40th Street Stage Delivers Tear-Jerker
Saturday, 06 June 2009 11:12 | 
Author: Jeff Maisey | 
The gut wrenchingly memorable, compellingly performed new play Hearts Full of Tears went on a crash diet before it made its debut at the 40th Street Stage this month.
After its first read-through - the first time the cast sat down with director Frankie Little Hardin and read their newly assigned parts, out loud, from the play’s beginning to end - author Bill Jenkins did a rewrite that pared away 19 pages. That loss of some 3000 words slimmed the play by about 10 percent. Jenkins is a theatrical designer with some 300 shows to his credit. He teaches at Dominican University in Chicago, and spent a quarter century working and teaching in Richmond.
Hardin is the multi-hat wearing Managing Director of 40th Street Stage, who acts, oversees, writes, produces and directs. 
, Jenkins’ first foray into script writing, had its genesis in real-life tragedy.
In 1997 his 16-year-old son William was murdered by robbers. Jenkins wrote a highly praised and widely used book called What to Do When the Police Leave: A Guide to the First Days of Traumatic Loss, and then the first draft of “Hearts.”
It’s about a middle aged couple, George and Jo, working through their grief after losing only son Davey to a street crime. It’s not autobiographical, but Jenkins notes that just about everything said in the play has been said by someone in similar situations.
The play “sat on the shelf,” in Hardin’s phrase, from 2002 until last year. That was when the non-profit Virginia Center for Public Safety contacted Hardin to see if 40th Street Stage would be interested in working with them toward their goal of reducing gun violence in Virginia. (Check out their web site at www.vacps.org.)
Conversations led to mention of the unproduced Hearts Full of Tears, which 40th Street’s newly appointed Literary Manager, Bill Armstrong, then read, liked, and passed on to Hardin. Casting and the read-though and more conversations ensued. Hardin told Jenkins that the play should not be “unremittingly sad,’ and also that she and the cast all agreed that first version was “overwritten.” Figurative weight loss and muscle toning followed, with ongoing, small increments of rewriting after the big edit.
Hardin lauds Jenkins for being “so open to what we were saying” and “so willing to give.” Jenkins returns the compliment, thanking Hardin for “showing [him] how to streamline it.”
“She helped me a great deal with technique,” joining the cast in steering him away from “tangents” and helping him to delete things he “did not need to say anymore.”
The result is a well rounded script of seven scenes interlarded with seven monologues, in two acts, for seven speaking roles, plus one silent party guest and one canine.
In short, the play has become an impressively affecting, deeply effective piece of theatre. Hardin’s unobtrusive, clean directing, and the cast’s performing skills are all top notch.
The deceptive, apparent ease with which Nick Ventura has slipped into the role of the bereaved George sets off the fierce energy Beth Pivirotto brings to her part of the slightly manic Jo.
Local veteran Armstrong is at his very best as the quietly loyal, long time family friend Bob. Carol Wright is spot on as the Bob’s wife Val, the epitome of the well meaning but sometimes clumsy comforter. Chris Manitius is strong and convincing as Jack, the play’s resident angry young man - and the only voice of viewpoints that are not profoundly faith based.
As Alice, Jack’s fiancee and later his wife, Eileen P. Quintin gives a truly lovely, graceful performance. Her scene with Jo, telling the older woman the story of her own, secret loss, is one of the most finely crafted in the play.
Dave Olson brings the right touches of empathy, and of conscious but unforced sincerity, to the role of the widowed pastor John.
Some traces of the overwriting do remain. Scene One loops into reiterations about the beloved and talented young son with the promising future. Jo’s passionate speech about opera goes on a bit, even for those who share her relish of that art form. Those are small glitches, easily remedied, and do not significantly diminish the show’s full worth.
For all the plaudits due these artists, and the thanks due 40th Street Stage for undertaking this world premiere, here the play really is the thing - rather a thing of beauty, and definitely of importance.
Hearts Full of Tears
Fri.-Sun., through June 20
40th Street Stage
757-423-4084
Last Updated ( Monday, 22 June 2009 22:11 )
