A Rare Production Of THEOPHILIUS NORTH Announced At Players' Ring

Matt McGonigle of Square Peg Productions in Concord has wanted to produce the story of "Theophilus North" for a decade now, since he first saw the stage adaptation of Thornton Wilder's story of a man coming of age in 1926, Newport, RI.

The show includes seven actors playing nearly two dozen roles, and McGonigle, who now runs a Production Company in Concord, knew he needed the right theater and the right actors to make his vision live.

"I saw Theophilus North about 10 years ago and absolutely fell in love with the story and the play and it's a show I've wanted to produce and direct since then," McGonigle said. "The timing and theater hasn't been right. It requires a certain type of theatre and a group of actors willing to take on an acting challenge."

Now, all the ingredients are in place and "Theophilus North" will be showing Jan. 4 through 20 at the Players' Ring Theater on Marcy Street in Portsmouth.

The Players' Ring was the right locale because it is smaller and "creates an intimacy the piece sort of requires," McGonigle said. "I wanted it to be where actors are right on top of the audience and the audience to be right on top of the actors."

The part of Theophilus will be played by Mike Domeny of Londonderry, a professional improv actor. Theophilus is a Yale graduate who quits his job as a teacher in New Jersey to find adventure, but instead finds himself stuck in Newport.

All of the other roles will be filled by six other New Hampshire actors, no easy task. The actors will be using different voices and body language as they jump back and forth between roles.

"As Theophilus works his way through these stories he goes back and forth through these characters, so actors are not just playing one character for 10 pages and then another character for the next 10," said McGonigle, who is directing. "You go back and forth with maybe 28 pages between when you play the character and then when you play it again. "

Among the actors playing multiple roles is Zachary Speigel, a senior at the University of New Hampshire who plays a spoiled teenager, a man in a troubled marriage and a range of inanimate objects, including a city and a sign.

"Playing multiple parts is something I've never had to do," said Speigel, who is studying acting and directing. "But I'm really up to the task and it's something I'm embracing as an acting and story-telling challenge."

According to McGonigle, "It is a play with an uplifting message to embrace life and the people and places around us." The protagonist's journey, according to McGonigle, "is to understand the impact we can have not only on our own destiny, but our potential for realizing that destiny."

The script for "Theophilus North" was adapted by Matthew Burnett, who worked with the Wilder family and stayed true to the style of its Pulitzer Prize-winning author. According to McGonigle, whose Square Peg Productions works with material and playwrights that might not otherwise be performed, this dramatic comedy is rarely performed.

Discovering Magic will be performed Friday to Sunday, Jan. 4 to 20 at the Players' Ring Theatre at 105 Marcy St. in Portsmouth with shows Friday and Saturday at 3 and 8 pm and Sunday at 3 pm. Tickets are $18 with discounts for students, seniors, and Players' Ring members. Reservations can be made at playersring.org or 603-436-8123.

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