Author and performer of

Plays that are One Person stories pop up regularly in the Los Angeles theatre scene.  Out of self preservation, we usually avoid most.  However, once in awhile there is one that has a slightly different edge or a concept that is so off beat that our interest gets peaked and we venture forth (with some reservations)

RP –  You have a new play opening this week with a rather unusual name.  Can we begin by exploring the title?  I can’t imagine any playwright referring to his play as a “mediocre” story and on top of that, saying it has never been told!  Can you shed a little light on this?

JS – Well – I originally started out writing a typical cliché “one person show” like – “Hey – here’s my story!”

RP – OK – so what happened?

JS – Somewhere in the middle – about a year into it – I started to realize something about these stories I tell about myself.  First, I wasn’t one hundred percent sure that they were true, as much as there’s an event and then there’s a story that I wrap around the event.  Sometimes there’s a discrepancy between those two things so I guess it’s the normal thing?

RP – Are you saying that your imagination tends to change or enhance the events?

JS – Yes – I think it’s probably a fairly common thing.  It’s like when people get into arguments and there’s one persons’ view of the event is very different from the other person’s view, but the event still stays the same it’s just the story that either one tells about it that’s different.

RP – I see.

JS – So I was looking at these stories that I did tell about myself and I was thinking – these kind of get in the way of me experiencing something new out of life because what I’ll do is that I’ll sort of drop them down between myself and what’s actually happening – whether I’m an underdog or the whole Philadelphia thing and I plop it down in the middle of what’s actually going on in myself so everything is seen through the lens of my own personal narrative and what I wanted to create now with the show was a deconstruction of a personal narrative and have the play sort of collide with the present moment where something new can happen. Not just something like, “here’s my story” over and over again,  So there is a big part that has to do with a passion play I was in back in the eighth grade where I played Jesus.  I took the title and made a spin off from the “Greatest Story Ever Told” to the “Most Mediocre Story Never Told.”

RP – I got it.  But you said that you were working on this for a year or so?

JS -  Yes.  At least a year.  I had taken a workshop a couple of years ago. A friend had a very successful show called Belfast Blues and she traveled all over with it and then decided she wanted to do a workshop to see if you could teach what it was that she had learned from the show.   I took the workshop and I really had no intention of doing a one person show when I went into it.  Things happened, and I started getting an idea of what I’d like to try to do and I would work with somebody else – then shelf the thing for a little bit and say to myself that maybe it wasn’t such a good idea.  Then last November I took what I had and I put it up as part of a works in progress festival.  It was about an hour’s worth that I put up and it seemed to go well, so I finished writing it – got some financing and that’s the run that starts next week.

RP – You’re with the Lone Star Ensemble.  We’ve covered some of their shows.  I remember a show directed by James Kerwin called Albert Hall.

JS – Oh – That was a few years back.

RP – At that time James told me that the name Lone Star had come about because many of the members had met in college in Texas .  But you are from Philadelphia , right?

JS – Yes, although I went to graduate school in Texas for a couple of years.  Lone Star was doing a production of Tony Kushner’s The Illusion  in about 2004.  I had auditioned for that, and that’s how I got in with that group.

RP – So you’re a member of the company.

JS – Yes .

RP – In fact, you’re on the board of directors.

JS – Yes, I’m on the board.

RP – Does that make it easier to put up a play?  You bring it to the board and there’s not much opposition?

JS – Well, the financing came through from the producer, Dave Ashman so I’m associated with Lone Star, and this is technically one of their shows.  They haven’t done a show in awhile and the founder, Brian Stanton and I have been talking this one person show.  I told him I had the financing through Dave so I suggested we do the show in association with Lone Star.  So it’s not really part of their season – it’s more an association so nobody had to vote or anything like that.

RP – I understand.  Have you done other show here in L.A. ?

JS – Yeah – a decent amount out here.  I did King Lear at the Theatricum Botanicum in Topanga Canyon .

RP – You were an actor there?  I may have seen you – I covered King Lear there a few years ago.

JS – Yeah – it may have been longer than that.  Steve Matt played King Lear.

RP – Yes – that’s the show. (Click here to read our review from 2003).  Well, so you’re an actor and a playwright and I imagine a director as well?

JS – I’ve never really directed anything, and this is my first try at playwriting.  I’ve written a couple of screen plays, but this is the first play.  I got this idea stuck in my craw and it just wouldn’t go away.  Like I said, I’ve tried to shelve it a few times thinking, “I don’t know if this is anything.”  But it went well in November an here we are.

RP – Where did you put it in November?

JS – I put it up at th e Lillian Theatre .

RP – Oh yes, that’s a good house.  And this time you’ll be at the Meta Theatre in West L.A. ?

JS – Yes – it’s at Ogden and Melrose .

RP – That space is smaller than the Lillian, isn’t it?

JS – Actually, I’m trying to think – I did it at the Elephant Asylum theatre is about 80 seats and this one is about 50 or 60.

RP  – Do you feel more comfortable in a smaller house for this type of show?

