] David Rigano: We could have had a cool show too.

[4:10] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Yeah, agreed.

[4:11] David Rigano: Oh my gosh, what if there was a show that we wrote that was Sutton Foster playing Carrie Fisher?

[4:16] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Let's do it.

[4:16] David Rigano: Yeah.

[4:17] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Tangent.

[4:17] David Rigano: Sutton UN.

[4:19] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Sutton, who also had an event here before we did record.

[4:22] David Rigano: And I'm, I still cry over that.

[4:24] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Also, though, while we're deep diving into our Deep DeVita diving.

[4:29] David Rigano: Yes.

[4:30] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Benjamin Cardona, who is in this production, was one of the first baristas at the bookshop.

[4:37] David Rigano: That's right.

[4:37] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Before I worked here, before I were here.

[4:39] David Rigano: No, but I knew it.

[4:40] Mark-Eugene Garcia: I remember seeing that being like, wait, what?

[4:42] David Rigano: Yeah, here for a short time, and then took off to do some theater and has been doing theater ever since.

[4:47] Mark-Eugene Garcia: And so we're so proud of him.

[4:48] David Rigano: Truly.

[4:49] Mark-Eugene Garcia: We're so proud, but happy to have had him come back to do this role.

[4:53] David Rigano: And I, listeners, I don't want you to think that we are just going off on tangents.

[4:59] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Really, the thing is, Doug brought some fantastic actors to read some scenes, and I don't want to tell you anything about the play.

[5:05] David Rigano: I, it is a little noir, a little suspense, and I feel like saying anything before you get to hear these actors do it would spoil it.

[5:14] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Truly.

[5:15] David Rigano: And it's also, you mentioned that it's always a production.

[5:20] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Yeah.

[5:20] David Rigano: When he does something here, and it is, and it's always a production specifically for us.

[5:25] Mark-Eugene Garcia: While some people, like me, for instance, had some actors come in and just read a scene from the script.

[5:30] David Rigano: No, he's, no, I'm curating a script for this, and it was so exciting.

[5:36] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Specific scenes, and they've rehearsed how to be at the microphones and who's sitting at which.

[5:36] David Rigano: Oh yeah, it is, Doug puts on a show when he comes here.

[5:46] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Like anyone who ever wants to do an event here needs to be listening to this episode so they understand how to do an event here.

[5:52] David Rigano: Because it was just on point.

[5:53] Mark-Eugene Garcia: So without any further ado, we are gonna jump in and let you listen to a little bit of Goddess of the Hunt.

[6:01] Doug DeVita: Hello everyone.

[6:03] Mark-Eugene Garcia: So Doug, do you want to introduce your director and wonderful cast who are here?

[6:08] Doug DeVita: No.

[6:09] Mark-Eugene Garcia: No?

[6:09] Doug DeVita: Don't forget them.

[6:10] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Of course, of course.

[6:12] Doug DeVita: I have the cast and the director from the production that was at Fresh Fruit Festival last spring, helmed by the incredible Rosie Kor.

[6:20] Audience: Yay.

[6:24] Doug DeVita: Which featured Kevin Liggan as Charlie.

[6:30] Doug DeVita: I gotta say the whole name.

[6:31] Doug DeVita: Mary Powellson as Diana Black-White.

[6:38] Doug DeVita: Benjamin Cardona as Percy Shelley Tannenbaum.

[6:45] Doug DeVita: Robert Masonette as Ed McGrath and a whole bunch of other characters.

[6:50] Doug DeVita: All, no, they're not, you were all.

[6:52] Doug DeVita: This is David Carson.

[6:54] Doug DeVita: He plays Jeff's Jeff White, Diana's husband, and a bunch of roles all starting with the J.

[7:00] Doug DeVita: I feel like I have the same perspective as the audience here because I'm coming in not knowing anything about the play.

[7:07] David Rigano: Thank you.

[7:10] Doug DeVita: I love the Philly trilogy.

[7:12] David Rigano: There's news on that coming.

[7:13] Doug DeVita: Oh, okay.

[7:14] David Rigano: You'll have to tell me.

[7:15] Doug DeVita: But so tell me about Goddess of the Hunt.

[7:17] David Rigano: What was, what's the basic?

[7:20] Doug DeVita: It says here, Martinis, Murders, and then in red, so it's really dramatic, and mothers.

[7:26] David Rigano: Now I like all of those.

[7:29] Doug DeVita: And it already feels a little true-crimy. What's going on in this play?

[7:33] Doug DeVita: It, of all my plays, my big wheelhouse is Misfits, Mothers, Martinis, and Murders.

[7:41] Doug DeVita: Death figures throughout all of my plays comically.

[7:43] Doug DeVita: And this one, the basic outline is Charlie Windsor has recently lost his husband.

[7:51] Doug DeVita: And he's in Joe Allen with his best friend, Broadway actor Ed McGrath.

[7:56] Doug DeVita: And he's talking about how he had hooked up with an old flame.

[8:00] Doug DeVita: And Ed, of course, is, you're an idiot.

[8:04] Doug DeVita: And they're just, they're talking, and then all of a sudden they're interrupted by another bar patron, Diana Black-White, who has seen Ed's show that night for the eighth time.

[8:15] Doug DeVita: Ed is starring as Abe Lincoln in a musical called Crazy for Abe by Stephen Sondheim.

[8:21] Doug DeVita: And she was basically there.

[8:24] Doug DeVita: She loves Ed, but she was there to see because Donna Murphy's leaving the show, and she wants to see it before Cardi B takes over.

[8:31] Doug DeVita: So they, uh, Diana just and Charlie really hit it off.

[8:37] Doug DeVita: They just, they just, it's great.

[8:39] Doug DeVita: They love each other instantly, instant BFFs.

[8:42] Doug DeVita: And Ed's a little concerned about this because he's known Charlie since they were both five years old, and he knows the scrapes that Charlie can get himself into.

[8:51] Doug DeVita: So that's pretty much the beginning of the story.

[8:55] Doug DeVita: It goes into some places that I don't want to talk about because there are a lot of twists, there are a lot of turns, there are a lot of surprises.

[9:02] Doug DeVita: I hope nobody is who they say they are.

[9:06] Doug DeVita: Most people aren't who they say they are.

[9:08] Doug DeVita: And, uh, it's a romance, as my friend playwright Scott Sickles has called it a homo noir thriller.

[9:18] Doug DeVita: And it takes off from, I was inspired very much by the comic, romantic comic thrillers from the early 60s, like mostly Charade or Arabesque or movies of that ilk, Hitchcock.

[9:33] Doug DeVita: So that's pretty much what it is.

