Tag Archives: Paul Hood

“River City Stories” brings Harrisburg voices to the big screen next month

June 3, 2026 | by Rosena Campana

River City Stories official poster

Harrisburg locals can see their city on the big screen at an upcoming film premiere.

“River City Stories” is returning to the Harrisburg Fringe Festival from July 16 through 18 with a fresh lineup of original films inspired by life in the city, following two years of sold-out screenings.

In order to portray the experiences, ambiguities, and nature of their community, playwright-screenwriter Paul Hood and journalist-filmmaker Wallace McKelvey collaborated on a film project that combines comedy, drama and slice-of-life narrative.

This screening will feature the third installment of “River City Stories,” a project that started with the first slate of films in 2024 and a second in 2025, both premiering at Midtown Cinema for the Fringe Festival, as well.

“There’s something special about sitting in a theater and hearing people identify a piece of themselves on screen,” McKelvey said. “This project has always been about creating space for those connections and showcasing the incredible creative talent that exists right here in central Pennsylvania.”

McKelvey’s vision aligns with the mission behind many of the films featured at the festival, including local productions that seek to tell authentic community stories. The fourth annual Harrisburg Fringe Festival takes place July 16 to 19 and features theater, art, music and film.

“Harrisburg is full of stories, many of which go unnoticed by outsiders,” Hood said. “’River City Stories’ is our attempt to shine a light on moments involving the human condition and create characters that audiences recognize in themselves, their neighbors, and their communities.”

The newest film installment will be shown at Midtown Cinema during the Harrisburg Fringe Festival on:

Thursday, July 16 at 9:20 p.m.
Friday, July 17 at 6 p.m.
Saturday, July 18 at 4 p.m.

All tickets can be purchased online on the Harrisburg Fringe Festival website. For updates and additional details, you can follow their social media accounts on Facebook and Instagram.

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Free live music coming to lunchtime in downtown Harrisburg this December

November 24, 2025 | by Alexandra Jones

Strawberry Square is a mixed-use complex in downtown Harrisburg.

Downtown for lunch this holiday season? If you go to Strawberry Square, you may be able to enjoy free live music while you eat.

Harristown Enterprises announced Monday that it will host a variety of hour-long shows during the week at UPMC Stage. Regional performers and school groups will perform around noon, Dec. 1 through Dec. 19. Groups include the Hershey High School Jazz Combo, the Lower Dauphin Chamber Orchestra, the York/Adams Mennonite Singers, and the St. Joseph School Choir Chimes and Handbells.

“We’re excited to have so many talented people in our region and we welcome them to downtown Harrisburg,” said Brad Jones, president of Harristown, which owns Strawberry Square. “We hope this will bring a wider audience into the city to see the talent that the downtown is offering on our stage.”

Patrons of the Square’s second-floor food court will be able to easily enjoy the music while dining.

Food vendors in the Square include Denim Coffee, Chef Chen’s, Fresca Burger and Chicken Shack, Santa Fe Taco Factory, Sakura Tokyo, Tropical Smoothie Cafe and Taco Bell.

The holiday performances will cap off Dec. 19 with an evening holiday variety show from 6 to 9 p.m., organized by Sara Bozich. The final show will feature DJ EMD. Open Stage, Harrisburg Improv Theatre’s Hyena Skits, the Rhythm Lounge, River the Bubble Musician, Theatre Harrisburg, the Gamut Theatre Group, Paul Hood, and the musical group Oversoon will also take the stage.

For more information on Strawberry Square, visit its website.

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Harrisburg filmmakers bring more city stories to the screen, debuting at July’s Fringe Festival

June 16, 2025 | by Maddie Gittens

“River City Stories” poster

Hometown stories will come to the big screen during a local festival this summer.

Local filmmakers Paul Hood and Wallace McKelvey will show their newest installment of “River City Stories,” which looks at life in Harrisburg, as part of the Harrisburg Fringe Festival in July.

The film will debut at Midtown Cinema, with showings from July 17 through 19. The Harrisburg Fringe Festival runs through the 20^th and includes live entertainment, visual art displays, theater experiences and more unique art happenings.

Hood and McKelvey debuted their first installment of “River City Stories,” which included four short films, at last year’s Fringe Festival as a tribute to their city and its residents.

