BWW Profile: Courtney Lomelo Wears Many Hats in THE MOTHERF*#KER WITH THE HAT

This is the first installment of a two-part profile on actress, producer, director, filmmaker, and candlestick-maker Courtney Lomelo, who I met when she first arrived in Houston. She'd just returned from Los Angeles, taking time off from a successful commercial career to take care of her father, diagnosed with cancer, and she was just beginning (again) in the Houston scene.

That night, she gave me a free ride home and free advice, telling me that being an actress in L.A. was hard work, but fun work. After all, she said with her signature beaming smile, you're in sunny L.A. right by the beach.

I never forgot her generosity and watched as she rose through the Houston theater ranks, smashing performance after smashing performance. But right now, we'll focus on the present: THE MOTHERF*#CKER WITH THE HAT. Lomelo currently appears on the Obsidian Theater stage with Luis Galindo (Jackie), Patricia Duran (Veronica), Rhett Martinez (Cousin Julio), and Atseko Factor (Ralph D) in THE MOTHERF*#CKER WITH THE HAT, an unlikely love story from Pulitzer Prize-winning dramatist Stephen Adly Guirgis. Next time, you'll get a lesson in Lomelo history.

"It's just a play that really set me on fire," says Lomelo of THE MOTHERF*#CKER WITH THE HAT. It's a gritty story of addiction, recovery, and love. "Sexual content, drugs, guns -- on stage but it's not necessarily about that," she says. "It's street life. It's real life. It's New York life. It's Puerto Rican, and African-American, and Caucasian and how that melting pot comes together with a through line of family, love. It's something that needs to be heard and seen. It's a story that needs to be told. I don't think anyone will go away untouched."

The dark comedy centers around Jackie, an ex-con and ex-addict on the come-up. Shortly after his prison release, the former dopeman has a great relationship with his girl Veronica, is doing well in AA with the help of his sponsor Ralph D and, as of today, he's got a good, legal J-O-B. Then he sees the motherf-ing hat -- all the (circumstantial) evidence he needs to conclude (or realize) that Veronica is cheating on him. Lomelo appears in THE MOTHERF*#CKER WITH THE HAT as Victoria, Ralph D's unfulfilled but nevertheless hot-to-trot wife.

This production marks the Houston premiere of the 2011 play (which Lomelo helped bring to the city as co-producer with Obsidian Arts). It's a darker play than we're used to, but Lomelo thinks local audiences will welcome it with open arms. "It still touches on universal, human conditions," she says. "It takes the underbelly of life and goes, 'Hey, it's the same everywhere.'"

"Addiction doesn't pick and choose. It doesn't just choose the less fortunate," says the actress. "If you're living in River Oaks, you're probably still dealing with this. You've been cheated on. You've dealt with addiction. You've got a family member who's gay... That's the beauty of it."

Nearly early every member of the cast has wanted to bring the play to the stage for years. Galindo packed the play in his bag daily for years. ("It's vulgarity elevated to poetry," he says.) Duran picked up a script years ago, when the show was produced on Broadway, and the play instantly permeated her heart and mind. "The truthfulness of all these characters. They're so raw and flawed and beautiful and hopeful and you're pulling for every one of them to get what they want," she says. "Underneath all of the muck of their human flaws, you can just see their potential."

The Obsidian Theater production had to bring in the heavy-hitters. The original New York production earned mixed reviews-- Scott Brown said the play lacked depth and Westword theater critic Juliet Wittman called the characters unrealistic. The title is a deterrent. Everything must be pitch perfect, especially the performances.

Houston theater veteran James Belcher directs and Lomelo assistant directs. "With James Belcher as the director, I feel like I'm getting a front row seat in some master work," says Lomelo. "Assistant directing has pushed me further into the development of the play and an understanding of the entire play."

In their scene work, the cast dissects each scene, always working to make more honest, more bold, and deeper choices, says Duran. "James Belcher, our director, is (in a wonderful way) like 10 steps ahead of us. And yet, at the same time, is still super reliant on the actors finding the answers together." Between she and Belcher, "there's just this wonderful sense of trust. I still feel like I can completely trust James in knowing that he knows this play backwards and forwards. He's been studying it for months. And he's been living with it for months." Moreover, "there's a lot of trust in the room, I think, with all of us, which is so huge. Even though it's a dark comedy, they're some hard places that everyone has to go to."

Like each member of the ensemble, Duran has more than enough to chew with her meaty character. Veronica and Jackie have been together since the 8th grade. Both are Nuyoricans. "They've been friends, best friends, and lovers since [the 8th grade]," says Duran. "So they know each other intimately." But Jackie is in recovery and Veronica is still using. Infidelity is the least of this couple's problems. "She doesn't think she needs to stop. She's totally in denial about stopping. She sees herself as functioning," says Duran. "And she does function. She keeps a job. She pays her rent. In her mind, she's not jeopardizing anything in her life with her substance abuse. She doesn't see it as that."

Duran and Lomelo are frequent collaborators. Recently, they've starred together in THE MAIDS, THE DROWNING GIRLS, and now THE MOTHERF*#CKER WITH THE HAT. "And we both speak the same language," says Duran. "In terms of techniques, the actor vocabulary e.g what's our intention, what does our character want. Sometimes, we can just look at each other and know what the other person is saying or thinking. We just know each other really well."

Like Jackie and Veronica, "Courtney and I are really good friends, and we work really well together," says Duran. "We're both so like-minded in making the work the best it can be and as deep and honest as it can be."

When Drew Barrymore offered co-star Hugh Grant a note on the set of MUSIC AND LYRICS, Grant responded with such outrage that Barrymore burst into tears. That's not a problem for the two actresses says Duran. "She and I can talk about the scenes. We can talk about the characters. And we will give each other suggestions."

"There's no awkwardness between her and I," says Duran. "We have no problem telling each other, 'Hey, I really think this line is this.' Or, 'I think she's saying this.' That's a two way street between her and I. That's a special thing that we share. Not everyone is comfortable with that. But she and I are able to do that with one another."

It shows. In her review of THE MAIDS, Broadway World editor Jenny Taylor Moodie says, "Lomelo and Duran work well together, with an implicit trust that's a must to play these two characters."

"I'm a huge fan of her as a person and an artist," says Duran.

But THE MOTHERF*#CKER WITH THE HAT is more than the sum of its parts. Good thing Duran has nothing but love for the rest of her castmates. They're all workhorses, she says. They all give in rehearsal then give even more on stage. Galindo is "someone who makes you better" and Factor, who blew Duran and everyone else away with his performance as Christian in RUINED (also at Obsidian Theater), "just carries so much light inside of him." And funny man Rhett Martinez is constantly curious and searching. "These are the people you want to surround yourself with," says Duran. "It's like a 'Dream Team.'"

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See the theater counterparts of Jordan, Pippen, Magic, Ewing, and Bird in THE MOTHERF*#CKER WITH THE HAT through October 8 at Obsidian Theater, 3522 White Oak Drive. Performances are at 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays. For information, call 832-889-7837 or visit obsidiantheater.org. $20 - $30. Discount tickets for seniors and students available.

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