[9:35] Doug DeVita: And it just, be careful.

[9:38] Doug DeVita: If you want to give a message to this, which I think is pretentious, is be careful who you befriend on social media.

[9:46] Mark-Eugene Garcia: So then obviously the play is modern day.

[9:49] Doug DeVita: Yes.

[9:50] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Does any of the social media component of the play come from real life experience?

[9:54] Doug DeVita: I plead the fifth.

[9:58] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Okay.

[9:59] Doug DeVita: The genesis of the play, it all started really because I, I just got so, I became astonished with the amount of private information that is just so public these days.

[10:13] Doug DeVita: Even before Facebook, or before I got involved in Facebook, uh, my husband and I would go out to dinner, and there was this series of dinner dates where we were invariably seated next to a couple who were breaking up publicly and loudly, and there was one night when Joe leaned over and said, They're gonna be broken up by dessert.

[10:38] Doug DeVita: And I said, They're gonna be broken up in the middle of the appetizer.

[10:42] Doug DeVita: And they were, but it just, it's like all of this private information just spilling out.

[10:48] Doug DeVita: And then I joined Facebook and I just saw, I'm checking in here, I'm videotaping my son's toilet training.

[10:54] Doug DeVita: I'm, and I could, there is nothing private anymore.

[10:57] Doug DeVita: So I just sat down and I started writing this.

[11:00] Doug DeVita: It took me, how long did it take me to really write this?

[11:03] Doug DeVita: About the first seven years were just circling the drain.

[11:07] Doug DeVita: Just, it kept going in all these weird directions.

[11:09] Doug DeVita: And then I went to the playwrights intensive at Kennedy Center back before it was woke.

[11:14] Doug DeVita: And I was working on an assignment from Mark Bly, the dramaturge, Mark Bly, and he gave us his assignment to write a seven-minute play that encompassed one of these themes.

[11:26] Doug DeVita: Kafka's train exercise, deconstructing a myth, or someone's intensely personal secret.

[11:34] Doug DeVita: I immediately went to this one because this one kind of, the intensely personal secret wasn't in it at that point, but the train scene was and the deconstructing the myth, absolutely.

[11:45] Doug DeVita: Goddess of the Hunt, Diana, there's a reason he's Charlie and she's Diana and the whole way it works.

[11:51] Doug DeVita: But I ended up writing all three in this seven-minute play.

[11:55] Doug DeVita: The train scene came to me because I thought, oh, put him on a train and he can't get away from Diana.

[12:00] Doug DeVita: Deconstructing the myth, obviously.

[12:03] Doug DeVita: Intensely personal secret.

[12:04] Doug DeVita: I can't tell you what that secret is.

[12:06] Doug DeVita: You need to buy the play and read it. But Diana has an intensely personal secret. That's all I'll say. But I did them all in that one seven-minute play. And Mark was, I was impressed with myself. I was like, oh shit. And Mark was very impressed, and then it just, I kept going from there. And it's gone through a lot of revisions. We did the production at Fresh Fruit a year and a half ago. There were a lot of revisions during the rehearsal process for that. Rosie and I are still arguing over one particular line. And which is in the butt but she's a brilliant director, by the way. She is absolutely brilliant. And then at the same time that we were doing the production at Fresh Fruit, I'd already submitted it to Lab Theater Project in Tampa, and their thing is world premieres.

Fresh Fruit Festival is World Premier's. They want the World Premier rights. So this play is having two world premieres legitimately. Because we did the World Premier at Fresh Fruit, and then I told Owen Robertson, the artistic director and director of the play down there, that I'd already accepted the production there, and he was like, no problem. You're probably going to be doing some rewriting. And I said, absolutely. And I'll be doing some rewriting after the show because I always learn things from a production, and I want to have it published, so there'll be a lot of that rewriting. So he goes, okay, great. So that's how we'll spin it. It is still a world premiere because there's a lot of new material.

And it has, and we held off actually, we held off the publication of the script until the show opens in Tampa, which it's opening September 18th. So the publication was timed to celebrate that production as well. And I'm thrilled because I got to have all of these lovely people and the cast at Lab Theater in the front pages of the book. So that's the genesis of it. Amazing. And so how does it change when Rosie comes on and gives her point of view?

[13:59] Doug DeVita: It a lot and a lot and not. Rosie. Close your ears. I don't want you to get too swell headed. Rosie is incredibly intuitive. And she read the script, and she had one or two things to say, which were like, oh, V8 moments. And then we, I don't know, we I don't know, you can agree or not. We just clicked. It was just like it was like this shorthand thing going on. And and the rehearsals, I don't know how it was for all of you, but the rehearsals for me were pure joy. Because I would learn things, she would learn things, we'd talk, we'd discuss, changes would be made. I think we were changing things all the way up to like an hour before performance, right? Wasn't I like handing some of you new script pages?

I know I handed you a new script page and you wanted to kill me. Many times. The Fresh Fruit Festival is wonderful, but those productions, as I said to Kevin, it and I and Carol Monfredini, who has done a couple of fresh fruit shows with me as well. They're like being shot out of a cannon. Because you're getting what we have three weeks of rehearsal, we have four hours of tech, and boom, we're on. And this show is heavy tech. It's heavy tech. There's lots of projections, lots of Facebook posts, Instagram posts, Instagram posts, voiceovers, video, and again, costume changes. Rosie had that all moving like clockwork. I think Lewis, you even said that it was like Broadway level design, the way it all moved.

But it was rough. It was really rough. And I'm looking forward to see what they do at lab. So should we jump in? And we're gonna have some live clips. So instead of playing a clip, we have the cast here. So they're gonna do some scenes for us. So should we start? Sure. All right, let's do it.

[15:50] Doug DeVita: Sorry. Yeah, it takes me a minute to get up and down because where do you want to be overhead? Oh, do you want to go to the house? Where is Mary? Oh, okay. Alright. You can sit on the table, remember when that happens. I'll project. It was a year and five months ago, so I do have to read. See, Joe Allen late on a Friday night paint. Keith unfriended me.

[16:29] Audience: He unfriended you?

[16:30] Doug DeVita: He unfriended me. And you're upset because Keith unfriended me. What are you? 13?

[16:39] Audience: Excuse me?

[16:44] Doug DeVita: I slept with him, Ed. In college, Charlie. He found me on Facebook. We met for coffee and we hooked up. I didn't mean for it to happen, but he was very persuasive. I know that Mark, his death. It was a shock, Charlie. But spending all your time trolling social media and only leaving that wrecked apartment to for sex with an old flamer. Mark and I were supposed to fix up that wreck of an apartment together. I don't know if I can go to Paris by myself. Come with me, Ed, please.

[17:23] Audience: Charlie.

[17:23] Doug DeVita: Look, don't take this the wrong way, but I don't want to be part of the Mark Memorial tour.

[17:30] Audience: Ouch!

[17:31] Doug DeVita: Oh, sh that was harsh. I'm sorry. Look, I would love to go to Paris with you someday. But you need to make this trip alone.

[17:40] Audience: Alone.

[17:41] Doug DeVita: What a horrible word. What if I never find someone again? I'm not 30 anymore.

[17:48] Audience: You're not even 50 anymore.

[17:51] Doug DeVita: Dare you. I am so sorry for interrupting, but you're Ed McGrath, aren't you?

[18:00] Audience: You know who I am?

[18:02] Doug DeVita: Of course. I saw Crazy Farabe tonight. Eighth time.

[18:06] Audience: Oh wow.

[18:10] Doug DeVita: Eight times. That's flattering. Totally deserve that, Tony. No matter what those easily outraged musical theater queens keep saying on Broadway World.

[18:21] Audience: That's so beautiful.

[18:23] Doug DeVita: And I wanted to see Donna Murphy one more time before Cardi B takes over next month. Cardi B as Mary Todd Lincoln. Singing Stephen Sondheim. I hope she doesn't assassinate it.

[18:36] Audience: We're all hoping that.

[18:38] Doug DeVita: Thank you for stopping by.

[18:40] Audience: Diana.

[18:42] Doug DeVita: Diana Black-White.

[18:44] Audience: Blackwhite.

[18:45] Doug DeVita: You're kidding.

[18:47] Audience: Swear to God.

[18:48] Doug DeVita: Have you thought of changing your name to Gray?

[18:52] Audience: That would also be a good name for a great name for a designer.

[18:56] Doug DeVita: That's what I do. I own an interior design firm in Boston.

[19:00] Audience: Oh, you could have your own show on Lovely Living TV.

[19:03] Doug DeVita: Diana Gray, she's not just black and white. Friday nights at nine o'clock, right after billion dollar shit checks.

[19:09] Audience: I do have my own show on Lovely Living TV.

[19:13] Doug DeVita: Diana Black-White, goddess of the hunt. I travel around the world collecting stuff for my wealthiest clients.

[19:20] Audience: I don't really watch LL TV that much.

[19:24] Doug DeVita: No worries. They've got me right in the death spot. Saturday mornings at 6:30, right after Suzanne Summers.

[19:30] Audience: Perfect abs.

[19:32] Doug DeVita: Who's going to watch Lovely Living TV at 6:30 on a Saturday morning?

[19:37] Audience: That was rude.

[19:38] Doug DeVita: I just met who's up that early on the weekend. Neither one of us is. Are you two a couple?

[19:46] Audience: Mr. Married to his career here.

[19:49] Doug DeVita: We're only best friends since kindergarten. Sometimes it seems longer. I'm usually up all night and I go to sleep around six o'clock.

[19:59] Audience: He sleeps late every morning.

[20:01] Doug DeVita: He's old and he needs his rest, especially during five show weekends.

[20:06] Audience: I love you too, Charlie.

[20:09] Doug DeVita: Oh. Is that your name?

[20:11] Audience: Charlie.

[20:13] Doug DeVita: Yes. Charlie Windsor. My mother had a royal family fixation. I think she only married my father because his last name was Windsor. Her name was Elizabeth.

[20:27] Audience: My mother wanted to name me Shirley.

[20:30] Doug DeVita: Shirley Temple.

[20:31] Audience: Shirley Temple Black?

[20:33] Doug DeVita: Shirley Temple Black!

[20:35] Audience: No!

[20:35] Doug DeVita: Yes!

[20:36] Audience: No!

[20:36] Doug DeVita: Stop! My mother was awful. Can I buy you both a drink?

[20:41] Audience: Sure.

[20:43] Doug DeVita: So what do you do, Charlie?

[20:46] Audience: Nothing.

[20:47] Doug DeVita: He does nothing. I keep telling you. Take a class, join a gym, volunteer. I used to write advertising copy, but my 40-something supervisor had the hots for a six foot four, twenty-something gaysian. I don't really need to work anymore. But it would have been someplace to go now that Mark's passed away.

[21:09] Audience: Oh.

[21:11] Doug DeVita: Your husband died. I'm sorry.

[21:15] Audience: Cancer.

[21:17] Doug DeVita: Bullet in Bloomingdale's.

[21:20] Audience: The white sale.

[21:22] Doug DeVita: Oh my god. The Bloomingdale silk sheet shooting? That made the news in Boston. They still haven't found out who did it, have they?

[21:31] Audience: No one's telling me anything except they'll call when they have any leads.

[21:35] Doug DeVita: Oh, so tragic. I've lost a husband or two myself, so I understand the pain.

[21:46] Audience: So uh you're from Boston?

[21:49] Doug DeVita: New York originally. Long Island.

[21:51] Audience: Huntington.

[21:53] Doug DeVita: No way.

[21:54] Audience: I'm from Deer Park.

[21:56] Doug DeVita: No way! Diana from Huntington! Charlie from Deer Park. There's something almost mythic about this. Like we were destined to meet. Serendipity works its magic again.

[22:10] Audience: How long were you and Mark?

[22:12] Doug DeVita: Was it? Yes, Mark. How long were you and Mark together, Charlie?

[22:19] Audience: Over 20 years.

[22:20] Doug DeVita: That's over 200 in gay time. Jeff and I have been married almost four years, and that's almost 400 in Jeff time.

[22:28] Audience: We don't have as much in common as I initially thought.

[22:32] Doug DeVita: How did you two meet?

[22:34] Audience: Christian Mingle.com.

[22:37] Doug DeVita: We both joined as a goof. I thought this guy is fun. He's not.

[22:43] Audience: I like surrounding myself with fun people.

[22:47] Doug DeVita: Like you, Charlie. But I'm sad, Diane.

[22:55] Audience: Shit. This is so embarrassing. A middle-aged gay man sobbing in a theater park.

[23:01] Doug DeVita: Oh, please. Have you ever been in here whenever Patti LuPone lost a Tony?

[23:06] Audience: Charlie.

[23:08] Doug DeVita: Do you know who Adriana Ivancich was?

[23:12] Audience: Who?

[23:13] Doug DeVita: Adriana Ivancich. She was one of Hemingway's muses, supposedly the model for the girl in Across the River.

[23:21] Audience: I never read that.

[23:22] Doug DeVita: I'd been meaning to.

[23:24] Audience: No, you haven't.

