Above: Jamie Petitto has the lead role in “The Playground,” and also videotaped other actors including Rory Halm (below).
‘The Playground’ opens Jan. 30
Audiences should expect more when The Merc Playhouse stages its Readers’ Theater production of “The Playground,” Jan. 30 to Feb. 1.
More acting, more intensity and more to think about after the lights go back up.
The play’s author, Jim Dalglish, even said he had to do some breathing exercises while sitting in the audience of his own show. His smart watch had alerted him that his heart rate was too high.
“I have three elements that make a play successful for me,” said Dalglish, whose play had its premiere on Cap Cod stages in the summer of 2024. “It has to stimulate my mind. It has to move my heart. And it should haunt me for three days after.”
As co-director Don Nelson described it, the show is a Readers’ Theater “hybrid” — a one-woman show that’s more than just a one-woman show, with an ensemble cast that will appear in video projections filmed by co-director and lead actor Jamie Petitto.
Dalglish is flying in from the East Coast to see The Merc’s production of his show and to speak with audiences afterward. He’ll answer questions alongside Nelson and Petitto.
Audience members will undoubtedly have questions, after seeing what Nelson called an “intense” play about a character named Joan, a wife and the mother of a 4-year-old who leaves her Bay Area career and comfort zone to follow her husband to a golden job opportunity in New York City.
As Joan’s husband needs to remind her, they just need to endure three years in the alien world of Manhattan high society. Then they can cash out and live the life of their dreams, on their terms.
Easy for him to say.
Without giving too much away, things unravel for Joan in ways that affect other characters’ lives. To call the choice Joan makes during the play’s climax morally ambiguous would be to undersell it.
The audience will have a chance to unpack this during the Q-and-A session afterward. But Petitto, as Joan, has a question for the audience, too. She’ll ask, toward the end of the play:
“What would you do, if you were me?”
“I’m curious what everyone in the audience would say,” Petitto said in a recent interview. “I’m curious as an actor to know if I’ve convinced anyone on my end or not.”
Petitto’s challenge is to make Joan likable. Nelson, who directed Petitto in her first-ever Merc performance — a 2016 Readers’ Theater production of “The Gift of the Magi” — said she has the chops to pull this off.
“I ended up feeling very empathetic and sympathetic with Joan, even though she goes through some wrenching moments,” Nelson said. “And I think people will see that as well.”
(In addition to directing and acting in several Merc productions, Nelson is on the theater’s nonprofit board and is the editor and publisher of the Methow Valley News.)
A challenging role
Petitto, whose professional credits include commercials, “Modern Family” and “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” came up in Chicago’s improv comedy scene but has recently turned to more dramatic roles. She said she is grateful to have made the transition, considering the demands the role of Joan places on her.
“If it wasn’t for those last five years of honing in on drama, I wouldn’t feel like I was ready to do something like Joan,” Petitto said.
But what prepared her the most was having a son, Argyle, in December 2024 with husband Ryan Fortier.
“I can’t believe I ever tried to act like I was a mother before, in commercials and TV,” Petitto said. “Once you become one, there’s just infinite insight.”
Dalglish likes what he has seen from Petitto, after several long-distance conversations. The original Joan back on Cape Cod was an actor named Anna Botsford, whom Dalglish has worked with on four of his plays. He called Botsford’s performance “fearless.”
“When I look at Jamie, I see that same fearlessness — and that’s exactly what this role needs,” Dalglish said. “She’s going to tell this story in a way that completely exposes her.”
Cast steps up
The Merc’s board has come up with a content advisory for “The Playground” that refers to “adult themes and the loss of a child.” The play also resonates with some of the traumatic events and issues happening in the U.S. A nanny named Gracia, portrayed by acting newcomer Marisol Ramos, is at the center of what will feel like current events.
Many of the cast members, who all appear as video projections of Joan’s memories, haven’t acted before, at least not since high school or college. Hugh Sancken Roach, 5, who plays Joan’s son Billy, is making his acting debut, as is Finn McDonald, 7, who plays Billy’s new best friend Cyrus.
Other cast members include Owen Jones as Joan’s husband William, Heather Marrone as the alpha socialite Ashley, and MyKenzie Bennett as all three of the Britneys in Ashley’s orbit.
Petitto noted that all the actors, newcomers included, shined on camera.
“With all my professional acting background, I was floored by people,” Petitto said. “I even told one parent, ‘Hey, if your daughter wants to professionally act, I know an agent.”
Among the stage veterans appearing in “The Playground” is third-grader Rory Halm, who plays one of the Britneys’ daughters. Local playwright and actor Cindy Williams Gutiérrez is a Columbia University professor whom Joan meets in a doomed effort to revive her academic career. And Phil Quevillon, who has a long list of Merc credits as an actor and director, plays a role identified only as “Man” and described in text of the original play as a “wealthy, arrogant, loud blowhard who has a habit of mansplaining to attractive young women during social engagements.”
Welcome to New York. Methow Valley audiences will have a lot to process after seeing “The Playground.”
