This is the press release for my second play, Meeting Jerry Springer. A good number of the photos were taken by Buck Hakes.

F.A.Q. prepared by Rob Matsushita

GENERAL How will the show be structured? The first half of the show will be set on a floor of the fictitious Barnum Hall, and will be about the events leading up to their appearance on the Springer show. The second half will actually be the Springer show.  The stage is set up so that depending on where you sit in the audience, you can see a different play each night.  Like a three-ring circus, one viewing might not be enough to catch everything.

A circus?  Do I smell a metaphor? People have an attraction to ugliness.  The sideshows of "carnival freaks" have, to some extent, been replaced by our fascination with social ugliness.  Why do we watch?  To point, laugh and feel superior?  To say "thank God I'm me?"  Because The Jerry Springer Show (and a million others like it) makes us feel--in some odd way--normal?

Stanley (Nathan Caracter) and "Bob," Springer Security Guy  (Bob Moccero) fight as Feiner The Cameraman (Scott Sierra) catches the whole thing.  Joey (Rodney Jayroe) watches from the floor, far left.

Or is it because we secretly see ourselves making some of the same choices the guests have?  We enjoy drama (all drama) because we enjoy watching confict (which drama cannot exist without).  In life, 90% percent of the conflict we experience is second-hand, or indirect.  We don't usually verbally attack our friends if we have a problem with them.  We employ tact, subtlety, we dance around it, or just avoid the other person.  We're so conditioned to the game, we don't even call it backstabbing.  It's easier for everybody, we tell ourselves, to just Get Over It.  As a result, we rarely know how to handle open conflict.

You can tell they're gonna start beating the crap out of each other any second. Left to right: Stanley (Nathan Caracter), Joey (Rodney Jayroe), and Steve (Ethan Mutz), talk as "Bob" (Bob Moccero) watches in the background.

We can't figure it out.  It's like a violent beast we stare at, stunned, like Steve Buscemi in Fargo watching Peter Stormare coming at us in his long underwear, brandishing an axe and wearing that goofy hat. So we like to see open conflict.  It amuses us to see how people just can't get along.  We find it funny, and more importantly, we can't stop watching.  Do you watch the show? What do you think?

CHARACTERS Who are the characters? Here's what I can tell you about our eight heroes:

STanLEy C. WEymaN--Frustrated, depressed, and ready to snap.

joEy SkaGGs--The instigator who's always five moves ahead and still thinking.

STevE BrodiE--Wild, insane, can do anything, will do anything--he's Mr. Fixit.

Lester GreeN--Shy at times, open-faced at others, sweet but hard to get a read on.

ElsiE WrighT--Earth mother, den mother, and general goody two shoes.

rosiE ruiZ--Loose cannon, loudmouth, wild card, and the most likely to throw the first punch.

MarY TofT--B-I-M-B-O, B-I-M-B-O, B-I-M-B-O, and Bimbo is her name-o.

JaNet Cooke--Cold, ruthless, brilliant, the person you want on your side.

Anyone else? Jerry Springer will be a character, and there is also a character named Bartholomew Fair--an older man who hangs out on the dorm t.v. room couch.  There's no explanation how he knows what he knows or why he's there.  He's just there. Everyone else will be extras during a party scene as well as Springer security.

IMPROV How much improv is in the show? About 60% of the show is improv.  How will you keep Act Two fresh?  Won't the actors start repeating themselves? The order that the actors are introduced will be different every night, changing the focus of every "Springer Show."  Plus, the questions will be a bit different from night to night.  Also, one character will drop out of the show every night.

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Buck Hakes made collages for everyone in the cast--this one was mine: