First Night Press

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Make it a First Night out at Bickford Theatre

by Allen Crosset in the Chatham Courier

Danny Fleming is a tall, good-looking fellow who on this particular New Year's Eve finds himself working late in a video store in his hometown, an old mill town, somewhere in New England. While he is putting away the Christmas decorations, a very attractive young woman enters the store, and soon he recognizes her as the girl he had a crush on 20 years before when they both attended the eighth grade of the local Catholic school.

Her name is Meredith O'Connor, but he always called her Mary, and she liked that.

And after high school, Mary went off to a convent to become a nun, and now here she is, wearing a little black dress, looking drop-dead gorgeous, and showing an interest in him that far transcends the spiritual.

Is this all a dream?

As unlikely as this set-up sounds, this is how Jack Neary's First Night begins. The romantic comedy, an excellent choice for this time of year, is now at the Bickford Theater at the Morris Museum in Morristown.

Danny is now 34 years old and since college he has drifted from job to job. He's been at the video store for the last year and a half, and his dream is to own the movie theater across the street where he could feature classic movies of years past.

During her years as a nun, Mary has been successful, especially as a teacher. While at the convent, however, she got caught sneaking out at night to anchor a championship bowling team, and she had to give away her bowling shirt and shoes. She realizes that something important is missing from her life.

She remembers she once felt a strong attraction toward Danny, and she recalls clearly that one day he looked in her direction and mouthed the words "Heavy P." She's thinks she knows what that means, but she wants to be sure.

So on this New Year's Eve, she shows up at the video store in that little black dress, armed with her camera, a photo album, and a stack of questions written out on index cards.

And in the back on her mind is the all-important question: Should she remain a nun or will her potential only be realized with Danny?

In this two-character comedy, Duncan M. Rogers portrays Danny, with Joy Schiebel as Mary, and from the opening moments we witness a fabulous rapport between these two drifting souls.

They both also talk directly to the audience, and that helps to make our two-hour visit with them a special treat.

There are a couple of moments in the first act where the exposition gets a bit ponderous, but overall the show is wonderfully entertaining. Daniel LaPenta, who is chair of the Theater Arts Department at Drew University, directs this offering and makes the most of the comedy's potential. The tempo is fast-paced, and the abundant humor is sharp.

First Night is a warm, romantic comedy about dreams and life and love. And for a cold, winter night, the production now at the Bickford is just about perfect.

Two likeable characters rediscover romance in ‘First Night’

By Debra Scacciaferro, Daily Record

MORRIS TWP. — Looking to throw a bit of light-hearted romance into your holiday this year? Go no further than the Bickford Theatre in Morris Township for a sweet and spunky two-person play called "First Night."

That’s where comic sparks fly between two terrific actors, Duncan M. Rogers and Joy Scheibel, in a kooky comedy centered on a nun’s second chance at happiness on New Year’s Eve.

Rogers is terrific as Danny Fleming, a sweet but lonely guy who’s spent his life dreaming about a girl he knew in eighth grade. Hot off his performance in the New Jersey Repertory Company’s production of "Naked by the River," Rogers is the kind of actor who gets under your skin and tickles your funny bone as easily as he can melt your heart.

Scheibel has just the right amount of spark and spit as the flaky, peppy nun Sister Meredith Louise — you guessed it, she’s that eighth-grade girl Danny still fantasizes about.

These days, Danny is a video store manager, whose chief pleasure is watching old movies. James Bazewicz designed a terrific video store set, with vintage movie posters from "It’s a Wonderful Life" and "It Happened One Night" and dozens and dozens of video covers lining the brick walls. There’s a popcorn machine, a couple of old seats, and some ratty Christmas decorations. The scene opens with the closing soundtrack from "It’s a Wonderful Life," as Danny sits in his empty store with a goofy, sentimental smile on his face.

Christmas movies

"I watch my first Christmas movie on Thanksgiving," he tells us, exuberantly ticking off his favorites as if we were a good customer or old friend keeping him company. "A Christmas Story" is his favorite. "I love the parents in that one. Nuts. Scared. Funny, but always there." That last comment betrays his wistful nature.