[23:25] Doug DeVita: No, I haven't. It's a piece of crap. But I've never forgotten a People magazine article where I read about the time that she talked about the last time she and Hemingway spoke. He began to cry and said, Look, now you have seen Papa cry. So you see, Charlie. Even Ernest Hemingway cried over a lost love.

[23:49] Audience: So here's to new friends and a new life with a new man for you soon.

[23:56] Doug DeVita: I don't know about that.

[23:59] Audience: I do.

[24:01] Doug DeVita: And now I must go. I have to be at the studio early. I'm shooting next season's intros all day tomorrow.

[24:07] Audience: I've enjoyed talking to you, Diana.

[24:09] Doug DeVita: Same here.

[24:11] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Maybe I'll send you a friend request.

[24:14] Doug DeVita: Maybe I'll accept it.

[24:27] Mark-Eugene Garcia: I'm just gonna no, I'm gonna stand because it's easier for me getting up and down.

[24:32] Doug DeVita: Alright, that was our first clip.

[24:34] Mark-Eugene Garcia: So that was so much fun. Thank you.

[24:36] Mark-Eugene Garcia: So let's talk about this theme of the hunt.

[24:39] Doug DeVita: It's called Goddess of the Hunt.

[24:41] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Correct.

[24:41] Doug DeVita: And Diana is our main character.

[24:43] Mark-Eugene Garcia: And already, so I see she's hunting a friend, it seems.

[24:46] Doug DeVita: It seems and there was also this hunting that happened in Bloomingdales, too.

[24:51] Doug DeVita: There's a reason I named his husband Mark.

[24:55] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Oh got it.

[24:58] Doug DeVita: Okay.

[25:00] Mark-Eugene Garcia: You never got that?

[25:03] Doug DeVita: I'm so sorry I've heard that now.

[25:07] Mark-Eugene Garcia: You've known me for 35 years.

[25:10] Doug DeVita: You have to know how sick and twisted I am.

[25:12] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Yeah, yeah, I do. Anyway, thank you.

[25:15] Mark-Eugene Garcia: But is that some obviously that is that something that's intentional?

[25:19] Doug DeVita: Yes.

[25:19] Doug DeVita: Yeah.

[25:20] Doug DeVita: Yeah.

[25:21] Mark-Eugene Garcia: And what about hunting spoke to you?

[25:24] Doug DeVita: All right. I joined Broadway World, and I made a lot of friends from that experience in real life. And most of them were really wonderful, still are wonderful people. But there were a few people on that site, and then I've discovered in other ways that they're just like with Facebook, they're out to collect people. They're out to collect likes, they're out to collect people, they're out just out to collect. So that sort of influenced me creating Diana.

[26:00] Mark-Eugene Garcia: All right. Now I want to see what she does next. Should we do our next clip?

[26:03] Doug DeVita: Sure, we can do our next next clip.

[26:16] Doug DeVita: We were told they could edit out the scene changes. So we will take a second.

[26:27] Doug DeVita: See Starbucks the following Sunday morning.

[26:33] Character: I waited in my hotel room for you last night.

[26:37] Character: Sorry. I had an unexpected gig come up downtown.

[26:40] Character: You could have texted.

[26:42] Character: I'm worried. The way you race around on that bike of yours.

[26:45] Character: Oh, Jeff, you do care.

[26:49] Character: I'm a fast but agile cyclist. I need to be because of self-involved Jay Walkers like you.

[26:55] Character: I know you're careful, but a lot of other cyclists aren't. You should know. You're gonna get decimated one of these days.

[27:03] Character: Scruff, Percy?

[27:05] Character: I am buying your breakfast and you're looking at a gay hookup app?

[27:08] Character: It's your phone.

[27:12] Character: Why would I have scruff?

[27:17] Character: Oh, he's right over there. Look.

[27:22] Character: Forty-five?

[27:24] Character: Ten years ago, maybe.

[27:27] Character: I'll never understand why any man thinks wearing underwear embroidered with ram horns around his junk is even remotely attractive. It's just so desperately gay.

[27:35] Character: Speaking of desperately gay, here's your ISD vente skim no whip mocha with three pumps sugar-free hazelnut syrup.

[27:47] Character: Thank you. Don't take this the wrong way, Jeff, but when the hell are you leaving?

[27:53] Character: All those years at Miss Vera's finishing school for boys who want to be girls, and tactful charm still eludes you.

[28:01] Character: Vexing, isn't it?

[28:03] Character: You know what's also vexing? When are you leaving?

[28:07] Character: God, not that I don't enjoy a few hours with you every now and then, but I do have a boyfriend and you have a wife.

[28:13] Character: In Boston. Or London or Helsinki or fucking. I'm never quite sure where she is.

[28:19] Character: Do you really care where she is?

[28:20] Character: The sweckler peeps again.

[28:23] Character: Oh, it's the ramhorns. Persistent old bugger, isn't he?

[28:28] Character: Sorry, not interested.

[28:31] Character: Happy?

[28:33] Character: As long as my rent's paid, Daddy.

[28:37] Character: I am not your daddy, Percy. Call me Jeff or Sir, but do not never, Daddy. That's just too picky.

[28:50] Character: I've gotta go. I'm late for church.

[28:52] Character: Why don't you skip this week and play my organ?

[28:55] Character: Oh you're very funny for a lawyer.

[29:00] Character: My rent, Sir Jeff. Check your Venmo, make sure it's there.

[29:06] Character: Thanks. Will you be staying in New York tonight or are you leaving on the next train?

[29:11] Character: I think I'll fly back tomorrow morning if that's all right with you.

[29:15] Character: Oh suit yourself. Am I ever going to see this apartment I'm paying for?

[29:21] Character: Hotel sex is hotter.

[29:24] Character: Uh-huh. Cancel any plans you have for this afternoon. Plan to spend the night.

[29:31] Character: There's a particularly complicated hymn I would like you to play. Every verse.

[29:38] Character: Oh, scuff again. Oh you're awfully popular this morning. It must be a refreshing change, huh?

[29:46] Character: It's a good thing you are such a good fuck.

[29:50] Character: Thank you. You too.

[30:05] Doug DeVita: There you are. Another theme I'm seeing is people not being who they are presenting themselves as.

[30:16] Doug DeVita: Diana's husband is different than she thought he was. The guy on Scruff is presenting himself younger than he is. Is that something that you had in mind? And because that seems very much in keeping with social media.

[30:30] Doug DeVita: Yes, it is. Is this coming across? Am I too far away? Let me get up a little closer. Sorry.

[30:36] Doug DeVita: Yeah, yeah, it is part of it. Nobody is not nobody. Charlie is who he says he is, but pretty much everybody else is not who they say they are. And after this, just buckle up.

