CCP’s ‘True West’ Explores “What If?’

Carmel Community Players’ “True West” is an “entertaining piece of theater.”

That’s how show director Eric Bryant describes the Sam Shepard play, which opens Friday and continues through April 30 at The Ivy Tech Auditorium in Noblesville.

The play concerns the struggle for power between two brothers, Austin, a struggling screenwriter, and Lee, a drifter and petty thief. The play takes place in the home of the brother’s mother, who is away on vacation in Alaska. Also, in the mix is Saul Kimmer, a Hollywood producer.

“I’ve always liked the story: two brothers, each dissatisfied with his life and desperate for change, and who see the other’s life as better than his own,” Bryant said. 

“It’s funny but in a very dark way. I think anyone who has a sibling will relate to the brothers, and anyone who has looked at his or her life and wondered what would have happened if they had made other choices, will find resonance with the story,” he said.

Bryant has worked with CCP in the past as an actor and fight choreographer.

“I’ve always enjoyed the atmosphere of working with the group,” he said. “When I saw the posting for director submissions, I thought I would take the opportunity to increase my involvement.”

For this production, Bryant submitted three scripts for consideration to CCP, “True West,” being one of them.

Up until recently, the last time that Bryant directed a show was about 30 years ago.

“Ironically, the last thing I directed was another Sam Shephard play, ‘The Tooth of Crime,’ with a now-defunct group called The Indianapolis Theater Co.” (Gary Curto, who plays the role of Saul in this “True West” production, was one of the producers of “The Tooth of Crime.”)

While Bryant showcased his “sillier side” when he was a fight choreographer for “The Fantasticks,” he was able to draw on those same fight skills to choreograph a couple of “scenes of violence” for “True West,” he said, “that are hopefully more realistic.”

While Bryant hasn’t been involved with this play before, he has also been involved with another Sam Shepard play, “Fool for Love,” which along with “True West” and “Buried Child,” is considered part of Shepard’s family trilogy.

How is the play reflected in the title?

‘True West’ is not just a nod to the setting but also to the changing nature of things,” Bryant said. “On one hand, we have Lee, who has a romanticized vision of the West as being the place where the cowboy archetype resides: a loner, self-sufficient, riding the trail on this trusty horse. On the other hand is Austin, who views the West as a man-made oasis in a desert, where everything is a facade and nothing is real. Which is the ‘True West?’ Or are they both?”

The show features a cast of four, Matt Walls of Indianapolis, as Lee; Robert Webster Jr. of Indianapolis, as Austin; Gary Curto of Speedway, as Saul Kimmer, a Hollywood producer; and Missy Rump of Noblesville, as the mom. Rump is also wearing two other hats, assistant director and stage manager. “She worked with me once before in that capacity, and I know that she is super-organized and has a great eye for detail,” Bryant said.

What are the greatest challenges in this play?

“One of the biggest challenges of this play is that the two brothers are onstage the entire time. They have 85 percent of the dialogue. This is not only a memorization challenge but also one of maintaining energy and focus,” he said. “Fortunately, I have two exceptional actors (in Walls and Webster). Bryant has worked with both of them before, separately, and he knows that they are not only talented, but they also both have exceptional work ethics. “They also bring a lot to the table in terms of ideas,” he said. “It’s a very funny play and a great vehicle for two actors,” he said.

“There have been several times where I would ask them to do something, but they came up with a much better idea that was more in line with their understanding of their character.”

Sam Shepard dictates that the show’s set be realistic and reflective of a 1970s or 1980s Southern California bungalow. “The interesting thing about this is that the house the play takes place in actually belongs to the mother of the two brothers. She’s in Alaska on vacation. “This adds to the tension between the two brothers because “they are in someone else’s space, “which can impact behavior,” Bryant said. “And it brings up all sorts of sibling rivalry from the past.”

What else? “There are also a lot of toasters involved, as well as crickets, coyotes, plants and typewriters,” Bryant said.

CCP has been a traveling community theater for the past several years, while raising money for a new home, this season staging plays at The Switch Theatre at Ji-Eun Lee Music Academy in Fishers, The Cat in Carmel and The Ivy Tech Auditorium in Noblesville. The last three shows of the 2022-23 season — the most recent, “Musical Comedy Murders of 1940,” the current, “True West,” and the June “Godspell,” are on the Ivy Tech stage.

The show’s director has a theater background. Bryant, a Warren Central High School graduate, attended IUPUI for Foreign Language major but decided to take an acting class that he was too timid to do in high school. That’s where he met theater department teachers who encouraged him to try theater. That’s where he met several lifelong friends, including Curto, who is in CCP’s “True West.” Bryant moved to New York in the mid-1980s and studied with the late Sandy Dennis (who received an Academy Award for “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”), and Carol Rosenthal (known for “Starman,” “Clue” and “Halloween III.:) and also with Lanford Wilson (a playwright who won a Pulitzer Prize for Drama), among other well-knowns in theater and film.

“While in New York, I did a few way-the-heck-off-Broadway plays and a couple of national tours,” said Bryant, who took a hiatus from theater to focus on other priorities for the past 20 years but has kept his foot in the door with fight choreography.

He moved back to Indiana in 2004 with his Bronx-born wife. He has an older son with a previous relationship, and he and his wife adopted three siblings in 2017. They have five grandchildren, a variety of dogs and love spending their summers weekends on their boat or hiking or traveling.

Besides theater, he’s also a lover of music.

“A couple of years ago, I decided to relearn the guitar, which I’d set aside 30 years prior,” Bryant said. “It’s been interesting relearning everything. I have made progress though … “I’ve gone from ‘really awful’ to ‘not so terrible.’”

Want TO GO?

What: Carmel Community Players presents “True West,” by Sam Shepard, directed by Eric Bryant.

When: April 21-30, 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays (April 21, 22, 28, 29) and Thursday (April 27), 2:30 p.m. Sundays (April 23 and 30).

Where: The Ivy Tech Auditorium, 300 N. 17th St., Noblesville.

How much: How much: $18 for adults, $16 for ages 62 and older, students and military.

Tickets: https://carmelplayers.org/ or 317-815-9387.

MEET THE CAST

Austin — Robert Webster Jr. of Indianapolis

Lee — Matthew Walls of Indianapolis

Saul Kimmer — Gary Curto of Speedway

Mom — Missy Rump of Noblesville

MEET THE CREW

Director  — Eric Bryant

Assistant director/stage manager — Missy Rump

Producer — Tanya Haas

Set Design — Ian Marshall-Fisher

Lighting Design – Eric Matters

Sound Design – Lori Raffel

-Betsy Reason writes about people, places and things in Hamilton County. Contact The Times editor Betsy Reason at betsy@thetimes24-7.com.