Playhouse gives birth to ‘Jumping for Joy’

Tom Titus

They’re “Jumping for Joy” at the Laguna Playhouse this weekend, no

one more so than the play’s author who’s been in town for the past

two months helping put the finishing touches on his world premiere.

“This is a great cast, all three of them. It’s a real ensemble

show,” beams Jon Marans, who’ll see the second of his plays presented

on the Laguna stage. This time, however, it won’t be the third or

fourth rendition of a script replete with fingerprints.

The first time Marans linked up with the Playhouse was three years

ago for “Old Wicked Songs.” But that play already had been presented

both in New York and on the West Coast and wound up as the runner up

for a Pulitzer Prize. “Jumping for Joy” will be born at the

playhouse.

It’s also one of the few non-musical scripts of the six penned to

date by Marans, who majored in math and music at Duke University, but

always knew he wanted to be a playwright.

“It’s billed as a dark comedy, but we’ll find out,” says Marans,

who admits to 45 years but would be carded in any bar in Laguna.

“It’s either a twisted comedy or a comic drama -- sort of like (John

Guare’s) ‘The House of Blue Leaves.’ Audiences didn’t know what to

make of it when it first came out.”

“Jumping for Joy” involves just three people -- a father, 71, who

has suffered a heart attack; his daughter, who lives with him, and

her brother, whom she summons to help care for the old man. And each,

Marans asserts, has his or her own agenda, which conflicts with those

of the others.

Each of the trio, he adds, delights in playing mind games with the

others, which elevates the familial conflict. The daughter, for

instance, intends for her brother to stay, but he has a wife and

child at home and resists that demand.

“It’s a darkly comic family,” the playwright offered. “Each of

them is slightly off.”

Comprising the cast are Allan Miller -- seen a few seasons ago as

Willy Loman in South Coast Repertory’s “Death of a Salesman” --

Daniel Nathan Spector and Deborah Van Valkenburgh, who has three SCR

appearances to her credit.

The family’s intellectual bent quite possibly springs from Marans’

own upbringing in Silver Spring, Maryland, where his father was a

scientist and his mother wrote book reviews. Both, he notes, passed

on a genuine appreciation for learning and words.

Marans, who now lives in the “Hell’s Kitchen” area of New York

City, had been in touch with the playhouse since it presented his

“Old Wicked Songs” in 1999. He sent the new script by e-mail to

playhouse executive director Richard Stein, who had directed “Songs,”

and Stein immediately responded, “I want to do it.”

“This is a brilliant play,” Stein said. “It’s more complex than

‘Old Wicked Songs,’ more of a ‘well-made play,’ although it does

present some technical challenges.

“I love plays that use real food,” Stein commented, “and this one

has a lot of it. Despite the heavy overtones, there’s a great deal of

humor.”

Marans, who will see “Jumping for Joy” restaged at the Adelaide

Theater Festival in Australia in February, has been successful as a

playwright from the start. His first effort, “Child Child,” won the

Preston Jones New Play Award in Houston, and his “Old Wicked Songs”

was included in a “best plays” anthology of 1996-97.

He wrote the book for the musical “Legacy of the Dragonslayers,”

based on Studs Terkel’s novel “Coming of Age,” and provided both book

and lyrics for “Searching 4 Y,” which premiered last year in Seattle.

Back in 1991 he was a staff writer/lyricist for the “New Carol

Burnett Show” on CBS. Currently Marans is shopping a new screenplay,

entitled “The Virgins.” “It’s not anything like it sounds,” he

advises.

Although he’s a dyed-in-the-pavement New Yorker, Marans admits

he’s thoroughly enjoying his summer in Laguna.

“I’m having a great time,” he says. “It’s rare to have this

extensive an experience with a new play.”

* TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Coastline Pilot.