By NICK ROGERS
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR
STATE JOURNAL-REGISTER

Production company aims for a home run with ‘Rounding Third’
 

Thursday, May 19, 2005

REVIEWS/REVIEWS

Mac Warren enjoyed high-school soccer and wrestling. But he spent his short-lived stint in baseball playing for the McHenry Orioles, his town’s Little League equivalent of a scrap heap.
 
 “All the really bad players ended up on that team,” Warren says.
 
“Finally, we have staged something where Mac can be a winner in baseball,”  Jason Goodreau says of “Rounding Third,” a two-man show in which the two star as clashing Little League coaches.
 
It’s the premiere play for A.D.H.D. Productions, an idea that began in  early 2004. While working on Springfield Theatre Centre’s “Annie,” Goodreau and Warren discussed forming a company to do newer and  lesser-known shows.
 
“We kept hearing people saying someone out to do this or do that, so maybe  we’re stupid enough to actually try it,” Goodreau says.
 
“Some people always say new shows won’t work here, and we say, ‘Well,  we’ll see,’” Warren says. “We can’t know without trying.”
 
“Rounding Third,” written by Richard Dresser, examines the divergent thoughts of what kids should take away from youth sports - the importance of competition and building skills to win and succeed against the notion that numbers on the board are nothing compared to having fun.
 
Warren plays Don, a die-hard who’s been coaching his son since he could  hold a bat, and whose passion comes from bitter memories of a botched championship from childhood. Goodreau plays Michael, a non-athlete newcomer who becomes Don’s assistant after his son, with whom he’s looking to bond, joins the team. The show follows the coaches’ squabbles through to the end of the season.
 
For the first A.D.H.D. show, Goodreau began with the only known resources  - him and Warren.
 
“It’s more challenging because we have a good idea of how it would look, but it’s harder for us to see where it’s going,” Warren says of the show, which has a similarly minimalist set and props. “To get an idea of how it’s working, we’ve had ‘Joe Audience’ people, who aren’t necessarily into theater, come to rehearsals.”
 
Real-life experience as coaches also helps. Warren has coached soccer for  age groups ranging from kindergarteners to high schoolers, and Goodreau has guided kids in a number of sports, including baseball.
 
“I’ve seen coaches who will berate a kid to death for an error, and no one needs that,” says Goodreau, who says his coaching style leans toward his character’s, but not as extreme.
 
“But in games where there is no stated winner or loser, kids are smarter  than that,” Warren says. “If you can add, you know who won the game.”
 
One of the charms of Dresser’s script, Goodreau says, is that audience members can see parts of themselves both in tyrannical Don and lackadaisical Michael.
 
“People will look at Don and think he’s a jerk, and he’s not,” Goodreau says of Warren’s character, who occasionally is given to PG-13 language. “He has a heart, but he’s just very intense. These are very real, funny characters.”
 
“The show is about what’s important about winning and losing, and that sometimes it’s easier to learn that on a baseball field than later in life,” Warren says. “But neither view is all right, and neither is all wrong. It poses an interesting smack in the face to the audience.”
 
Because he’s never been in a play where co-directors worked well together, Goodreau has taken the official title of director for “Rounding Third.”  “One person has to say ‘This is the way it will be,’” he says.
 
Though no schedule has been set, Warren hopes to direct a production of “Glengarry Glen Ross” (“putting the ‘F’ back in Springfield,” he jokes about the play’s frequently flowing profanity) in the fall, while Goodreau would like to mount the musical “Tick, Tick ... Boom!” by late “Rent” playwright Jonathan Larson.
 
“We just want to do (shows) whenever it can work into the schedule,” Goodreau says. “We want people to see our logo and say that’s something you’ve got to see.”
 
“Lesser-known doesn’t necessarily mean lesser quality,” Warren says.
 
Other planned projects for A.D.H.D. include reviving Phoenix Theatrical  Productions, an intermediate children’s-theater series created by Goodreau, and combining different mediums.
 
For example, on this opening weekend of “Rounding Third,” two local bands  will play pre-show sets on consecutive nights - on Friday, the punk-fusion outfit Black Ops and, on Saturday, the Good Brothers, a trio of young, jazz-playing brothers.
 
They will play up until 7:03 p.m., the official start time for “Rounding Third.”
 
“Baseball games never start at even times,” Goodreau says. “Plus shows never start on time, so we’re just being honest.”

"Dedicated to the advancement of innovative arts and arts education"

ADHD Productions, 2005