In July, they will showcase four new short stories in the series, with some returning characters and storylines and some new ones. However, viewers don’t need to have watched part 1 to follow part 2.

“River City Stories” explores themes of grief, romance, tragedy, housing and complex relationships, among others, and features a cast of local actors.

“River City Stories allowed me a chance to creatively discuss the complexities of our city by developing characters that speak to people from all walks of life,” said Hood, a Harrisburg playwright.

Paul Hood and Wallace McKelvey (2024)

Hood and McKelvey joined forces to begin the film project during the pandemic, hoping to capture the shared experiences of Harrisburgers across class, race, gender and geography.

Eventually, both parts 1 and 2 of the project will be combined into one film and screened in 2026, McKelvey noted.

“I’m incredibly grateful and proud of the community of talented artists who converged around River City Stories,” said McKelvey, a journalist and filmmaker. “We love our community, and that love is reflected on screen.”

View the teaser trailer for “River City Stories,” here. To purchase tickets for the film showing, visit the Harrisburg Fringe Festival website. For more information on the film, visit their Facebook page.

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Harrisburg filmmakers spotlight the city’s diversity in “River City Stories,” to debut at fringe festival

July 11, 2024 | by Jolie Lloyd

Filmmakers Paul Hood (left) and Wallace McKelvey (right) in front of Midtown Cinema

A new film showcases the diversity in Harrisburg and the interconnected stories of its residents.

“River City Stories,” a film by Harrisburg residents Paul Hood and Wallace McKelvey, will premiere at the Midtown Cinema on July 19 and 20 as a part of the Harrisburg Fringe Festival.

While it functions as an hour-long story, “River City Stories” is a collection of four shorter films, each telling fictional stories based on real life in Harrisburg.

“It’s comedic; it’s dramatic,” McKelvey said. “It runs the gamut of emotions and experiences in this city.”

Hood, a playwright, and McKelvey, a journalist and filmmaker, first met at a social function after McKelvey moved to Harrisburg over a decade ago. Although they discussed partnering to work on a film together, it took the pandemic to make it happen.

“Everything that was holding us back from collaborating melted away during COVID,” McKelvey said. “We had full schedules previously, but all of it got canceled. That gave us space to hang out.”

They began meeting, socially distanced, and developed the concept of “River City Stories.”

Through a process of writing and revising, they wrote the scripts for the short movies that now comprise the film.

“It came out of us talking about what we’ve experienced in Harrisburg and what we’d like to experience in Harrisburg,” Hood said.

While the stories are fictional, they are deeply rooted in real-life experiences, according to McKelvey.

“It’s based on what was going on in the community,” he said.

To capture a sense of authenticity and reality, McKelvey and Hood allow humor and tragedy to coexist in their films.

“We’re showing different perspectives, viewpoints and cultures, but hopefully keeping it entertaining as well, and making you laugh here and there,” Hood said. “We need that, in order to deal with this heavy stuff.”

(From right) Wallace McKelvey, Paul Hood and actors on the set of “River City Stories”

A strength of McKelvey’s and Hood’s collaboration is the differences in their backgrounds, on both a professional and personal level.

“The differences between us are kind of obvious and surface level,” McKelvey said. “I’m a journalist, and he’s a playwright. I’m white, and he’s Black. I’m gay, and he’s straight. We come from different worlds and have different vantage points, so we get to bring that together to this collaboration.”

McKelvey’s and Hood’s differences help them tell a story of diverse characters. Their goal is not to “write villains and heroes,” according to McKelvey, but rather to tell a story weaving together a range of well-developed characters from different backgrounds and cultures.

“It’s about where these characters collide,” McKelvey said. “Even when characters make questionable choices, it’s all about what’s behind that. Asking, ‘how did they get to this point?’”

The film also showcases the variety of neighborhoods in Harrisburg.

“We want to peel back the layers on the city,” Hood said. “People only think of downtown and Midtown. They don’t know about Allison Hill or South Side, or even Uptown. We want to show all these different places with different people.”

The cast consists of local actors, as well as both Hood and McKelvey, who star in the film.

“Paul and I set out to tell the stories we’ve never seen anyone tell and go to the places few people show. We hope that every single person can identify with something in the River City,” said McKelvey.

