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It's about da deer
Tulsa World (Final Home Edition), Page S3 of Arts
By KAREN SHADE World Scene Writer
06/09/2006

Jeff Daniels' comedy opens at Heller Theatre
At 35, Reuben Soady is about to break a record, but in his family, being the oldest male of the Soady clan to have never bagged a buck is nothing to brag about.

"Escanaba in Da Moonlight," Heller Theatre show that opened Thursday, is the kind of play you might not associate with John Cruncleton, whose Nightingale Theater is haven to some of the most delightfully unconventional stage and performance work you will find in Tulsa.

But after Heller staff asked him to direct this comedy written by actor Jeff Daniels, Cruncleton said he agreed to do the show because he liked the script.

Heller Theatre presents "Escanaba in da Moonlight," a comedy about hunting. Joseph Gomez (left) is Reuben Soady, Whitson Hanna is Jimmer and Jason Watts is Remnar Soady.
A. CUERVO / Tulsa World
"It's a classic comic script. It's designed for actors, for one thing. That's always a fun aspect when the script is designed with the stage in mind. It had a lot of classic cartoon comedy in a way," he said.

"Escanaba" takes place at the century-old Soady family deer camp cabin in the upper peninsula of Michigan. The family has a long tradition of hunting and has kept a log of kills made every year. Albert Soady's oldest son, Reuben, has never "bagged a buck." Unless Reuben succeeds at this year's camo-clad reunion, he will become the joke of his family.

"The conflict revolves around his attempts to overthrow family tradition to try to think of a new way so he can be assured of getting one," Cruncleton said.

Reuben recruits his Ojibwa wife to make a potion for him, but it does nothing to divert havoc at the camp nor a series of strange events and even stranger characters, including a buddy who believes he was abducted by aliens.

"I thought it would be a fun role to play, and I think that I kind of identify with it in some way. It's kind of a rite of passage story about this guy," said Joseph Gomez, who plays Reuben.

Born and raised in Tulsa, Gomez said he never got into hunting.

"I'm not opposed to it or anything. I'm just not really interested," he said. But he does understand Reuben's urgency to resolve his own conflicts with his family's expectations.

In the Soady family, "that's pretty late to have not achieved this goal. Since it is kind of a rite of passage story, I think in modern times, there is no clear rite of passage for most guys. It's a kind of manufactured one whenever they get married or have kids or whatever," Gomez said. "... I'm doing community theater in Tulsa, and I'm watching a lot of friends my age get into pretty serious careers, you know, raise families, and I'm not really at that stage yet. Maybe there's a personal connection there."

But Gomez admits the story does not focus on Reuben's initiation for long.

"It's kind of like a chick flick for guys," he said. "... There's a lot of beer drinking and guns and farting," he said.

Cruncleton said "Escanaba" is about a crisis every man must face.

"The thing is, instead of being cynical about it, it really offers up a sweet and poignant answer ... that has to do with love," Cruncleton said.

And the show stages a very "male-oriented type of humor, but I think women will find it appealing because of that," Cruncleton said. "The males will respond to it because it's five men at a deer camp stuck in a cabin with scary things going on outside."

ESCANABA IN DA MOONLIGHT
When: 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday and 8 p.m. June 15-17
Where: Heller Theatre, 5328 S. Wheeling Ave.
Admission: $8 general, $6 students and seniors
For more, call 746-5065.

This site sponsored by Heller Theatre Council.
To contact the webmaster e-mail alb74066@aol.com or Heller Theatre at Parktheater@ci.tulsa.ok.us

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