And then, with just two hours until midnight, Sister Meredith Louise walks into Danny’s store on a personal quest. With the blessings of her Mother Superior, she is trying to find out where she really belongs. Should she give up her vows? Or is the boy she still dreams about only a distraction from her true calling?

It’s a situation filled with funny moments.

"Excuse me," she says, as she creeps up awkwardly to the counter. "Am I holding you up?"

"I hope not," Danny cries and puts up his hands in mock horror as if being robbed.

Scheibel has the ability to portray Meredith’s bloom from eager, awkward puppy to a sensuous woman in sudden bloom. She packs a sexy black dress, blinds Danny with her camera flash, and wields a set of index cards filled with embarrassing and cryptic questions from their mutual past. By turns she is shy and kooky, righteous and idealistic, tough as nails and sweetly sexy.

All of which makes good Catholic Danny boy extremely uneasy. "I just put the move on a nun," he groans as she coaxes him into a kiss. "I might as well turn in my confirmation name."

Director Daniel La Penta of Morristown, who is on sabbatical this semester from his job as chair of the theater department at Drew University, does a nice job of balancing the nuttiness with the nostalgia, while revealing the dreams these two droll characters keep hidden under a prickly exterior.

Witty dialogue

Neary’s dialogue is often witty and endearing. "What does it mean, Danny, to devote your life to God?" Meredith asks indignantly. "Long hours," he intones, "low pay, black clothes. A lot of bingo."

But at times, the play veers off in the wrong direction, with Neary throwing in scatological references, a few too many Catholic jokes, and a silly segment having to do with pubescent feelings awakening over a corpse at an Irish wake.

It doesn’t do to delve too deeply here. It’s all surface fun, even though the thin plot sometimes feels a bit forced.

But Rogers keeps us rooting for Danny. When he directly confides in the audience, you feel as if you’re a good friend or cousin, hearing a blow-by-blow account of this crazy, weird night. You feel as though you’re on his side, no matter what happens.

And, without giving it away, Neary does manage to keep you guessing how it will all end right up until that proverbial last minute.

'First Night' too incomplete to make it in the second act

12/12/01

BY PETER FILICHIA
STAR-LEDGER STAFF

"First Night" is a good first act of a play. But where's the rest of it?

12/04/01 - Posted 11:46:42 PM from the Daily Record newsroom
Morris native gets romantic in ‘First Night’

By Debra Scacciaferro, Daily Record

MORRIS TWP. — New Jersey is bringing out Duncan M. Rogers’ romantic side.

Last month, the Morristown-born, New York- and Boston-raised actor delighted audiences as Tim, an ex-lawyer whose free-spirited ideas clash with his girlfriend’s naked ambitions, in Michael T. Folie’s romantic comedy "Naked by the River" at New Jersey Repertory Company in Long Branch.

On Dec. 6, Rogers opens at The Bickford Theatre in Morris Township as a daydreamer who gets a second shot at love in Jack Neary’s romantic comedy "First Night."

Rogers moved to New Jersey from Boston five years ago to work as an actor in a New York production of "The Mousetrap" directed by Eric Hafen, who is now artistic director at The Bickford Theatre. Rogers also played Joseph of Arimathea in Hafen’s production of "The Passion Play" at the Park Performing Arts Center in Union City.

"I didn’t come here to New Jersey to do theater in New Jersey," Rogers said. "I thought theater was only in New York. But I’ve been totally proven wrong. This state has some great theater. And it’s a very nurturing group of people. Most of the Bickford staff came down to see me in ‘Naked by the River.’"

Quirky personality

Rogers is not your usual romantic leading man type. He’s tall, yes, but not dark. Handsome, yes, but with a quirky personality — like Jimmy Stewart, with a boyish grin and a prickly sense of humor.

In real life, Rogers is married and the proud father of a year-old son, Malcolm. (He says his goal is to get Malcolm’s name painted somewhere on every set he appears on.)

But in "First Night," Rogers plays Danny Fleming, a lonely, 30-something video store manager who drifts through life, fantasizing about Meredith, a girl he knew in eighth grade. In his head, he’s built an entire life with her, complete with children and a two-car garage. But Meredith became a nun, and Danny’s chief pleasure is watching old movies, just as he is doing on New Year’s Eve in his empty store with "It’s a Wonderful Life" to pass the time.