Tickets for “River City Stories” can be purchased for $10 at Harrisburg Fringe Festival’s website or at the Midtown Cinema box office at 250 Reily St., Harrisburg.

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Burg Review: Threads of life unravel in Theatre Harrisburg’s deeply layered “Pieces”

February 11, 2023 | by Gina Napoli

From Theatre Harrisburg’s Krevsky Center, local playwright Paul Hood and Director Francesca Amendolia bring to the stage “Pieces,” a dramatic, slice-of-life family story, pieced together like a jigsaw puzzle of dysfunctional generational dynamics and tragedy.

We meet husband Phil Blakeny (Andrew “Sarge” Dixon) and wife Kes Blakeny (Dana Kinsey) set amongst a melee of stacked furniture that triples as the family’s living room, furniture store and dream sequences. With as many pieces as I recognized in the pile of furniture, I’m pretty sure the set designers loaded their truck full up at my grandmother’s yard sale. And probably yours, too. The accumulation is a metaphor for years of unprocessed emotions and stored secrets.

Central to the family drama is a troubled marriage and Phil’s core struggle with failure in realizing his dreams. Not only does Phil fall short in providing for his family when business slows at his inherited furniture store, “The Dream,” but he also loses himself in the shadow of his father Graham Blakeny’s (John “Chick” Lee) legacy of success, back when “The Dream” served as a source of pride for the neighborhood.

Instead of helping Phil at the furniture store, Kes nags him about spending too much time working, and then she steps out with another man. Kinsey finds a balance with her lonely character, playing her both as vulnerable and likable, but still saying and doing annoying, selfish things, like cherry-picking the best furniture for herself.

Dixon takes a more subtle approach to his character, but his journey spans deeper than he wants to delve. He takes the audience along for a gut-punching dream sequence—comparing his life to his father’s expectations. My heart aches for Phil, wearing his wrinkled suit and stocking feet, juxtaposed with his father’s sharp-cut silhouette, complete with spats and a fedora. It was as if Phil didn’t feel worthy enough to step into his father’s shoes. His father asks him, “Is this the life you have or the one you want?” It’s a fair, yet layered question, and Phil struggles to answer without wallowing in the comfort that is denial.

Times are tough with the big box stores siphoning customers. As the store dissolves into a dream state, Phil doesn’t tell his wife that he can’t afford to pay their daughter Elé’s (Mia Thornton) college tuition. Thornton brings a self-assuredness to her role that lets the audience know that Elé will forge her own way, in both college and in life. No matter what happens with her parents, we’re not worried about her.

Playwright Paul Hood plants plenty of symbolism to add extra meaning, weaving past and present scenes together, skipping around in time. Although the dialogue is poetically thick at times when Phil and Kes talk about their love for each other, the trajectory of their love story takes the audience nowhere predictable.

When it comes to the comic relief this play absolutely requires for the level of gravity it contains, the stage crew stole the show. Instead of wearing traditional black garb and doing their darndest to blend silently into the background, furniture movers Tessa Eberlein (Fenton), Adelyn Heck (Adelyn) and Daniel Hutchins (Daniel) wore convincing work uniforms, clunked the furniture around, and hilariously groused at each other through numerous set changes. It would be tempting to see this play multiple times to hear the movers’ ad-libs from one show to the next.

An honorable mention for humor goes to Gerren Wagner for her playful portrayal of the mischievous Hota Pasquale, Kes’s best friend and go-to bad girl. Although her character is not as fleshed out as the others, Hota would still be a blast to hang with, that rare friend who plunks herself way deep into your business and doubles as family.

Most of the family scenes in “Pieces” feel laden with sadness and regret for a family haunted by disillusionment and mental anguish, yet simultaneously fragmented when laid against the different pieces that move in and out of a changing life. Amendolia’s note sums the play best, “Sometimes broken things cannot be fixed.”

Hood alludes to a “suitable, but not spoon-fed conclusion.” He makes the unpredictability work in this play, giving the untied threads he left hanging a true-to-life feel. It’s also true of good fiction—you keep thinking about it long after the story has been told. Sometimes the seams in the sofa aren’t neatly stitched together.