JS – I think so - - - yes.  This will be the first go round with all the real technical elements.  I’ll have projections and sound cues and lights.  I’m pretty excited to see how it all comes together.  I guess I do think that a smaller venue probably fits it a little bit better.  There’s quite a bit of breaking of the fourth wall with the audience.

RP – Oh really?  Are you expecting feedback from the audience?

JS -  No – nor really.  I mean, they’re welcome to shout out what they want and we’ll just play with it, but no – (laughing).

RP – But you’re not looking for it?

JS -  No – I’m not planning on it.

RP – The reason I ask is because I saw that there’s a scene where you wind up in a bar in Lexington Kentucky watching an NCAA final four game on TV.

JS – The device that I use to tell these stories is a character that I did some stand up with.  He’s a hard core Philadelphian who loves the Rolling Stones and is forever trapped in the past and trapped in these stories and he sort of plays my alter ego that ropes me into telling these stories even though I come out arguing that I don’t want to tell these stories anymore.  One of the things I mention is the story of Villanova, the underdog where Villanova won – like David bringing down Goliath.  I’m forever in love with the underdog.

RP – Do you see yourself as a metaphoric David?

JS - Yes.  There’s a line in the show where, after the whole Villanova story is told I say, “I told myself I was the underdog, and I’m still doing it right now.”  And I learn to size up situations, identify who the underdog is and move toward them.

RP – I see.  L.A. has a huge amount of theatres, and every week several new shows open.  Are you, in a way, like a David facing the Goliath theatre community of L.A. ?

JS – Right!  

RP – You ever get that feeling that it might be a little scary perhaps?

JS – Absolutely!  I guess one of my intense fears is that nobody will show up!

RP – I guess that can be scary.

JS – This is probably one of the first things in my life where I turn every stone where I’m doing all I can to get people,  industry people, theatre people and reach beyond family and friends to come see the show.  And if it happens it’s great and if it doesn’t I’ll know that I tried to do everything that I could do, and I guess that in the end that’s all that I can do.

RP – Well, I can tell you this.  I’ve been doing this a long time and I happen to know your Public Relations person, Racquel Lehrman.  You could not have picked a better person to promote your show.  I’ve seen her do some great work, so you’re in good hands.

JS – Yes I know. She’s great.  I hope that we can present something that’s a little bit different by taking a piece of philosophy and create a piece of theatre that’s truthful around it.

RP – The philosophy being - - - that the event is greater than the narrative?  Is that what it is?

JS – Well, I think the philosophy is more like– I have a tendency to get trapped in personal narrative in stories.  There’s a great saying that seems to be floating around that says – “It is what it is!” and I intensely don’t agree with that, because it means I am what I am and I don’t believe that.  I think in the present moment we can create whatever it is that we want out of that present moment.  What I plan to do is create the present moment so it looks exactly like the past, based on my stories.  And I want to follow that idea because I don’t want to be the underdog forever.  I want to succeed! You know what I mean?  Underdogs usually are underdogs because they’re going to lose.  It’s the rare case that a Villanova jumps up and wins.  I’ve become so enamored with this idea, maybe that what keeps me locked in the struggle a little bit.  I think the philosophy is really going beyond my own stories that I tell about myself and stepping into the present moment where things are continually fresh and new.

RP – So this play is a combination of events and stories about the events?

JS – Yes sort of.  This Philadelphia character has a very different take on the events than I do.  We kind of battle it out as to who is going to be heard and are these stories going to be told and I fall prey to going back in and telling them again.  So I’ll occasionally step out and say – “That’s not what I want to do.  I want to say ‘No More’”.  Here I was wrapped up in the story again, because I feel like the voices in my head are that strong.

RP – Is it a little like Al Pacino who said, “Every time I try to get out – they pull me back in”?

JS – Yes – exactly (laughing).

RP – That sounds fascinating.  The concept can be universal where people can see and event and relate to it in a different.  But let me ask you this.  What would you like the audience to feel or know after they see your show?

JS – I’d like to feel that there’s hope to move beyond these stories.  I feel pretty strongly that the voices inside the head that are continuously telling the stories – the monologues from both sides – really only lose their power through observation and pinpointing them and saying . . . OK, there’s that voice and that’s just telling a story.  I’d love for the audience to say ‘where in my life am I saying this just is what it is?”  And really, it may not have to be that way.  Maybe it’s just the inner monologue saying – It is what it is – it is what it is.

RP – Even if the realization comes at a great disappointment to the person?

JS – I think so, because even in this process, (and this is what has been kind of interesting) this is the subject material that I’m choosing to work on and it’s been bringing up all the same things.  There are days when I wake up and think – “What am I doing?  This is a dumb idea – nobody’s going to show up,” yada – yada and I’ll go off in that direction.  Then I think – “it’s just a voice – it’s just a thought process”.    Then if I wake up the next day and say, “You know what?  This is a great idea! People are going to come – this is going to change everything!”  I have to be just as willing to look at that too and say – “that’s just a voice too”, and what’s real is just the present moment, and what what’s going on now and so I go to the next thing I have to do – call somebody or whatever.  So I know what you’re saying and I thought about that too.  I also have to look at the negative things and say – well that’s just a thought.  Then I have to look at the positive things and I have to look at the whole concept of affirmation and ask myself – “Is there any validity for me?  Maybe it’s just all in the action!”

