Interview: Director Phil Johnson on RIPCORD and The Roustabouts Theatre Co.’s 10th Anniversary

The Roustabouts Theatre Co. celebrates its 10th anniversary year with Ripcord, a sharply funny comedy by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Lindsay-Abaire. Running October 8 through November 1, 2026, at Scripps Ranch Theatre in San Diego, the comedy follows Abby, a stubborn, sharp-tongued woman, and Marilyn, her relentlessly cheerful roommate, whose seemingly simple disagreement over their shared living space escalates into an all-out battle of pranks. Beneath the laughs, the play explores loneliness, pride, unlikely friendship and the connections that can change our lives.

Directed by Phil Johnson, founder and artistic director of The Roustabouts Theatre Co., the production stars acclaimed San Diego actors Linda Libby and Eileen Bowman, alongside John DeCarlo, Samantha Ginn, Eddy Lukovic and Matthew Javier.

Johnson has directed several productions for The Roustabouts, including Act of God, Master Class, True West, Loopedand Hand to God. As an actor, his credits include Les Misérables on Broadway and on tour, the Canadian production of Sunset Boulevard and the first national company of Miss Saigon. A two-time San Diego Critics Circle Craig Noel Award winner for acting, he is also a founder of the San Diego Theatre Alliance and the creator of the Great Jewish American Playwright Series/JPlays at the JCC. This year, he was named Producer of the Year by the San Diego Writers Festival.

We spoke with Johnson about bringing Ripcord to the stage, collaborating with two celebrated local actors and finding humor, connection and inspiration in life’s more challenging moments.

What drew you to Ripcord, and why did you feel this was the right play for The Roustabouts Theatre Co. at this point in the company’s 10th anniversary year?

I've always been attracted to comedy – that's how I really started my career, with comic characters on stages in Chicago and then in Broadway touring shows. I think what's been going on over the last few years has put people through so much emotional stress, especially watching my own son get through COVID-19 and that isolation. I've recently been looking for shows for The Roustabouts to direct and produce that are basically about important ideas in life that we can use to help us keep going and give ourselves meaning and inspiration. But I look for the best writers who really pack their work with funny, lovable characters and situations that open our hearts up first. David Lindsay-Abaire is one of my very favorite comic Broadway writers – smart, with important human ideas underneath.

You have two acclaimed San Diego actors, Linda Libby and Eileen Bowman, leading the production. What do they each bring to these hilarious and stubborn roles, and how has their chemistry shaped your approach to directing the play?

Linda Libby and Eileen Bowman are both longtime professionals here in San Diego. Their chemistry was set right from the very first reading – they knew what they were doing. The show starts out with this hilarious kind of “Golden Girls” setup in the nursing home, raucous and outrageous – two roommates in a senior facility play deadly jokes on each other to win the best bed in the room! But as it keeps going, you realize that these two very much need each other to get through this experience of being here; one is battling loneliness, the other trying to forget. It's truly versatile actors like these who can play this and turn on a dime when we start to really look inside them and understand who they are and what's going on in there. Luckily, we all trust each other to look deeply at that. So they see they need each other, but they're absolutely gonna tear down the house before they get to that understanding! Comedians Eileen Bowman and Linda Libby tear it up!

How was your collaboration with your design team to establish the world of this comedy?

I used to be an architect – that's what I majored in in college. So my training was very much in design, detail and settings. When I start a play, I’m thinking about visual connections, ideas and metaphors. There's nothing more exciting to me than to learn something from the play just as deeply as I hope the audience will. This world had to be funny but realistic, with some moments of magic toward the end. Add to that a lot of settings outside the facility. Set and projection designer David Kievit helped me come up with a very realistic hospital-type room with a lot of surprises coming out of it, which works perfectly for the changes in style and tone. Costume Designer Heather Nunn gave me things that clearly outlined the characters: one very introverted, sarcastic and retiring, and the other a wildly outrageous visual creature. Add to that the ridiculous side characters who visit this world. I think this is one of the best-realized Roustabouts shows we've done in the last 10 years – fast, funny, but hopefully meaningful and memorable.

What conversations do you hope Ripcord might spark about aging or loneliness?

This is a show that depicts mature, active people fighting to understand where they are right now. It was important that they not be weak and helpless, but strong people living a life. I think it's their real inner senses of humor that keep them going and give them that pragmatic, comic feeling of “Well, it could always get worse.” One of them needs a reason to keep going, and the other is looking to finally feel useful. And the show leaves you with the idea that all of us should be able to live life fully – all the way to the very end, if we're open to it. There are still people to reach out to and pleasures and learning to come, if we'll just grab them.

Anything else you'd like to add?

Inspiration is very important to me, and it's central to the way I put out all the work of the theater. With every show, program or reading, I look to inspire the audience with meaning, emotion, connection and ideas in these cold, hard times. We’re starting a youth wing, Young Roustabouts, that I hope will help young people recognize how wonderful their lives can be when they have a direction that's difficult but very rewarding. I think that's important for young people right now.

I love working with great actors and great scripts – that inspires me, too. There are moments possible there that you can hold on to forever. And I love great humor – some of the funniest moments come from tension where people are fighting for their lives, but you can’t help but laugh. That’s where the gold is for me, and I hope for others.