“Pieces” runs through Feb. 19 at Theatre Harrisburg’s Krevsky Center, 513 Hurlock St., Harrisburg. For more information on show times and tickets, visit https://theatreharrisburg.com/shows/pieces/.

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Burg Review: Playwright Paul Hood bares his painful youth in Narcisse’s raw family drama, “Kill Keller”

January 16, 2022 | by Gina Napoli

Brave is the writer who rips open his painful life story to expose all the scars, to re-open all the old wounds.

Local playwright Paul Hood shares his own R-rated teenage years with Narcisse Theatre audiences in “Kill Keller,” his graphic memoir of growing up in Allison Hill in the 1990s with his abusive stepfather Keller (Aaron Bomar).

H*MAC’s snug, basement-level performance space offers the perfect setting for the play, as audiences symbolically enter Hood’s cramped childhood home, complete with decades-old salvaged furniture, a leather whoopin’ strap hanging on the wall, and a velvet Jesus portrait.

Although the vibrant colors of the huge portrait occupy a lot of wall space, Keller’s constant rants and harsh demonstrations of control reflect his rejection of any power higher than himself. Keller humiliates, manipulates, criticizes and beats his stepsons Naudain (Isaiah Brown) and Maclay (Stiles Everett) over their every action and non-action. This sets up a family dynamic in which the boys can’t win. And they weren’t meant to.

Keller is unlikeable in every way, leaving the audience wondering if there is redemption for him. Keller’s only hope for mustering any sort of sympathy is his vulnerability from poor health, and if you have a soft spot for caustic people who suffer from addiction.

Hood’s life story is told through everyday family life situations that are purposefully repetitive, exposing damaged relationships between all the family members. I lost count of the number of times Keller sent Naudain to the store to buy cigarettes, how many times Mom (Erika Eberly) told Naudain to wash the dishes while his older brother Maclay sat on the couch, how many times Mom prioritized her need for affection over her sons’ safety. A silent character is the boys’ biological father, a military man who abandoned the family and whose toxic presence is frequently mentioned.

The turning point in the story comes when Maclay joins the Marines, and Keller’s health problems escalate. This shifts the underlying forces between all the characters, including Reverend Niel (James Mitchell) whose presence only seems to amplify the brokenness. Every scene is weighty with fight-or-flight decisions.

The actors’ body language and repellent reactions toward each other reveal a blended family unsuccessful in bonding together, tromping through metaphorical eggshells all over the stage floor, with any love they might feel shown in a selfish or guarded way. The play is disturbing all the way through to its unsettling end.

Director FL Henley said of Narcisse plays, “No happy endings. And sometimes no endings. We want you to leave with uncomfortable questions. We don’t want to put a bow on it for you.”

Henley assured the audience that, in real life, actor Bomar is one of the nicest people we could ever meet, and he really wanted to play a baddie. Bomar played his role so well that I will probably cross to the other side of the street if I see him around town.

Hood, who felt afraid at first to put something so emotionally raw into the universe, experienced catharsis in writing the play. He said, “I needed to work through stuff that happened with my stepfather. Writing helped me move past the trauma. Even if I almost gave up on the play, even if we almost never performed it, writing it was my therapy.”

I had the privilege of sitting next to Hood during Act I of the play. In way too many scenes, I felt like bending his 6-foot-plus frame down and resting his bald head on my heart. I wanted to re-mother him properly–to hug his inner child hard, to build living room forts with him, and to give him a dog he could keep.

During the final round of applause, I felt my entire body unclench, and I started to fully breathe again. I didn’t realize how tense the atmosphere felt until that moment.

You will want to stay for the talkback after the show. That will give you the opportunity to find some necessary comic relief in the loving and respectful interplay between the actors, to hear their individual and collective journeys (one of which was a significant death in the family that unfortunately delayed the play’s premiere this past November), and to discover the supportive family that is Narcisse Theatre.

“Kill Keller” runs Jan. 14, 15, 21, and 22 at 7 p.m., and Jan. 16, 23, and 30 at 2 p.m. in the Harrisburg Midtown Arts Center (H*MAC). Find more information at https://www.narcissetheatre.org/ and on Facebook.

Burg Review: Deep truths, deeper questions probed in Narçisse’s reality-bending “Rashōmon”

September 6, 2021 | by Gina Napoli

A scene from Narçisse Theatre Co.’s “Rashōmon,” playing at Italian Lake Park

I could point to any number of issues that people disagree vehemently about.

Whether it’s the latest conspiracy theory or debating the color of a dress with strangers over the internet, everyone brings their unique perceptions and levels of argumentative passion. With most issues, you can agree to disagree at the point of impasse, and then move on with your life.

But when four unreliable witnesses give drastically different first-hand accounts of a rape and murder, and someone may be put to death over the crime, that’s not a debate easily shrugged off. We have to dig into motivations behind those alternative realities and the unfortunate mutability of truth, or “truth.”

Different versions of the “truth” spin like ancient fake news in Narçisse Theatre’s season opener, “Rashōmon,” a psychological thriller from a 1950 film set in 8^th-century Japan. Told through traditional kabuki theater style, four eyewitnesses describe a rape and murder scene from four drastically different points of view. One character even comes back from the dead through an African tribal dance to give their account.

Before we meet any of our eyewitnesses, we first meet the three people waiting at the gate of Rashōmon: the Priest (Samuel Eisenmuth), the Wigmaker (James Mitchell) and the Woodcutter (Aaron Bomar). Think of these three as the talking heads of the day, both narrating and analyzing the story and all its points of view. They serve as the fact-checkers of their day, intermingling their own biases. Like sinister magpies perched on a clothesline, their gossip and judgments continuously oscillate the truth along a spectrum.

Our four eyewitnesses/participants in the crime scene very capably demonstrate their talents for high drama, especially in the stage combat scenes. Tajomaru (the bandit, played by Stiles Everett), Kimune (the wife, played by Erika Eberly), Takehiko (the samurai, played by Paul Hood) and the Woodcutter (Bomar), all convincingly pull distinctive elements into each version of the story to alter it enough, yet still make each somehow believable.

Along with the ever-shifting truth is audience sympathy that head-hops depending on who the perceived victim is, and which truth presents as stronger. In discerning the truth, it’s important to note the cultural norms of the day regarding suicide, honor and the lack of a #metoo movement. Our own lenses do not necessarily bring the picture of 8^th-century Japan into sharp focus.

The somber lighting and shadows on-set are symbolic of the hazy understanding intended for “Rashōmon.” The monochromatic visual elements of the settings and costumes hit notes of an incredibly elegant KISS concert with much more intentional choreography (Yuko Hamada and Dena McKell) and traditional, sometimes discordant Japanese music by Jonathan Frazier. Within a world we wish could be all black and white, we see smatterings of gray thrown in, intentionally symbolizing subjective reality.

Artistic director and founder of Narçisse Theatre Company, FL Henley, chose this play “in response to what I saw when looking at society during the lockdown… a society split between those living in an objective, unpleasant reality and those choosing to live in an alternate reality comprised of a blending of tribalism, demagoguery and personal belief.”

The play’s Wigmaker said, “Let’s not argue about right and wrong while we are hanging in here.” But it’s not so easy for the rest of us to agree to disagree. One of Henley’s goals is to make audiences “feel challenged, uncomfortable, walking away with the types of questions that cause psychological distress.”

Mission accomplished on making the audience think about deeper existential questions, and well done to all the performers for translating a difficult concept into something tangible for the audience. My plus-one and I are still spelunking deeper implications of truth v. perception via our longest text thread ever, and our list of questions is growing faster than any forthcoming answers. This play will undoubtedly leave its mark on you, too.

P.S. The story left an impression on the psychological community when it first aired in 1950. After the film, the phrase “Rashōmon Effect” entered our cultural lexicon, describing an instance when the same event is described in significantly different (often contradictory) ways by different people who were involved. The more you know.

“Rashōmon” runs Sept. 10 and 11, each evening at 7:30 p.m., Italian Lake Park, Harrisburg. Don’t forget to bring lawn chairs, insect repellant and a little something for the donation bucket. No ticket or reservation needed. Find more information at https://www.narcissetheatre.org/ and on Facebook.

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A Reflection of Life: New Narcisse Theatre Company reveals the unconventional, the complex

October 31, 2016 | by Barbara Trainin Blank

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 [email protected] or call 717-777-1374.

