Jewish Theatre is nearly fully booked for one-man play ‘Fully Committed’
Preparing to play several dozen characters in Becky Mode’s one-person play “Fully Committed” for the Sarasota Jewish Theatre, actor Doug Shapiro says he has to be in love with each one to properly give them life.
The play centers around an out-of-work actor who is making a living working the reservation line at a trendy restaurant where everyone tries tricks to snag an impossible table. Shapiro plays Sam, and all the people he interacts with during the course of his day on the phone. Sam is good at this job and is dealing with some personal issues that make him question his career choices.
“As an actor, I get to find the love,” Shapiro said. “There’s the manager who is getting his own job and jokes around and thinks it’s really funny when he’s making Sam’s life really miserable. Who would be in love with him? Why does he do what he does? I have to find that,” he said.
Shapiro was called in at not-quite the last minute to take over the brief weekend run from Kraig Swartz, who had performed the play at Asolo Repertory Theatre in 2002. When Swartz was cast at Florida Studio Theatre in “Pictures from Home,” the company found Shapiro who performed the play last summer at the Barnstormers Theatre in New Hampshire, where he has become a regular over the last two decades.
Though the basic framework of the show will be the same as what he did last summer, Shapiro said it will be different because he is working with a new director, Gus Kaikkonen, who has staged it at least 10 times, and on a different kind of set to fit the in-the-round structure at the Sarasota Players theater, where the Sarasota Jewish Theatre performs.
And there are multiple versions of the play. In this one, Sam is trying to get time off from the restaurant at Thanksgiving to be with his dad.
Shapiro describes the experience as "delicious. It’s what I love to do the most. This is different from how I’m usually cast. I’m usually the bass baritone in the new musical who plays 10 roles. It’s something I’ve done for a long time but never on this scale.”
It can be exhausting, but when he’s on stage, it goes by quickly.
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“It’s so moment to moment. I don’t notice til later on how exhausting it is. As long as you’re in the right physical shape.”
Shapiro said the play will resonate in different ways for each person who sees it.
“It really depends on their experience,” he said. “If they’ve gone through a breakup and are going through life day by day, that’s the show they’ll see,” he said. “If someone is doubting their career choices, that’s the show they’re going to see.”
‘Fully Committed’
By Becky Mode. Directed by Gus Kaikkonen. Jan. 31-Feb. 4. Presented by Sarasota Jewish Theatre at the Sarasota Players, Crossings at Siesta Key mall, 3501 S. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota. Suite 1130. Tickets are $18-$36. 941-365-2494; sarasotajewishtheatre.com
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This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Sarasota Jewish Theatre is ‘Fully Committed’ to one-person comedy
