Life is full of “What ifs?” What if I went away to college instead of staying home? What if I took the job in Boston instead of New York? What if I never met my husband? What if I never met my best friend? What if we patched things up after that huge fight instead of not speaking for all those years? What if …
Playwright Mark Zdancewicz spent a lot of time thinking about “What ifs?” following the death of one of his two favorite aunts in February of 2005. Years earlier, the sisters and best friends had a falling out. They never patched things up. But what if they had? What if they could just spend some time in the same room? With a botched surgery leaving no hope for a happy ending, Zdancewicz took all the “What ifs?” and created his latest play, “Conversations with My Dead Sister.”
“It’s about my two aunts, although I changed the names to protect the innocent,” Zdancewicz says with a laugh. “They never had a chance to reconcile. They never had a chance to talk. What if? What would have happened if the sisters were able to get together and talk?”
In “Conversations with My Dead Sister,” the playwright will get a chance to see if the stage sisters will fare better than their real-life counterparts. Set in the Summer of 1974, the day after Mama Cass choked on a ham sandwich, the play begins eight years after sisters Fran and Viv have parted ways, closing the restaurant they owned and operated together. Viv shows up at Fran’s apartment, above the neighborhood beer garden, and refuses to leave until they kiss and make up. As they attempt to clear the air, the sisters realize it wasn’t just business troubles that caused the rift in their relationship. Sibling rivalries bubble to the surface, revealing hard feelings about beauty, husbands, Mom’s will, a leg of lamb, a lavender silk dress and a pair of gaucho pants. Though Fran is determined to make peace, after all is said and done there’s no guarantee that sisterly love can overcome the problems of the past.
While the sibling spat provided the background for “Conversations with My Dead Sister,” it was local theatre legend Jerry Godwin who coerced Zdancewicz into putting pen to paper. In April of 2005, Godwin suggested that the playwright develop a play for two actresses, Rebecca Schmitt and his wife, Kathleen Godwin.
“I wracked my brains trying to come up with something to write about for two women,” says Zdancewicz.
Then he realized his aunts’ conflict would make for good drama. There have been a number of rewrites over the years, as well as several readings of the play. “It’s been a long time. It’s been four years,” Zdancewicz says of the script’s journey to the stage.
Sadly, Godwin won’t see the finished product. He passed away in February of this year, just three weeks after the most recent reading. But the playwright believes Godwin would be pleased with the work he helped spark.
“He told Kathleen he liked it,” he says. “I have a feeling if he didn’t, he wouldn’t have offered to direct it.”
Several months ago, Zdancewicz ran into theatre colleague Jane Fagley. She mentioned wanting to get back in the theatre game, Zdancewicz told her what he was working on, and she agreed to direct the production. Shortly after rehearsals began, Fagley had to step down due to health issues. Now Zdancewicz finds himself wearing two hats as playwright and director. While it’s not an ideal situation — “Writing the play, I have one point of view. I wanted somebody to come in to direct with another point of view,” he says — Zdancewicz is grateful for the time Fagley had to work on the show and for the input she provided.
“It was good that she came in. She was able to see things that I didn’t.”
Though it seems that Zdancewicz’s latest work has traveled a long and bumpy road, according to the playwright, things are going quite smoothly. The cast has been rehearsing for eight weeks. The longer-than-normal rehearsal period has given it plenty of time to not only work on lines and blocking but also fine-tune the performances.
“We’re in pretty good shape, I think,” says Zdancewicz proudly.
In fact the only major difficulty so far is that the venue, the new Arts YOUniverse space in the former First United Methodist Church in Wilkes-Barre, is just a little too nice. The playwright envisioned Fran’s apartment as a bit rundown and tacky, but he’s got to contend with the performing area’s beautiful wood paneling. “We did the best we could,” he says with a laugh.
It’s the first theatre production since Arts YOUniverse moved to North Franklin Street.
All kidding aside, Zdancewicz is hoping theatre fans check out “Conversations with My Dead Sister.” It’s part serious, part comedy. It’s a personal story with universal appeal.
“I try to write plays about regular people. I try to write plays about people we recognize.”
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“Conversations with My Dead Sister,” Friday, June 26; Saturday, June 27; Sunday, June 28, 8 p.m., Arts YOUniverse (47 N. Franklin St., Wilkes-Barre). Tickets: $5. Info: 570.970.ARTS (2787)