Author: Barbara Trainin Blank

Sense of the City: Playwright Paul Hood gives voice to urban life, his life.

February 27, 2015 | by Lori M. Myers

As a child, playwright Paul Hood dreamed of being a film star.

That dream may not have been too farfetched. Hood is an imposing figure at 6-feet-3-inches tall, with piercing eyes, a reassuring voice, and a smile that could tame a road-rager. But don’t think for a minute that this cool guy is going to let his audiences off the hook when they come to see his plays. Sure, he’ll make you laugh, but he’ll also force you to think deeply, ponder life and question your truths.

“What makes me tick are the mysteries of life,” Hood muses. “I feel like, as a writer, if I figured this all out, I would be bored out of my mind. Some of the questions I have about existence fuel me to explore things in my writing such as love, addictions, failures, the plight of dysfunctional families and relationships, the joys and wonders of simple things.”

Hood admits to his love/hate relationship with life—something he struggles with. Fortunately, he’s able to examine that struggle through his creative outlet of choice—play writing—which allows him to “share my thoughts with the universe.”

“It’s an enjoyably cathartic endeavor,” he says.

Local theater-goers have been witness to those endeavors inside venues such as Open Stage of Harrisburg, Gamut Theatre and Hershey Area Playhouse, among others. Hood has had a flurry of staged works produced in and around the ‘Burg as of late, and upcoming this month is “My Electric Life,” which explores the notion of Internet addiction of three completely different individuals.

Hood’s inspiration for “My Electric Life” came about one summer when he realized how much his own online routine—Facebook, dating sites, general surfing—had turned into a habit that wasn’t allowing him to write, to truly live, to fully connect one-on-one with others.

“I wanted to explore the idea with honesty and humor and not sugarcoat anything about three strangers who have to face one another and open up about why it is they isolate themselves from the world,” Hood says. “I wrote it thinking I’d maybe enter it into the Philly Fringe festival or The Capital Fringe in Washington, D.C., but then I realized I could try it out in Harrisburg first because we have a pretty large theater scene open to hearing new work by local playwrights.

Hood is particularly thrilled about the premiere of “My Electric Life” because it will be his first full production in Harrisburg after almost four years of staged readings, where actors on stage have scripts in hand.

While “My Electric Life” was inspired by Hood’s own Internet habits, most of his other plays that deal with social and mental health issues (along with the absurdities of life) are triggered by the things he sees and hears throughout the city. Plays such as “Other Cat,” “Aldous Remembers” (which had its first reading at Midtown Scholar Bookstore) or Hood’s longer works—such as “I, Journeyman” and “Brighton’s Green Street”—incorporate the rhythm and vibe of urban living.

“I couldn’t see any of my plays taking place in the countryside of Pennsylvania,” he says. “The themes I explore feed off the energy of my surroundings, which has always been city life.”

The city lives and breathes in Hood’s pores even though he originally hailed from Birmingham, Ala., then Youngstown, Ohio, and Middletown, Pa., before his mother unexpectedly moved the family to Harrisburg when Hood was 11 years old. As a youngster, Hood was pretty much a “hermit,” painfully shy, insecure and saddled with a severe learning disability. The “city” loomed large, too large, so movies and comic books were his escapes. He’d spend his summer days inside watching movies and took notice of how things “worked”—character motivations, setting, plotting and dialogue.

“I watched movies clearly to invest myself in the lives of people I thought I wanted to be like when I grew up,” he recalls. “Like all kids in the John Hughes films or the young kids in ‘Goonies’ and ‘E.T.,’ I wanted their lives. I grew up in a dysfunctional family so anything on a screen filled with adventure or comedy was craved.”

Hood’s love of the big screen segued to him becoming a respected local movie critic after he answered an online ad for a local entertainment website called Harrisburg Online. Here, he could combine his two loves—writing and film. He began taking old short stories he’d written and converting them into screenplays that eventually morphed into plays.

“The change for me happened after a room filled with hundreds of people howled with laughter, gasped and listened intently to words I had written,” Hood says. “I was hooked. I had found my true voice as a writer, everything beforehand was practice.”

