The show that closed Stage Left Theater's 2023 season was Paula Vogel's How I Learned to Drive. It was a memory play that saw its main character, Li'l Bit, reconciling her present and past selves in a process of coming to terms with the sexual abuse she experienced as an adolescent at the hands of her Uncle Peck.
The show that opens Stage Left's current season this Friday could almost be considered a companion piece. Jeanine Tesori and Lisa Kron's Fun Home is a memory musical that sees its main character, Alison, reconciling her present and past selves in a process of embracing her sexuality and coming to terms with her father Bruce's denial of his own.
That programming is no coincidence. It's precisely because of the shows' parallels that Jeremy Whittington, Stage Left's managing and artistic director, chose to create this finale/opener pairing.
"The public perception of How I Learned to Drive versus Fun Home is so interesting to me. They touch on similar problematic activities by men in both of their scripts, and what's interesting is how visceral people can be [in their opposition] toward How I Learned to Drive's content and how adoring and open they can be toward Fun Home," he says.
Chelsea DuVall, who plays grown-up Alison in this production Fun Home, has a theory for the difference in reception.
"It's because what you see in Bruce you don't see in Peck, which is Bruce struggling with his identity. It opens up an individual who understands that there is tension and problems with the way that he's living, and that is never presented with Peck," she says.
"The other reason [Fun Home] is more successful in my mind as a piece of writing is because you have Bruce's journey and the meditation on his identity against that of Alison's and her coming into her own queerness. So there's something put against it, a counter, that's just as honest."
Fun Home is based on the eponymous 2006 graphic novel by cartoonist Alison Bechdel. Although Bechdel wasn't directly involved in the genesis of the musical, it follows the arc of her illustrated narrative and centers on her autobiographical character at three different ages: Small Alison (played here by Madelyn Brownlee), Medium Alison (Hope Cornett) and the Alison of the present day. At each phase of existence, she discovers truths about herself as well as truths about her father (Jerrod Phelps) that he's concealing.
Before auditioning for Fun Home, DuVall was less familiar with the stage adaptation and better acquainted with Bechdel's graphic novel as well as her comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For.
"I really was interested in this musical because of the representation of a queer female on stage, which you don't really see a lot on stage or in film. Additionally, there was some sense of personal challenge for myself. I haven't done a musical in over a decade, so I was interested in that technical challenge," she says.
For Whittington, staging Fun Home has long been on his wish list. He worked on the set design of a production in San Antonio, Texas, in 2018 and has been looking for the right time to bring it to Stage Left following its regional premiere at Lake City Playhouse in early 2020.
"I grew up wanting to be a comic book illustrator. That was my life goal when I was a kid," he says. "And the idea of a queer comic book illustrator as the main protagonist of a story really drew me into it. The tenuous relationship between Alison and her father also really reminded me of when I was young and coming out."
Whittington hasn't just scheduled this run of Fun Home. He's heading the design team, too, with an emphasis on the comic-style drawings that resonated with him as an aspiring illustrator. But his involvement extends beyond even that, as he's co-directing this production alongside Troy Nickerson.
"I think that both Troy and I would have delivered something really beautiful on our own, but the combination of the two of us — our friendship and our communication skills — works really well to craft a production. We worked so closely together on the last couple of season openers, Sweeney Todd and Corpus Christi, it just seemed like a no-brainer to have one of Spokane's most desired and sought-out directors leading the show. But I didn't want to give up my seat at the table either," Whittington says, laughing.
And whereas DuVall and Whittington first came to Fun Home in its illustrated and its stage forms, respectively, Nickerson had his own trajectory. He first discovered it through its "character-driven" music after listening to the cast recording. Later he came to appreciate it for the creative freedom it offered.
"I'm sort of a little obsessed with this show," Nickerson says. "For me, there are definite moments where, being a gay man, of course I identify with some of the themes in the show. But it's absolutely my favorite kind of storytelling where there's zero rules. It's got a black box feel that is completely open to your interpretation. It has the music that is so touching and so wonderful, yet it has all the sensibilities of a great play." ♦
Fun Home • Jan. 26-Feb. 18; Thu-Sat at 7 pm, Sun at 2 pm • $35 • Stage Left Theater • stagelefttheater.org • 509-838-9727