[30:48] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Well, okay. Well, should we continue?

[30:49] Doug DeVita: Sure.

[30:51] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Okay. Next thing.

[30:55] Doug DeVita: Yes.

[30:56] Mark-Eugene Garcia: No maybe there.

[30:57] Doug DeVita: Yeah.

[30:59] Doug DeVita: Excuse me.

[31:00] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Sure.

[31:08] Doug DeVita: That's a good sound for audio.

[31:18] Character: Yeah, don't start, Jeff. I decided at the last minute to take the late flight Saturday night. I had to fly coach from Newark.

[31:26] Character: Diana. I've got to go. I'm meeting a new friend for drinks at the Rose.

[31:32] Character: Yes, he's gay. Can't this wait until I get back?

[31:37] Character: I don't know. Check my Instagram, that's when.

[31:41] Character: Surprise.

[31:44] Character: Well, when the concierge called and told me a friend was waiting at the bar, I was hoping Ed had changed his mind.

[31:52] Character: What are you doing here? I found a few auctions I should attend for one of my clients, and I thought, why not spend a few days tackling up the town with my new friend Charlie?

[32:05] Character: I'm flattered, Diana, but I'm flying home tomorrow night.

[32:09] Character: Flying home to what? Watch old sitcoms, Charlie. That isn't the answer.

[32:20] Character: Yesterday morning, as the plane is descending, I see the Eiffel Tower in the distance. I've never been to the top. Mark had Vertigo, so we never went. I've never even been to Paris before meeting him.

[32:36] Character: I almost cry, but I don't. When I check in at the hotel and the concierge asks why I'm here without Mark, I almost cry as I tell her what happened, but I don't.

[32:52] Character: I go for a walk along the Seine as I wait for my room to be ready, like Mark and I always do on our first morning here. I stop for a cafe au lait at Dumejot, Mark's favorite cafe. And I don't cry once.

[33:10] Character: And this afternoon, I finally go to the top of the Eiffel Tower. It's breathtaking. And I have no one to share it with. I throw a few rose petals over the railing. Most of them get caught in the suicide netting, but one or two flutter down slowly, gently drifting in the breeze.

[33:38] Character: And I say, goodbye. And it's not healing. It's worse than I imagined. Everywhere I go, I'm reminded of him. We shared Paris. It was ours, and it will never be the same for me again.

[33:58] Character: Perhaps it will hurt going back to that apartment alone, but it hurts so much more being here without Mark, I can't even let myself cry. I want to go home and cry.

[34:17] Doug DeVita: Charlie, I am so sorry.

[34:23] Character: I want to make it up to you.

[34:26] Doug DeVita: Why? You hardly know me.

[34:29] Character: You've touched me. And I want you to have a little fun.

[34:37] Doug DeVita: That unexpectedly kind.

[34:53] Character: See, Charlie, like I said at Jo Allen. Serendipity.

[34:56] Doug DeVita: Serendipity.

[35:01] Character: Charlie, what would you think about me fixing up that wreck of an apartment? We can hunt for interesting stuff here in Paris and film it for my show.

[35:12] Doug DeVita: I don't know.

[35:13] Character: And we can do some personal shopping too. A tlay chic new tray she look for the new tra chic you.

[35:21] Character: Will you excuse me just a moment, Jean-Louis?

[35:25] Character: Jean-Louis. How much are you taking for those busts of Hemingway now?

[35:30] Character: 600 euro.

[35:31] Character: 100.

[35:32] Character: 400.

[35:33] Character: 200.

[35:33] Character: Deal.

[35:39] Character: A souvenir of tonight. And a reminder to be open to a new life. As Papa said, I can't stand it to think my life is going so fast, and I'm not really living it.

[35:53] Doug DeVita: Is that the bust from the bar?

[35:55] Character: Oh, they have hundreds of these in storage. The Americans love them, and it's a lucrative side business for the waiters.

[36:02] Doug DeVita: Cool. Thank you.

[36:08] Character: Friend request accepted.

[36:20] Doug DeVita: Thank you.

[36:21] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Okay, that was our final clip.

[36:24] David Rigano: But there's pl I can't wait to read the play now and see where this all goes.

[36:27] Doug DeVita: Yeah, those first three scenes. Those are the first three scenes of the play. And it's, you know, when you're on the roller coaster and you're going up that endlessly slow crawl, and then you get to the top.

[36:37] Mark-Eugene Garcia: We're at the top.

[36:38] Doug DeVita: And now it's the rest of the way. Charlie certainly feels like prey at this moment.

[36:45] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Yeah.

[36:48] Doug DeVita: In this little title here, it says, Martini's murders, murders are plural. Is there a murder that might happen that we haven't seen yet?

[36:56] Doug DeVita: There might be.

[36:58] Mark-Eugene Garcia: So it's not just the Bloomingdales event.

[37:00] Doug DeVita: No, there I don't remember. Nobody actually dies, but people come somebody actually dies.

[37:13] Doug DeVita: But I didn't want to give too much away. But uh but there's a body count, both pre and post show. My father had a theory that unless a movie or a play or a show didn't have a murder in the first five minutes, he wasn't gonna watch it.

[37:26] Mark-Eugene Garcia: I think your father would love this.

[37:27] Doug DeVita: There's a damn old age is terrible. There's a playwright, I cannot remember his name, but one of the things, one of his tenets is that all plays begin in mourning.

[37:40] Doug DeVita: And that's certainly true of this one. And then they go through all sorts of perambulations till they get to the end. One of the things that I always wanted to do with the script and found myself doing with this, is I always wanted to do something that sort of followed the rhythms of the Goldberg variations.

[37:57] Doug DeVita: That starts off slow, then it gets crazier and crazier, and then it goes through completely insane, and then it drifts off again to a very very nice quiet ending. And that's the track that this one takes.

[38:08] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Now that you have the published version, has it evolved to the point where it's ready now for the final version?

[38:14] Doug DeVita: This is it?

[38:16] Doug DeVita: This is pretty pretty close to what I want. There have been a few changes made post after I sent the manuscript off to Gene Cato at Next Stage Press.

[38:26] Doug DeVita: There were a few changes that were made in Tampa that are not in this version. They may be eventually. A lot of this one, there's only really one major line change that doesn't really change the outcome, but it's a little, it's uh it was a smart change.

[38:43] Doug DeVita: And then there are a lot of little changes instead of saying social media, saying socials, instead of saying Instagram, saying insta. And I have no problem with stuff like that.

[38:51] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Yeah.

