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Dan Lauria
News & Reviews"The Guys" a play in remembrance of 9/11
Playwright Ann Nelson melds her experience of helping a fire captain write eulogies for four of the eight men his company lost on that day with her own grief and rage. It puts an immensely personal face on the tragedy, and at the dress rehearsal Wednesday, it proved to be an engrossing and cathartic evening of theater. The actors in the two-person drama are Dan Lauria, best known for his work as the father in the "Wonder Years," and Wendie Malick, who stole the show in "Just Shoot Me." Both play their parts with a humanity and grace that belie their stature in television.
Wendie Malick
"The Guys" is a demanding play, particularly for Malick, who has several monologues. They require her to break the fourth wall and address the audience directly, a transition that she makes with ease. She asks: "Where were you on Sept. 11?" and "Are you O.K." She and Lauria carry the audience through the pain and humor of the experience. The laughs come through the quirks of the firefighters as well as their strengths. Lauria has a long history with the play. He performed it every Tuesday at Ground Zero for eight months after its premiere in November 2001. He is the only person who has played the fire captain's role with Nelson. He physically embodies what one might envision as a fire captain, and despite his many performances, he manages to make it fresh and touching. Wednesday night, after the rehearsal, Lauria reflected on two of the most powerful performances. One took place on Sept. 11, 2003, on the two-year anniversary of the attack. "The first three rows were full of retired firemen who lost their sons that day," he said. "And in my hometown of Lyndenhurst, on Long Island in New York, we did a reading in the firehouse, with the audience sitting around on the fire trucks. There were so many people, we finished one reading and started with another. We ended up performing it five times." Sarah Shank, the founder of Country Kids with Cancer, one of the charities that will benefit from the ticket sales, found the rehearsal wrenching, particularly because her father, Bill Shank, is a firefighter and EMT with the Durango Fire & Rescue Authority. "It's different for us because it hits so much closer to home," she said. "Those are our dads, our uncles, and we think 'it could have been our dad.'" Both actors believe in supporting firefighters. One of Nelson's conditions for performing the play is that ticket sales benefit a firefighter charity. In this case, half of the money will go to the Silverton San Juan Fire Department. "We can't forget how desperately they need our help and how important they are," Malick said. Go see this play. As we near the fourth anniversary of the event that created what Malick's character calls "a new normal," it is particularly poignant, especially when seen against the tragedy of the Gulf Coast.
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