Hood is a member of Playwrights Alliance of Pennsylvania (PAPA), the region’s playwriting group, with whom he’ll be working on a theme-based play, and one of his short plays will be featured at Oyster Mill Playhouse in Camp Hill this summer. He also hopes to raise funds to get a production of “Brighton’s Green Street” on stage somewhere in the city.

This self-described former “hermit,” this shy, insecure, film-obsessed playwright, has risen above it all, giving voice to city life and to us a piece of his mind. All we have to do is batten the hatches, hang on and hope for the best.

“Playwriting gives me a chance to explore ideas or say things I may be afraid to talk about in person,” Hood says. “The stage is my virtual podium for self-expression, a place where my philosophies and questions can come to life in the form of something enlightening to an audience.”

Paul Hood’s “My Electric Life” will be performed March 27 to 29 and April 10 to 12 at the Harrisburg Improv Theatre, 1633 N. 3rd St., Harrisburg. Visit www.hbgimprov.com.

Holiday Wishes: Here’s what I hope for Harrisburg in 2015.

November 28, 2014 | by J. Alex Hartzler

The holidays offer time for reflection and giving thanks. They also are a time for thinking ahead about change and progress in the coming year.

My favorite holiday is Thanksgiving for its low-key, non-commercial nature, Mom’s home cooking, football and the promise of a four-day weekend. Since I don’t participate in “Black Friday,” opting for the couch and/or some walks instead, it is always the low-stress holiday in our home. Of course, I also greatly enjoy Christmas and New Year’s for their symbols of birth, re-birth and the promise of a brighter future for those who choose to believe.

Whereas last year I took stock of all the people and things I am thankful for in Harrisburg (December 2013, p. 7), this year I’m putting together my wish list for 2015. Thus, in the American spirit of renewal and on the premise that things that cannot be imagined cannot be achieved, here are some things, both big and small, I’d like to see happen in the coming year.

Our new Gov. Tom Wolf, new Senate Majority Leader Corman and House leaders Turzai and Smith work together, across the aisle, to move our state and city forward on such things as education funding formulas, pension reform, liquor privatization, extraction taxes and so forth.
N. Second Street, between Forster and Division streets, is finally restored to two-way traffic and an important neighborhood is reclaimed for the residents who live there—a mere 60 years after the street and neighborhood were ruined in the name of progress and suburban flight.
Front Street installs one new lane for bikes and one fewer lane for cars, as we have been promised.
Entrepreneurs and restaurateurs continue to find Harrisburg a viable and vibrant place for business.
Non-profit organizations of all stripes in Harrisburg realize that paying their municipal real estate taxes for police and fire protection is simply the right and moral thing to do and that the failure to do so makes them “free-riders” and “takers” from the rest of us who pay for them.
People who own property in the city care enough and have pride enough to maintain their property or sell it to others who will.
City Council works with the mayor in a spirit of cooperation for all residents and dispenses with the “us vs. them” references that divide us.
That we find some new voices on City Council after our elections next year.
Our suburban paper of record goes one year (OK, one month) without a sensational headline or article that disparages our city.
No new sinkholes open around the city.
The “land bank” gets implemented and the city and county are able to sell vacant land for productive use.
All Harrisburg streetlights receive new energy efficient bulbs, those bulbs work and the city saves money, as we have been promised.
The state of Pennsylvania realizes that it must invest in its capital city in much the same way and at a similar scale as the federal government has invested in Washington, D.C.
All of our Community Publishers and advertisers in TheBurg renew for 2015.
Many new Community Publishers and advertisers choose to work with TheBurg in 2015.
Hundreds of new residents and dozens of new businesses decide to live and/or locate in Harrisburg in 2015.
There is no “polar vortex” this winter.
Penn State wins a bowl game, any bowl game.
Local playwright Paul Hood gets his play “Brighton’s Green Street” produced.
The Broad Street Market is fully leased to fresh food vendors.
People stop walking across the beautiful new landscaping on State Street in front of the Capitol (paid for in part by private donations) and instead use the convenient crosswalks.
Standard Parking reduces parking rates by half between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. and thus potentially increases its overall revenue by attracting additional parking in the evening.

Lastly, I’d like to make the most important holiday wish of all. I wish all of our readers a happy and healthy new year.

J. Alex Hartzler is publisher of TheBurg.

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