[38:51] Doug DeVita: And then there was one line that they wanted to change and I just put my foot down and said no I'm not doing that. Because it would skew the entire tone in a different direction.

[39:02] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Yeah.

[39:02] Doug DeVita: But other than that, it's been a wonderful collaboration. It would it's like the mirror experience of working with Rosie.

[39:09] Doug DeVita: Owen is a terrific director. He's very smart. He gets the piece and it's been fun and also like that no offense to any of you, but I'm not having to go to rehearsals.

[39:20] Doug DeVita: I'm in New Jersey, they're in Tampa, I get the rehearsal report and I look at it and I'm great. This is wonderful.

[39:29] Mark-Eugene Garcia: And how is how do you know for anyone in the cast how do you feel not moving forward with this other production?

[39:35] Doug DeVita: I hate it.

[39:38] Doug DeVita: Listen any great piece is going to be it's for everyone to do you know and you're just handing it off to your next lucky person.

[39:45] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Yeah.

[39:46] Mark-Eugene Garcia: You can pass the microphone also and how much time did you spend working on this for this it was a workshop that it was a production that you did.

[39:55] Doug DeVita: Thanks.

[39:56] Mark-Eugene Garcia: So how much time did you spend Rosie the director Rosie Korr we spent about three weeks in rehearsal right?

[40:05] Doug DeVita: Doug and I had spent a lot of time not a lot of time but more time than that beforehand really talking about it, breaking it down, thinking about how we can make this crazy roller coaster of a play be doable in a tiny black box theater where we have 15 minutes to load in and load out and have to be in Paris and in Joe Allen and in a train and in many more places.

[40:28] Mark-Eugene Garcia: So yeah, we had all of that planning. We had about three weeks of rehearsal, and then we had three very exciting performances.

[40:38] Doug DeVita: I don't know why it's a friendly.

[40:40] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Okay, yeah, well.

[40:43] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Okay.

[40:44] Mark-Eugene Garcia: So I'll have a question for you.

[40:46] Doug DeVita: For me?

[40:46] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Yeah.

[40:47] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Why not?

[40:48] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Your character maybe has questionable morals.

[40:54] Doug DeVita: Maybe.

[40:55] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Maybe.

[40:57] Doug DeVita: What's your way into her?

[40:59] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Oh, that's a really good question because I think when I first read it, my way into her was not to find the monster, but to find the friend and the mother.

[41:11] Mark-Eugene Garcia: She is a mom, as we discover when you read the play. But the so her so just finding something that she wants to do that's kind and to be treated fairly.

[41:23] Mark-Eugene Garcia: So that's how I found my way to her. And and please play by my rules.

[41:31] Doug DeVita: And there are consequences if you don't.

[41:35] Mark-Eugene Garcia: And then for Robert, so it seems like her original intention was for you to be the new friend, but uh you weren't having that.

[41:45] Ed McGrath: Right.

[41:45] Ed McGrath: Yeah.

[41:45] Ed McGrath: He's on tour from the very beginning. He doesn't obviously know what's going on with her, but he knows something's going on.

[41:53] Ed McGrath: His spidey senses tingling, and yeah, he's on top of her boy.

[41:57] Ed McGrath: Yeah.

[41:57] Ed McGrath: He's watching every move that's being made.

[42:01] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Does he ever at any point during the play intervene and try to stop this friendship?

[42:05] Ed McGrath: He goes in his own way, but I think the important thing is that he's there at the end.

[42:10] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Okay.

[42:11] Mark-Eugene Garcia: When it really matters.

[42:12] Ed McGrath: Okay.

[42:13] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Yeah.

[42:13] Mark-Eugene Garcia: And then David.

[42:15] Doug DeVita: What's your personal experience with scuff like apps?

[42:18] David Rigano: No, I'm kidding.

[42:21] Doug DeVita: Um my husband's here, so we so is mine.

[42:27] David Rigano: Yeah, that's true.

[42:29] David Rigano: Obviously, so many of us are on social media, right? How big a part of that is does that play in your life?

[42:37] Doug DeVita: I probably don't go to sleep at night until I've checked Facebook.

[42:43] Doug DeVita: And uh yeah, but not in terms of finding friends, but in terms of keeping up with them.

[42:51] Doug DeVita: Uh and I have a tendency to unfriend people is if they're going, no, this isn't what I had in mind.

[42:58] Doug DeVita: But yeah.

[42:59] Doug DeVita: So if you don't like their posts or well, uh or their politics these days.

[43:04] Doug DeVita: It's just it's too depressing and time consuming.

[43:08] Doug DeVita: But I love being friends with other artists and and I like that aspect of finding someone you haven't spoken to in my case, 55, 60 years.

[43:21] Doug DeVita: And you get a post that says, Hi, do you remember me? And you go, I do, and find that refreshing.

[43:27] Doug DeVita: I like that. It's such an unnatural thing from the way most of us were brought up because you lost touch with people and that was it.

[43:34] Doug DeVita: They were they didn't come back into your life. And now now they resurface and sometimes you're glad.

[43:38] Ed McGrath: I'm Benjamin.

[43:40] Doug DeVita: Oh, we go and read what this video?

[43:44] Ed McGrath: Okay, no, I don't know.

[43:46] Ed McGrath: No, I guess we can Yes.

[43:49] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Your character's fun.

[43:50] Ed McGrath: Oh, plenty of fun.

[43:53] Ed McGrath: And he's a good time to get the impression.

[43:58] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Is this just the kind of thing that you have a lot of fun with?

[44:01] Ed McGrath: I mean, what's what's most fun about it for you?

[44:04] Ed McGrath: First of all, I don't usually do comedy, so this felt like a little gift for me.

[44:08] Ed McGrath: It felt like, oh, you get to explore this realm that you're usually not used to.

[44:12] Ed McGrath: So for me it was a challenge.

[44:14] Ed McGrath: But I just went back to I remember a professor used to say when a student was like, How do you play this moment in a drama?

[44:22] Ed McGrath: And he was like, play like a comedy until you can no longer laugh.

[44:27] Ed McGrath: And so that was good advice.

[44:29] Ed McGrath: And I think you can use it in everything.

[44:31] Ed McGrath: I think so.

[44:31] Ed McGrath: I'm gonna use it in my actual life.

[44:35] Ed McGrath: So it was certainly a lot of fun.

[44:37] Ed McGrath: So thank you for the words, Doug, and thank you for the direction, Rosie.

[44:40] Ed McGrath: And the cast. You were all brilliant.

[44:41] Doug DeVita: Is there any other news that you have for us about this play that you can tell us?

[44:47] Doug DeVita: Oh, maybe you listen, don't I?

[44:48] Doug DeVita: You do now.