RP – And maybe the concept of truth also is probably very strong there?

JS – Right – right, because when I started thinking of this I thought – all these parents are going to come up.  That’s one of the reasons I hate one person shows.  It feels like therapy – like all these people did me wrong.   But when I look at it, not only did they not do me wrong – I’m still alive so they did me very right.  You know, if I got up there and try to tell a story my parents would look at this and say – I don’t remember it like this.  I loved you and I wanted to do this or that.  That’s what I wanted to dismantle.  This idea of inviting people up there.

RP – To your knowledge are there other playwrights or actors who are exploring the same concepts you are?

JS – I don’t know.  I guess – Faust is an exploration of the same thing in some ways – the dark and the light side.   I think most of the ideas have come out of reading certain books and listening to certain spiritual teachers I would guess.  They may be grappling with this stuff all the time. 

RP – You said you did your graduate work in Texas -.  What was your major?

JS – Theatre.

RP – And your undergrad degree is also theatre?

JS – Yes.

RP – You sound more like a philosophy major – but I guess to some extent theatre people are in the philosophy business somewhat.

JS – I guess. Coming out to Los Angeles is an experience.  It’s a town that will force you to look at who you are in the face of everything that goes on out here.  Struggling also tends to point me in the direction of thinking that there must be some other answers –

RP – When did you start thinking of being an actor.

JS – In the eighth grade  when I played Jesus in the Passion Play is the only time that I remember being comfortable in front of people.  Even now family members will ask me to read something at weddings or things and I get terribly nervous in front of people.  But when I get up on stage and to things it doesn’t bother me to do it.  Theatre is the only medium where I feel comfortable in front of an audience and once I’m in it, it’s such a rush that you don’t want to leave.

RP – Is it because you become a different person in front of an audience?

JS – For a long time I thought it was because I had a script.  I was saying somebody else’s words.  That’s created a bit of a dilemma in this show, because –

RP – Because these are your own words.  Now who do you fall back on?  Maybe you can pin it on the director.

JS – Debra de Liso has been great.  She was the one that sort of nurtured this idea and saw what I was going for and was able to pull it out of me.  I had worked with other people and eventually found myself shutting down.

RP – Are there a lot of props or scene changes?

JS – Mostly done with lights, sound cues – some projections.  There’s no costume changes – no real props or sets.  What I’m hoping is that people get in and out of it in one hour and a half.  I’m thinking that I may want to travel with it and props and scenery can be very difficult to deal with.

RP – Your projections are what – the basketball game?

JS – There a DVD of the Passion Play – There’ll be a picture of Sister Patricia’s first grade class – and then some of the game.

RP – Wait – did you say Sister Patricia?

JS – Yeah – did you have a Sister Patricia?

RP – Sort of.  I had a Sister Mary Patrice – which is close.  OK, so that explains it!  You’re paranoid just like me.

JS – Guess so.  (laughing)  Got that Catholic thing hanging over me.

RP – I was beginning to suspect something like that because, please take this in the most positive way – you have , no, WE have a different way of looking at things, being the products of Catholic education.  Did you know that most of the conspirators in the Watergate scandal in Nixon’s presidency had attended Catholic school?

JS – well maybe a common denominator? (laughing) 

RP - Let me just ask this.  Is there anything that we have not covered that you would like to make sure gets mentioned?

JS – Well, no I don’t think so.  I feel pretty passionate about the message and about people laughing and if there are going to be shots taken at anyone they’re taken at me. It would be great if people come in and before they know it the show’s over and they say “Wow – I really don’t regret missing the Sunday football game”

RP – I think people will be glad to miss the game.  Your show sounds like it’s going to be a fascinating experience and I look forward to seeing it.  I wish you the very best and may each night overflow with audiences.

JS – Thanks.

We chatted a little more about the Philadelphia Eagles and how the game was going which was going on even as we spoke and Jay admitted to wearing an Eagles shirt while we had been on the phone,  From his voice and excitement it’s evident that this project has great personal meaning for him and that he has approached it with a fierce and unrelenting commitment.  We also get the feeling that Jay is the type of person for whom success is more internal and spiritual and that regardless of how the public reacts to the play, the journey to opening night and the obstacles he has challenged have provided much more  of a reward already than any material success he will find.

THE MOST MEDIOCRE STORY NEVER TOLD

Written by Jay Sefton                                    Directed by Debra De Liso

Lighting Design – Jason Hochheimer

Opening September 21^st running through October 26^th every Sunday at 7pm

Meta Theatre: 7801 Melrose Ave, West Hollywood, (one block East of Fairfax)

Reservations: Call (323) 960-7780 or online at www.plays411.com/mediocre  

Click here to read Review

Tickets: $10 General Admission