By Steve Simmons – Posted 3:57 p.m., Wednesday, Dec. 15, 2021
At Beverly Hills’ Theatre 40, Ann Hearn Tobolowsky is known as the director who steps in to save the day.
In September she replaced a director with schedule conflicts to helm the company’s premiere of Marilyn Anderson’s satirical look at sexism and ageism in Hollywood, As Good As Gold.
“We were finding our groove and getting established,” says Hearn Tobolowsky, when plumbing problems in the floor above the group’s Reuben Cordova Theatre on the Beverly Hills High School campus brought the production to an abrupt end.
A broken pipe on the second floor of the building caused leaking and extensive water damage to the theater’s stage. “The school didn’t feel comfortable continuing the production for health and safety reasons,” said Hearn Tobolowsky. “Closing the show was upsetting, off putting and overwhelming,” says Hearn Tobolowsky. “I felt terrible for the actors and Marilyn to have had the rug pulled out from under them.”
Now she’s stepped in to replace another director to steer the group’s production of David Lindsay-Abaire’s Good People which opened last week and will run through Jan. 9 (for details see below).
“Even though I would not ideally do one play after another,” says Hearn Tobolowsky, a 41-year member of the company, “this felt like a last-minute rescue. I love this play and I’m passionate about presenting it. I thought to heck with a personal life and sleeping. I said, ‘assign it to me. Pick me.’”
Hearn Tabolowsky was already set to direct Katie Forgette’s Incident at Our Lady of Perpetual Help later in the season when actors Alison Blanchard and Suzan Soloman asked her to direct a Zoom reading of Good People, “just for fun. Alison and Suzan, who brought the play to my attention, had a strong understanding of the play, and went on to be cast. They saw the vision. I was so happy to cast the whole play from within the company.”
Themes For These Days
Lindsay-Abaire’s Tony-nominated best play centers on Margie (pronounced with a hard “g”). Growing up and living in the tough working class “Southie” Boston neighborhood, the sharp-tonged single mother with a severely disabled adult daughter has just been fired from another job, this one at the Dollar Store, by her young manager Stevie (Michael Kerr). Already struggling to get by, now she has to find a way to make ends meet, pay her bills and not get evicted.
“The play is certainly socially relevant for our times,” says Hearn Tabolowsky. “We see people struggling who don’t give up. People who persevere and work hard and try to do right in the world even though they are very flawed with histories they’re not proud of.”
Good People veers into the intersection of economics and class when out of desperation Margie (Alison Blanchard), reconnects with former high school boyfriend Mike (Scott Facher.) He’s now a successful physician living in tony Chestnut Hill, with his younger, beautiful Black wife (Charlotte Williams Roberts) and their daughter. He got out of Southie, and she didn’t. The reasons why and why not deal with the complexities of race, gender, family structure and just plain luck. And choices.
Yes, it’s a play about class,” says Hearn Tabolowsky. But for her it’s a broader definition. “It’s about circumstances and lives lived with different results. “Mike knew at 13 that the neighborhood was a dead end and he refused to be stuck there,” says Hearn Tobolowsky. “He chose college and a different life. Margie didn’t have those opportunities and made different choices. She shows you can work hard and still be cursed and held down.”
The play’s pivotal scene where Margie shows up unexpectedly at Mike’s house begging for support and help in the form of any job asks many questions. Does grinding poverty necessarily lead to a loss of humanity? Can a Southie –a first generation escapee who does all he can to cover his roots–still be nice and “good people?” Is someone driven to nasty behavior by financial desperation a bad person?
“People get pushed into corners and sometimes they attack, and it’s not the response they intend,” says Hearn Tobolowsky. “It can turn into an ugly dog fight, and no one wanted to go there. This play is about self-defense and self-preservation and the lengths people will go to.”
There’s No Place Like Home
Lindsay-Abaire himself grew up poor in South Boston, and he easily creates a neighborhood where this month’s paycheck covers last-month’s bills. For fun and entertainment there’s church bingo. He’s populated his Boston with characters “who cope with overwhelming obstacles, but are protective of each other as well,” says Hearn Tobolowsky.
Margie’s friends Jean (Suzan Soloman) and Dottie (Mariko Van Kampen), her googly-eyed-rabbit-making landlord, provide many of the play’s laugh’s. “The play is very funny,” says Hearn Tobolowsy, “there’s humor along with the heartbreak.” As her bingo-playing buddies, “they have a relationship that feels authentic,” says Hearn Tobolowsky. “Even with Archie Bunker like tendencies, they are characters, not caricatures.”
Margie Walsh is based on Lindsay-Abaire’s mother and Frances McDormand won the 2011 Best Actress Tony for the play’s premiere. Proving the play’s universality, British actress Imelda Staunton took on the role in an acclaimed production in England.
A Director’s Perspective
“I’m so impressed with the actors,” says Hearn Tobolowsky. She’s thrilled to be back in the company’s theater, even with all the COVID-19 protocols. Up until a week before opening they were rehearsing in the school’s cafeteria, using chairs to represent an alley behind a store, a run-down apartment, luxury home, doctor’s office and church bingo hall.
“It’s been a delight; we’ve been having a good time exploring the play’s Easter eggs within,” says Hearn Tobolowsky. She loves Lindsay-Abaire’s idea that even if you live on the brink, destiny can have a way of surprising you. Hearn Tobolowsky likes the significance of the last bingo number called in the play; the one Margie was hoping for in an earlier scene. “It’s kind of a metaphor for the idea that we never get what we want when we want it.”
I find the play hopeful and inspiring. You never know where blessings are going to come from,” says Hearn Tobolowsky. “How people respond to the final scene is a Roschach Test for people and what they believe. It says struggles are better confronted with a sense of hope.”
The director wants audiences “to walk away with a genuine experience that feel enlightening and educational,” while being transported to South Boston in the financial crisis of 2011.
Hearn Tobolowsky approaches directing as a collaborative art. “We see what our instincts are and then try to go in another direction and change the tone,” she says. “We may disagree on a scene, like how to approach an argument, but the process becomes like sculpture, and we arrive at something. We take the journey to discover what this play is saying.”
She sums up the message: “Life is hard and there’s no guarantee of success. Do the best you can then try to do better.”
The theatre is at 241 S. Moreno Dr. Beverly Hills. Free parking is available in the parking lot beneath the theater. Performances are at 8 p.m., Wednesdays, Dec. 15 and Jan. 5; 8 p.m., Thursdays, Dec. 16 and Jan 6; 8 p.m., Fridays, Dec. 17 and Jan. 7; 8 pm., Saturdays, Dec. 18 and Jan. 8; 2 and 7 p.m., Sundays, Dec. 19 and 8 p.m., Monday, Dec. 20. Tickets are $35. For reservations, call 310-364-0535 or visit wwww.theatre40.org.
Steve Simmons is an accomplished writer and editor who writes about a wide array of topics including entertainment. His successful experience at the Beverly Hills Courier and other publications set the stage for his blog. Contact Steve at steve.simmons0211@gmail.com or 626-788-6734.