[44:52] Doug DeVita: Or maybe about any other play you might have?

[44:55] Doug DeVita: Yeah, sure. This play, as I said, it's being done in Tampa in in September.

[45:00] Doug DeVita: It's running three weeks, four times as long as our production in The Fresh Root.

[45:05] Doug DeVita: It's getting 12 performances, so I'm moving up there.

[45:08] Doug DeVita: At Lab Theater, flights are cheap. Go on down.

[45:12] Doug DeVita: That production is also going to be filmed.

[45:16] Doug DeVita: And it will be available for live streaming.

[45:18] Doug DeVita: You have to pay for it. But uh live streaming from the last week of the run, which would be the first week in October, and I think for two weeks after that.

[45:27] Doug DeVita: Um so it will be available to watch.

[45:30] Doug DeVita: And I'm very excited because Owen is taking a very different tack with it.

[45:34] Doug DeVita: It seems like it's gonna be from what I've seen and heard, it seems like it's gonna be very funny.

[45:39] Doug DeVita: And of course, the crazy part of me is I am just beyond excited that they're doing it on a revolve.

[45:46] Doug DeVita: This tiny little 35C black box theater in Ybor City has built a revolve.

[45:53] Doug DeVita: And so it will be as what's her name says in cabaret.

[46:00] Doug DeVita: So I'm excited to watch that.

[46:02] Doug DeVita: Then getting back to the Philly trilogy, which is actually now called Philly's Trilogy.

[46:08] Doug DeVita: Okay. Again, David, if I'm Ella, not you.

[46:12] Doug DeVita: If I'm telling tales out of school, you'll yell at me later.

[46:14] Doug DeVita: But David Sabella, who was just recently in Chicago again.

[46:19] Doug DeVita: He created the role of Mary Sunshine in the Revival, and he was just recently back in it for a few weeks.

[46:25] Doug DeVita: He played Philly, the grown-up Philly and Philly's father at the Fresh Fruit Festival in 2017, I think.

[46:33] Doug DeVita: And he was brilliant. He won a Fresh Fruit Award for his performance deservedly.

[46:38] Doug DeVita: He's now living most of the year in Puerto Riorta.

[46:42] Doug DeVita: And he's got a cabaret slash theater space that he runs and manages.

[46:47] Doug DeVita: And he we're in discussion to do the full version, which is like the full three act trilogy in March or April.

[46:57] Doug DeVita: And he's here in he's here in New York for the next few weeks because he's a little plug.

[47:02] Doug DeVita: He's doing a gig at 54 below at the I think the end of September.

[47:06] Doug DeVita: So he's going to be around.

[47:07] Doug DeVita: We're going to get together and we're going to go through the script because it has changed a lot.

[47:12] Doug DeVita: The version at Fresh Fruit was truncated to fit into a time slot.

[47:16] Doug DeVita: And since then I've been again doing a lot of revisions, and I have something like 25 and counting small playlist based on the Philly McDougall character, which are being culled into this now real trilogy.

[47:35] Doug DeVita: So we're gonna be working on that.

[47:38] Doug DeVita: And then after that, I'm really I don't know.

[47:42] Doug DeVita: I'm always submitting, I'm always moving forward with stuff.

[47:46] Doug DeVita: I'm I am submitting probably tomorrow because the deadline is on Sunday, the Queen Short Play Festival again.

[47:54] Doug DeVita: I did that a couple of a year and a half ago, and I was a finalist in for I had two shows there as a finalist for both of them.

[48:02] Doug DeVita: I didn't win, and the the person who did win is uh eluding the hitman, but that's not true.

[48:09] Doug DeVita: But so I I will be submitting and hopefully be doing two more of the Philly plays there as we that's pretty much it for now.

[48:19] Doug DeVita: I'm working and I'm working on some new scripts. I will announce this tonight. I am working on an adaptation of A Passage to India, which is now in the public domain, so I can do whatever the hell I want with it, and I am. And I'm I also am very close to signing an agreement with someone who wrote a book that I really really loved, and I have adapted that. Actually, I haven't adapted it so much inspired by it, and I actually heard from her today. She read it, she loves it. She particularly loves the way I ended it. She loves the twist at the end. We're hopefully gonna move forward with that. And then in the sick and twisted department with bad mothers, I am also writing a play based on the murderess Barbara Graham, who you might not know who she was, but she was a convicted murderess in Los Angeles in the 1950s, and she went to the gas chamber.

Uh and there's still a lot of evidence that she might actually have been innocent of the crime she went to the gas chamber for. You might, if it sounds familiar, Susan Hayward won an Oscar playing her in the late 50s. I want to live, yes. Um, but it's always been a story that the first time I saw it I was 12 and it traumatized me. But uh I've grown up and I've begun to appreciate it, and so I'm tackling that. So those are that's what I'm working on right now.

[49:42] Mark-Eugene Garcia: That's great. Can we open it up to questions?

[49:44] Audience: Yeah, if anyone has anything they want to ask Doug or the cast.

[49:48] Audience: Yes.

[49:58] Audience: Why Florida and not New York or New Jersey?

[49:58] Doug DeVita: Too much money. No, I just repeat the question.

[49:56] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Oh, sure. Why Florida and not New York or New Jersey?

[50:02] Doug DeVita: I submitted it to Lab Theater last year, and they read it and they loved it and they wanted to produce it. That's why. I've I've actually had a streak of luck with Florida the last couple of years, because last year Free Fall Theater did my uh play Fable, which is the uh the a fable about a musical fable, i.e. June Havoc's version of what happened during the creation of Gypsy. So that was done at Freefall Theater last summer in a production that I was just stunned by how good it was. And now this year in Tampa. We are working toward bringing both of those shows into New York, and we'll see what happens in the next year. Hopefully in 26-27, we'll get them both on stage here.

[50:47] Audience: Yes, Rory.

[50:49] Audience: When you're writing a comedy that is a serious things, there's always used the balance. Do you map that out ahead of time? Or does it come back to the right?

[51:03] Doug DeVita: The question is when writing a comedy about serious things, do I map out the up moments or do they just come naturally? They come naturally. I have tried doing the outlining thing, I have tried putting it all down on paper, and I've always ended up derailing. So I just write and write and edit and edit and write and write and edit it. My first drafts are torture because I I just keep editing as I write, and things go off into a slush pile. Sometimes they come back, most times they don't. But I I'm gonna pat myself on the back here. I am funny. I just am. I have made jokes about death that most people are like, I can't believe you did that, but they're also gasping, laughing. What can I say? I try.

[51:51] Audience: Pardon me?