Just two hours before midnight, real life and fantasy collide when Sister Meredith Louise walks into Danny’s store on a personal quest. She wants to find out if she has made a mistake in becoming a nun, and if so, whether the boy she still dreams about might open a door on another life.

As a newlywed herself, Joy Schiebel can relate to the idea of romantic fate: She met her husband, actor Jason Marr, on an Ohio production of "Twelfth Night" and it was love at first sight.

Carrying a torch

But the idea of carrying a torch for someone she knew in the eighth grade is a stretch for her. "I mean, I can’t remember a thing about eighth grade," she said. "Maybe 10th grade."

But Meredith’s idiosyncrasies offer lots of fun for Schiebel and Rogers. Sister Meredith Louise packs a sexy black dress, which her mother bought her, and a set of index cards that she whips out from time to time to remind her of questions to ask Danny. And she has the single-minded drive of a detective in grilling Danny about his prospects and his feelings for her.

"The character is so hilarious, so quirky," Schiebel said, pursing her lips in a comic pout. "Meredith is a meticulous plotter. She’s really a control freak, and she’s plotted out what she wants to happen tonight. ... I like to think that I have some of those qualities, but (I’m) maybe not as much of a bulldozer as she can be."

Rogers equates their relationship to George Bailey and Mary (played by Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed), who grew up together in "It’s a Wonderful Life."

"Danny and Meredith know they have an attraction for each other," Rogers said, "but they go off in two vastly different directions. She goes off to the convent, and he doesn’t do anything because he’s so unable to fulfill any sort of promise because she’s missing from his life. … Danny’s had her in dreams for 20 years; he’s not sure how to react when she walks in the door. That’s the fun of it."

The production is directed by Daniel La Penta, of Morristown, who is on sabbatical this semester from his job as chair of the theater department at Drew University. He’s taught there for 22 years and has a passion for Shakespeare, for teaching, yet keeps his hand in professionally as an Equity stage manager and director.

He’s also an old college roommate of Hafen’s from Boston College. Like the characters in First Night, the two friends lost track of one another until La Penta’s name came up when Hafen was inquiring about potential directors in the area.

"The theater world is a very small place," La Penta said. "I came to see ‘Crimes of the Heart’ and Eric told me about this play, and I liked it. It’s a well-written play that avoids some of the pitfalls of modern comedy. It’s not too clever or too predictable."

Playwright Neary has tackled romantic comedy before with "Jerry Finnegan’s Sister" about a nerd and a cheerleader. And the subject of Catholic celibacy in another comedy, "To Forgive, Divine," which explores priestly celibacy and the doubts and distractions of the vocation of priesthood.

For "First Night" he combines both, and draws on classic film references to quintessential American couples, from "It’s a Wonderful Life" to Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy in "Adam’s Rib," to Maureen O’Hara and John Wayne in "The Quiet Man" — all with spitfire heroines who have minds of their own and no qualms about speaking their mind. Just like Meredith in "First Night."

"What I like about Meredith is she won’t let Danny get away with anything when he’s in his self-pity mode," La Penta said. "She’s very direct. Kind of fearless. In eighth grade, she was a wallflower, but the convent helped her find herself. And Danny, he’s a good Catholic boy, who has problems just fantasizing about her all these years, knowing she’s a nun. It’s almost inevitable what’s going to happen to them, but what makes it interesting is the way that Jack Neary takes you there."

Playwright Neary will discuss his play at The Bickford’s Scholars on Stage lecture Dec. 23 at 12:30 p.m. before the Sunday matinee of "First Night." The cost is $5 to attend.

"First Night" opens Dec. 6 at 8 p.m. Performances run through Dec. 30, Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m., in The Bickford Theater at The Morris Museum in Morris Township. Tickets cost $26 for the public, $23 for seniors, $22 for museum members, $12 for students.

The Dec. 13 performance includes a Thursday Night Chat, and there’s a Singles Night Dec. 21 (a $30 ticket includes a post-performance champagne reception and discussion). For more details, call the theater at (973) 971-3706.

"First Night"

Dec. 6-30

The Bickford Theatre

6 Normandy Heights Rd., Morris Township.

Tickets $26, $23, $22, $12.

Call (973) 971-3706