San Miguel child actor returns to local stage
By Tom King July 18, 2008 San Miguel de Allende

Theater
Regrets Only
Tue–Sat, July 29–Aug 2, 8pm
Sun, Aug 3, 5pm
Teatro Santa Ana 
Biblioteca Pública
Reloj 50A
150 pesos, reserved seats

Martin in Ten Nights in a Barroom with the La Fragua Players in 1980.

Martin J. Grapengeter first came to San Miguel at age three with his mother, Anne Jones, in 1970. In the summer of 1980, he made his local stage debut with La Fragua Players in the melodrama Ten Nights in a Barroom. Now, after successfully pursuing an acting career in Los Angeles, he is returning to the San Miguel boards in the Players Workshop production of Paul Rudnick’s Regrets Only, bringing things full circle.

According to Grapengeter, back in 1980, La Fragua on Cuna de Allende was “the hot spot” for performing plays and Players Workshop didn’t yet exist. “I started hanging out at the rehearsals,” he recalls, “and I can’t remember if I begged to be in the show, or the organizers just saw an eager and willing participant. Anyhow, the producers wrote me into the show and created the character of a young shoeshine boy who shines the shoes of the villain.”

Grapengeter recalls a disastrous opening night, in which he spilled Coca-Cola on the yellow dress of the soprano, Martha Norris. “If you have been in San Miguel for any length of time, you would know everyone in that show; it was a veritable who’s who: Gail McGinty, Sue Beere, Tom Sawyer, Herbert Burrows, JoAnn Grossenbacher, our musical director Eleanor Parker, and the Grant twins,” in addition to Norris.

“San Miguel was the greatest place to grow up summers,” adds Grapengeter. “The hillsides surrounding Atascadero and Los Balcones were nothing but a young boy’s paradise of openness and exploration. I remember jumping trucks in the Jardín with my friends to ride up to the top of the hill and I have fond memories of hanging out in the big laurel tree next to the Parroquia. Ten gringo kids must have been hiding in that tree most days. We thought we were invisible.”

Grapengeter moved back to San Miguel permanently in 2004 after a 10-year acting career in LA. “I was fortunate to perform for several seasons at the Palos Verdes Players, where I was awarded Best Character Actor two years in a row. Some of my favorite roles and shows have been Caliban in The Tempest, Saul in As Is and Camille in A Flea in Her Ear.” Grapengeter also appeared with Billy Crudup in the West Coast premiere of Lansford Wilson’s Burn This, and has essayed numerous television and movie roles.

Martin Grapengeter today as a grown-up.

Currently pursuing his own creative projects, Grapengeter is delighted to be playing the wisecracking servant in the upcoming production of Regrets Only. “Not only is the character an absolute scream, but an incredible acting challenge for me as well. The play is a wonderfully written farcical comedy with a timely and important message, so I am very proud to be part of this production.” Grapengeter enjoys working with an experienced and talented cast, including Jill and Michael Gottlieb, Tim Johnson, Crystal Calderoni, Lola Smith and Christian Baumgartner, under the direction of Tom King.

Set in the dazzling world of high-fashion Manhattan movers and shakers—who soon enough get moved and shaken themselves—Regrets Only hearkens back to the works of playwrights like Oscar Wilde and Noël Coward, providing gilded escape from the ordinary as it ushers us into a world of beautiful socialites and fashion-followers.

All Regrets Only seats are reserved; tickets go on sale in the Biblioteca patio starting July 17, 10:30am–1:30pm, and at the theater box office 4–7pm.

Tom King is a native Alabaman who spent his career in New York City as a TV writer. He’s lived in San Miguel on and off for ten years and is directing the forthcoming Players Workshop production of Regrets Only.

San Miguel Stage Company gets ready to shimmer
By Larry Menna

Theater
Shimmer
Wed, July 23, 1 & 8pm
Thu–Sat, July 24–26, 8pm
Sun, July 27, 5pm
Teatro Santa Ana
150 pesos (100 pesos July 23, 1pm)

San Miguel Stage Company presents the critically acclaimed Shimmer, by John O’Keefe, as its inaugural production. The one-person play is about John, a man in his forties who recounts his attempt as a teenager during the fifties to escape from an Iowa orphanage and reunite with his mother. The play is set in the eighties, and throughout it, John moves between relating his own recollections of his escape, re-creating his conversations with his friends and revealing his own thoughts as a teenager to the audience.

Shimmer is based on the experiences of the author, who starred in the original production in New York City. Award-winning playwright O’Keefe wrote several plays, the most recent of which was an adaptation of Walt Whitman’s Song of Myself at The New York Public Theater that won the Bay Area Critic’s Award. Shimmer is engrossing, moving, startling and humorous. The play is ultimately about the search for transcendence that we all seek but only sometimes attain.

The launching of Stage Company and the production of Shimmer represent almost two years of planning by co-founders Jeff Garrett and Larry Menna. Artistic director Garrett spent a month-long vacation here two summers ago and returned to New York enthused about the prospects for a professional theater company in San Miguel. He contacted Larry Menna, a close friend from college. They visited San Miguel in January 2007, and the planning began in earnest. 

Garrett had been a professional actor in New York City and Los Angeles for many years, and despite his career as a psychotherapist, he kept active in Actors and Writers, a nonprofit theater company in Woodstock, NY.

Managing director Menna brought a different perspective to the project. A professor of history and media studies at the State University of New York and New York University, he has had extensive experience originating and coordinating international programs and running nonprofit organizations.

Tickets are on sale at Teatro Santa Ana and in the Biblioteca patio.

Jóvenes Adelante fundraiser continues tonight

Theater
The Inventor’s Daughter
Fri, July 18, 7:30pm 
Teatro Santa Ana
Biblioteca Pública
Reloj 50A
250/150 pesos

The Inventor’s Daughter opened Hot July Nights! for four performances, followed by beer and pretzels during intermission and a stupendous variety show of local talent after break. Tonight is the fourth and last performance. Ticket proceeds fund university scholarships for Jóvenes Adelante students. Tickets are on sale at La Conexión and Casa de Papel. For more information, contact jovenesadelante@gmail.com.