[51:54] Doug DeVita: All right, from Philly's Trilogy, one of my favorite lines on that whole show. Barbie of uh 14-year-old girl the day after their eighth grade graduation. Damn it. I should have been Valedictorian. Philly, you don't have cancer.

[52:15] Audience: It's awful.

[52:15] Doug DeVita: It's horrible. Brings the house down every time. And that's why I like that place so much. Thank you, I love thank you very much. Anyone else?

[52:24] Audience: Yeah.

[52:24] Audience: Hi. Love you.

[52:25] Audience: Love everything that you did. My partner is very interested into getting into playwriting or writing in general. And he has a bunch of one-liners that he's been debating on. Should they be skits? Should they be thrown into something? For someone who is new, going into playwriting, how would you suggest to warm up into writing into a script? Especially if you're going more the copy rock.

[52:47] Doug DeVita: Jump into the deep end of the pool. Deep end of the pool. Just jump right in. Yeah. Don't even wear goggles. Just go right in. And just keep going. It's gonna be crap. The first draft, the first go through, it's gonna be awful. You're gonna want to kill yourself. I want to kill myself on a daily basis. I cry three times a week. My my former dog Max would see me crying and he'd leave the room. Calvin sees me crying, he curls up in my lap. But it it's I had so many false starts when I started writing. And I look back at some of the stuff that because I keep it all, and I'm like, oh my god, you were an idiot. Oh, this is awful. And even the first draft of Goddess of the Hunt was just like cringe worthy.

But you just keep going. And that's one of the things that I find I love most about doing the festival circuit. Because I learn more from seeing a show on its feet, even for just three performances, as I do from endless series of readings. Other readings are great, they're wonderful. In New York, a reading, I'm sorry, guys, no no insult because I love you all, but a reading with equity actors, and I don't I love working with the equity actors, can cost up to five, ten, sometimes fifteen thousand dollars. I can get more out of a three or four performance run at a festival that will cost me about uh six or seven thousand dollars, but it's up on its feet, it runs three or four times. I see it with an audience over and over again, and I see what's actually landing.

So it's for me, that's the root. That's what I love. And I do love working. This cast, I have to say, because is that this cast was extraordinary, absolutely extraordinary, and I was thrilled, prepared to get embarrassed. I was thrilled because I wrote Charlie with Kevin in mind. And I was thrilled he got to do it. I wrote Jeff and the other roles that that character played with David in mind. So I was thrilled to see. I've known David for 35 years, and we have been threatening to work together. We worked like together once or twice back in the beginning, and then we just stayed friends. And this time we actually got to do it. So I was just thrilled. So yeah, I love working with equity actors.

Now the now, the other side of the coin, veer a little. The cast in Tampa, they're all non-equity. And what I've seen, what I've heard, I went down for the first table read, then I did the second table read on Zoom, and I've I sat in and I think I sat in on another rehearsal. They're all spectacular. They are all just phenomenal. The woman playing Diana, Sam Parisi, she's as good as Mary. Better. Mary and I have this relationship that's just awful. I'm like I'm like her. She calls me Douglas, and then I kick her in the shins. I actually have a nickname for her. May I? Oh, good God. I won't. But see me later. See me later. Next question. I'm getting into trouble here, which is not hard for me to do.

[55:59] Audience: Anyone else?

[56:00] Audience: Yes. I'm curious about the Mary Top of the Musical and whether how that was inspired by O'Mearly.

[56:05] Doug DeVita: No, no, that's been in the script since before I had ever heard of O'Mary. That's been in the script since about 2000. I started writing this in 20011 or 12. And that's been in the script since about 2013. So I don't know when Cole started O'Mary. I don't know when he wrote it, but I'm assuming that mine may have predated. My Crazy for Abe, first of all, it's a play on Crazy for You. Because I just basically there's a show that was written, I forget who wrote it, and it was on Broadway in the early 70s with Julie Harris called Oh, what was the name of it? But it was about Mary The Last of Mrs. Lincoln. So in my mind, this is a musical version of The Last of Mrs. Lincoln. That's where that comes from.

And one thing I I did edit those scenes down a bit. The play itself is now I've completely lost my train of thought. Oh yes. It there's a line where Diana says to Ed as as he's leaving, maybe I'll see you again sometime. And Ed tosses off. I'm at the booth theater eight times a week. So yeah, I'm that cheap.

[57:26] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Any last questions?

[57:30] Audience: Yeah, I think we're good.

[57:31] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Thank you.

[57:32] Doug DeVita: All right, thank you, everyone.

[57:41] Mark-Eugene Garcia: And we are back. And it again, it was just a production. It has always and don't you want to know what happens next?

[57:48] Audience: Yes.

[57:48] Mark-Eugene Garcia: And I also just am waiting for the next Doug DeVita experience that we have here at the bookshop. We know it's gonna happen.

[57:56] Doug DeVita: Yes.

[57:56] Mark-Eugene Garcia: And partly because we do have four other Doug DeVita plays on our shelves. We mentioned Fable. We also have The Fierce Urgency of Now. Which as a title I absolutely love Phillies Trilogy and Nell Dash. So you can come on in and pick those up and get your DeVita on.

[58:19] Doug DeVita: Yeah.

[58:20] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Get your DeVita on. Get more Doug DeVita in your life. And then for the next episode is gonna be a kind of uh special one.

[58:27] Doug DeVita: Yes.

[58:27] Mark-Eugene Garcia: And we'll get more into why, but it is a photography book that we did an event for called Ageless Dancers, and it was put together by Betty Franceschi, and it is an absolutely gorgeous book, and it is one that I love watching people pick up because I know they're gonna go on a journey because it's for any of us at a certain age. This is a business that really is defined by age, it's defined by like how long can you do something, how long are you relevant? How and other people decide you're relevant. And so even chorus line in 1975 asked the question what are you gonna do when you can't dance anymore? Yeah, and so this book lifted up the idea that you can still do these things, no matter and Betty brought seven or eight yes dancers all over the age of sixty with her. So we'll talk more about those dancers and Betty in the next episode.

[59:31] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Yeah, so remember to follow us on Instagram at Drama Book Show Podcasts. Please subscribe to the Drama bookshop on Eventbrite so that you can get notified every time that we add an in-person event to our calendar. Subscribe and like us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify and wherever you listen to your podcast. Leave a comment.

[59:48] Doug DeVita: Yeah, absolutely. Say hi. We love that.

[59:50] Mark-Eugene Garcia: Just say hi on Insta. However, you feel like talking to us, come talk to us. We love it. Remember that all the books we talk about can be found here at the Drama Bookshop. And so can we.

[1:00:03] Doug DeVita: And we will see you at the bookshop.