The Broadway mega-hit “Hamilton” has shone a bright spotlight on nontraditional casting in the theater, with actors of different backgrounds and races playing the rapping, singing founding fathers.
Locally, the new Narcisse Theater Company, founded just months ago, takes a similar approach in its productions.
“Unless it’s specifically stated in the script that the character must be one race or the other, I’ll be fluid with casting,” said founder Frank Henley Jr., a local dramatist, actor and poet. “My goal is to find the best actors and to unite the two different arts communities in the area.”
Other goals are to “showcase to the Harrisburg region’s culturally diverse and intellectually engaging live theater, both original plays and revivals,” as well as the inclusion of multimedia art, explained Henley, who is also the company’s artistic director.
Narcisse presented its inaugural play—Jean Paul Sartre’s “No Exit” (“Huis Clos,” in the original French)—in May at the Harrisburg Midtown Arts Center. This month, it will mount its second production, “The Itch of Gloria Fitch” by Harrisburg playwright Paul Hood.
Not the Usual
It took Henley some 30 years to bring to fruition an idea that was lodging in the back of his brain—to create his own theater company.
“It would give me the opportunity to help select plays and direct them,” said the Harrisburg native. “It would be an opportunity to express myself in another artistic vein.”
His experience as an actor and poet with local companies such as Gamut Theatre Group—where he performed in the “Stage Door Series”—inspired him, as did what he calls “an incredible cast of local talent.” And he has other big dreams, too, such as establishing a young person’s branch and maybe an acting school.
“We’d like to have a lot of community involvement,” he said.
That means, in part, trying to expand the composition of audiences beyond the traditional “older, white ones”—an issue faced by many theaters, he said.
Henley is also dreaming of “an all-color” version of Arthur Miller’s classic tragedy, “Death of a Salesman.” Its protagonist, Willy Loman, is one of the roles he is eager to play. Another is Shakespeare’s Othello.
Narcisse plans for two productions a year, one in the fall and the other in the spring.
“Fifty percent of our seasons will be works by local playwrights, while the other 50 percent will be revivals,” Henley noted. “I’m particularly fond of comedies.”
Hood’s absurdist play, “The Itch of Gloria Fitch,” reflects that preference.
The four-character play concerns a young woman struggling with something internal that causes her skin to itch. Ultimately, she realizes the root of the problem, and that discovery leads to personal growth.
There’s also a love interest, noted Hood. However, both individuals realize “they’re good for each other but not in the capacity of a long-term relationship.”
The play, he said, is really about self-love.
“It’s fun, not heavy, probably my least heavy play,” Hood added. “But it does have a message: Anyone who struggles with self-esteem issues should not isolate him or herself from the world.”
The playwright is excited to be working with Henley, as the two have been friends for years.
“Narcisse is the theater company we’ve all been waiting for—not doing the usual,” Hood commented. “It’ll be a good outlet for local playwrights.”
Double Meaning
An evening of one-act plays by 20th-century Irish playwright-poet John Millington Synge will follow in March. It will include a tragedy, “Riders to the Sea,” and a dark comedy, “In the Shadow of the Glen.”
“His work doesn’t get done often,” said Henley. “I love Irish literature, and Synge was able to take the lilting quality of the language and translate it into English.”
But what’s the secret behind the new theater company’s intriguing name? It has a double meaning, according to the artistic director.
“Narcisse was my paternal grandmother’s name,” he said. “I never met her but heard she was an incredible woman.”
The company’s name also invokes Greek mythology—the story of the handsome youth Narcissus who falls in love with his own image in a pool of water.
“Actors have to have a bit of narcissism,” Henley said with a chuckle.
Narcisse Theatre Company will perform “The Itch of Gloria Fitch” by local playwright Paul Hood on Nov. 18 to 20 at Harrisburg Midtown Arts Center (H*MAC), 1110 N. 3rd St., Harrisburg. For more information on Narcisse, email narcissetheatre@gmail.com or call 717-777-1374.
Author: Barbara Trainin Blank
