Interview: Joe Capucini, Gloria Wang, Trevor Kaz & Gloria Wang of THE MINUTES BY TRACY LETTS at Black Swamp Players

The Black Swamp Players will present The Minutes by Tracy Letts November 6-8 & 13-15, 2026. This dark comedy revolves around a city council meeting in the town of Big Cherry. Newcomer Mr. Peel (Trevor Katz) quickly finds this folksy little town can carry big secrets. Filled with small town politics and hearty disagreements, this dark comedy questions following status quo and how far you would you go to protect unsettling history. 

I had a chance to sit down with director Joe Capucini and actors Trevor Katz (Mr. Peel), Gloria Wang (Ms. Johnson) & Heath Diehl (Mr. Hanratty) to talk about the show, their process, and how the play (and Tracy Letts) brings the theatre’s dedication to challenging it’s audience full circle. 

How did this play get chosen? Can someone tell me how it came about?
Heath: Well, I read this play a number of years ago and immediately thought, “We should do this.” I brought it to season selection several years ago, but it kept getting a “yes, but” and was put on the back burner for three or four years.
The “yes, but” was always, “Can we cast it? Do we have enough men in our pool to be able to cast it?”
Eventually, we did Book of Days last year, and we got a bunch of men to come out for that. Season selection finally said yes, so the version of me from five years ago was jumping for joy.
I really love Tracy Letts’ writing, and I thought this would be a great show for us. We had previously produced his work.
August: Osage County?
Heath: Yes! That was our first season in our new building. We saw it as our transition play, moving from what Black Swamp Players had been to what we wanted it to become. We wanted one show that would really push our audience that first season, and that was the show that had everything, plus the kitchen sink.
So, this play was chosen and made it onto the season.
Joe, how did you become involved in this production?
Joe: Black Swamp Players put out an open call for directors, so I jumped at the opportunity. I’m not certain how the distribution of plays was planned, but I love Letts’ writing. I love him because he’s an actor first and a writer second.
If you remember, he won a Tony for Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? He’s an actor, and this is a very actor-friendly play. No role is wasted. No role is superfluous.
So, when they said, “Congratulations, you got The Minutes,” I was thrilled.

What are some of the themes and elements in this show that our community will relate to?
Joe: The play begins in the style of a single-camera comedy at the beginning, then the reenactment, where there’s a play within the play, and then we turn inward.
Because of that, there’s never a dull moment. There’s never a dip in attention. Letts puts these moments together in a way that I think will be important for the audience, especially because of how we’re approaching the piece.
We’re approaching it as an immersive experience, rather than a traditional play-to-audience experience. The audience members are going to be citizens of Big Cherry, and we’re really leaning into that. We even wrote the curtain speech through Mayor Superba, so I think that will be an additional draw and attention-grabber for the audience.
What type of research or character analysis went into putting this show together?
Gloria: Joe is great as a director because he’s also an actor, so he understands where we’re coming from. He has a wealth of knowledge when it comes to acting, too. He shared the tools and background work he would use as an actor to give us as many resources as possible when approaching our roles, which I greatly appreciated.
The way Letts writes, there are so many details, nuances, and allusions in every part of the play. It involved diving into all of that so we could truly understand what was being said and recognize the symbolism.
That way, we as actors can better portray those elements for the audience, bring them out, and give the audience hints so they can become immersed in the story and understand it better.
Joe really emphasized all of that, which I appreciated. I think all the actors took the time and did their due diligence, too. We’ve had so many great discussions about the play, even before we started working. And in rehearsal, Joe asks questions that push us to think more deeply.
It’s been a really great experience for me.
Trevor: One thing that seems interesting about this show is finding the entertainment in monotony. There are all these little details within the council, and the characters seem to be navigating a hierarchy of power. How do you uncover what’s happening beneath the surface?
I think a lot of people are comfortable in their own worlds. They want to fit into their communities, so they may accept what happens rather than question or challenge what’s already been established, whether it’s right or wrong. Sometimes, people feel they have to go along with things to belong.

Joe: There’s a certain slogan that one person proposes, and it’s countered by a slogan from someone with more authority. The person with less authority gets browbeaten into acquiescence. Exactly what you just described happens a couple of different times.
There are blue sheep, red sheep, and purple sheep. This is one of those plays where, until we have a plaid sheep, everyone is fitting into a category.
It’s interesting that you brought that up because it’s a really strong moment in the play.
Would you say that every town has its own recognizable characters, and that this show captures that? How do you approach those characters without turning them into caricatures? How do you find those moments and navigate the more complicated aspects of portraying them?
Heath: There are definitely those characters. When I started working on this, I thought about all the work I’ve done in nonprofits. I’ve seen people like these characters in every nonprofit I’ve worked with. I sort of know their stories.
But that question of how you walk the line between character and caricature comes down to asking questions.
Joe did this very early on, and maybe he regrets it now, but he told us to send him our ideas and thoughts. I would send him these long messages, saying things like, “I think the reason my character plays squash is this,” because I’d done all this research on squash.
It’s about asking what’s at stake for these characters and why they care about the things they care about. They do care, even if they’re recognizable character types you might find in any group, not just nonprofits. You could look at a workplace and find these people, too.
But asking what they care about and what their relationships are with other people helps ground them as characters rather than caricatures.
How have you maintained that balance while bringing everyone together? How has it been working with so many people to create this ensemble and make sure the ideas and themes come across?
Joe: For me, it starts with trust because it’s an ecosystem. I always look at a cast and an entire production as an ecosystem. Anyone who has directed knows you don’t want to introduce a poisonous plant into that ecosystem.
Nobody in the audition process struck me as one of those poisonous plants. I probably could have cast this show one and a half times over, but I knew most of these actors, their work, and their dedication to the theater community.
That made things a little easier. I’ve worked with a couple of them before, and I brought in some people from my past who hadn’t been onstage in a while. Some of them I worked with at UT years and years ago.
It comes down to committing myself to trusting everyone.
One wonderful thing working in our favor is that the actors rarely leave the stage. They’re pretty much onstage the entire time, so they have to be present for one another. Otherwise, the bottom drops out.
Getting them to know each other, encouraging general conversation, and watching those who were unfamiliar with one another begin to interact and build relationships has been a joy. Watching that evolve has been wonderful, but it all starts with basic trust.

There’s something special about building an ensemble in a play like this, where everybody is together in that small space, working and building off one another.
Joe: It’s been an amazing experience. Every day, I see the actors building trust in one another. I’m not directing everything; they’re coming up with their own ideas.
They’ll keep things going in the background when something else is happening onstage. Some actors have long stretches of pages where they have no dialogue, but they commit to interacting with one another to make the space feel alive and vibrant.
That’s on them, and they’re doing it naturally, which is a wonderful thing.
That’s very exciting! I can’t wait to see it! Is there anything else I haven’t touched on that you’d like to share about the show?
Joe: The only thing I would add is Letts’ encouragement to question everything. Question everything.
Mayor Superba is the original “question everything” character, and this play challenges us to do that.

The Minutes by Tracy Letts
Presented by The Black Swamp Players
115 Oak Street
Bowling Green OH 43402