When “Deuce” received its world premiere on June 23 at Mountain View’s Pear Avenue Theatre, it was the culmination of countless hours of work by dozens of individuals. The show’s director, producer, actors, designers and stage crew had been laboring for months to bring this play to life.
None of them, though, worked on the show as long as Sharmon Hilfinger.
Hilfinger is the show’s playwright, and she has been fashioning the script for “Deuce” since late 2003. The impulse that launched this nearly three-year effort was Hilfinger’s desire to explore “issues of love and power in relationships.” In “Deuce,” she has created a relationship between an older, successful woman and a young man who is still conflicted about his life goals, thus turning the usual power equation (older man/younger woman) upside down.
Hilfinger, a Palo Alto resident, has been writing plays for 20 years and has been an organizer of the Pear Playwrights’ Guild — a group in which playwrights receive advice and critiques from their peers — since its inception. Nonetheless, she says each play is a new learning experience.
Take “Deuce,” for example. The story concerns a female academician writing a biography of her recently deceased mentor. Her research brings her into close contact with the late professor’s son, and, as the details of the professor’s life unfold, the two of them uncover a number of secrets.
The play is structured as a mystery. This is a departure from Hilfinger’s previous musicals and romantic comedies, and she has had to learn a new set of storytelling skills. Information must be doled out incrementally in order to propel the story forward.
“One of the challenges has been how to make the revelation of this information dramatic … without hitting the audience over the head with a sledgehammer,” she said.
This is also the first of Hilfinger’s full-length plays in which all the action occurs in a single location. This limitation has forced her to delve deep into the characters and to find creative solutions for “how to keep the action on stage.” She speaks admiringly of Tennessee Williams’ ability to spin a compelling drama out of two characters in a single room on a single afternoon.
Theater being a collaborative art form, Hilfinger has had help from many quarters. She is especially grateful to have had the opportunity, in late 2005 and early 2006, to workshop the play at the Encore Theatre in San Francisco.
Encore’s artistic director, Lisa Steindler, organized six sessions over a two-month period in which experienced actors rehearsed, discussed, and improvised around the text.
By allowing Hilfinger to see the play “on its feet,” the workshops suggested directions for revision and expansion. “Having time to muck around with [a script],” she said, “really pushes it forward.”
Hilfinger is also grateful that Ann Kuchins, director of the Pear’s production, has been with the project since the workshop phase, as has actress Denise Balthrop Cassidy, who plays the academician.
The production of “Deuce” is just the latest chapter in Hilfinger’s four-year association with the Pear Avenue Theatre.
Hilfinger was one of the volunteers who helped turn a white warehouse space into a black box theater in June of 2002, and it was on that day that the Pear Playwrights’ Guild was conceived. “Several of the people who came to help paint had been taking playwriting classes,” Pear founder Diane Tasca recalled, “and they started talking about … forming their own group.”
The idea fit well with Tasca’s vision for the Pear. “When the Pear began, one of our main objectives was to encourage new playwrights” by staging original works by Bay Area writers, she said. Since the theater opened its doors in 2003, more than a third of its shows have been new works — including several by members of the Pear’s playwriting group.
Writing, in Hilfinger’s words, is a “very private” activity. She feels that only recently has the Pear Playwrights’ Guild solidified into a truly cohesive entity, one in which the writers feel safe to discuss the writing process and share half-finished work unself-consciously.
According to Tasca, Hilfinger has contributed “great intelligence, tact, and open-heartedness” to building the group, and often encourages new members to join.
As for “Deuce,” Tasca is excited to be producing a full-length work by Hilfinger, a work that she describes as “both witty and heartfelt.”
She added, “We think that our audiences will be caught up as we were.”
INFORMATION:
What: “Deuce,” a new play by Sharmon Hilfinger, presented by Pear Avenue Theatre
Where: Pear Avenue Theatre, 1220 Pear Ave., Unit K, Mountain View
When: Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m., through July 15
Cost: Tickets are $15 for Thursday and Sunday performances, $20 for Friday and Saturday, $5 less for students and seniors.
Info: Call the box office at (650) 254-1148. For more information, or for ticketing online, go to www.thepear.org.
