BPP to present comedy-drama play 'Lemonade'

No matter how often storylines follow the life of an artist struggling to make ends meet, such themes still carry the potential to resonate with a wide audience.

In the Bloomington Playwrights Project upcoming comedy-drama “Lemonade,” stand-up comedian Gus and his family paint a bleak yet funny picture of artists balancing what they love and what they need to do to survive.

The 75-minute play is scheduled to premiere 7:30 p.m. Friday on the BPP stage.
Additional performances will be Dec. 1, 6-8 and 13-15.

Tickets, which can be purchased at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater box office or online, cost $19 for the general public and $16 for students and senior citizens.

Written by cartoonist and screenwriter Mark Krause, “Lemonade” was chosen out of 450 submissions for the Woodward/Newman Drama award.

The award is sponsored by Newman’s Own Foundation and named after famous actors Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman.

In addition to winning a $3,000 cash prize, the award also includes a full production on the BPP stage and an all-expense paid trip to Bloomington on Dec. 6 for Krause to see his show in action.

“His was the best of the best,” said play director Chad Rabinovitz.

Rehearsals for the show began the first week of November.

Though Rabinovitz has the final say in all shows produced at the BPP, this is his seventh play he’s directed at the venue.

“I was actually saying to people earlier that this for me, during my years here, is the most pertinent play I’ve produced because it’s about people struggling in this economy,” Rabinovitz said. “It’s about your average person.”

Gus, played by Daniel J. Petrie, and Elyse are parents to a son and daughter who face overdue bills and the prospect of eviction.

Elyse, performed by Catharine Du Bois, is a sculpture artist who cuts hair at a salon on the side, an occupation that makes up the bulk of the family’s income.

Krause, who splits his time between Toronto and New York City, said he began working on “Lemonade” before the housing market started to decline in 2007 and finished it sometime in 2011.

While the themes of the play don’t necessarily stem from his life, Krause said if people who knew him read his play, they would be able to tell detects parts of him in it, “almost like a smell.”

“It’s sort of like a soup,” he said. “You see a carrot, or a whole carrot or it might have a bit of a carrot flavor in it. It’s in there and it’s helping to make the whole soup.”

“Lemonade,” the second of the BPP’s 2012-13 season, might even resonate with the acting staff portraying the downtrodden yet optimistic characters in the play.

Du Bois, who teaches at the Maurer School of Law and calls herself a “recovering lawyer,” is able to follow her passion by acting in the play.

“My life touches up against people who are living very close to the edge,” she said. “But, fortunately, I’m not.”

This is Du Bois’ fourth play at the BPP and her first time working with Rabinovitz as director.

Rabinovitz said the play is ultimately about a family who appreciates the comedy in life and does everything they can to try to find the humor and optimism.

“My favorite line in the play is when (one of the kids) tells the dad, ‘Someone said in school today that we’re poor. Dad, are we?’ And his response is, ‘It doesn’t matter if you’re poor, honey. It matters if you’re funny,’” he said. “That’s sort of what the play is about.”