All I Really Need to Know I Learned by Being in a Bad Play

By Werner Trieschmann.

Based on several disastrous theatrical experiences, Bad Play peels back a tattered curtain to examine the process of putting on a show that is less than good. A stuffy narrator (what bad play is complete without a stuffy narrator?) guides the audience through the whole sorry process. We go from the audition—where the director is more worried about roast beef than paying attention to the warm-up exercise, and the neurotic cast pretends to be bacon—to rehearsals—where a passive-aggressive stage manager gives everyone grief. There’s also a special meeting of the Small Part Support Group and a production of Romeo and Juliet set in a Starbucks with costumes of potato sacks and bowler hats. This bad play within a play won’t win any awards, but All I Really Need to Know I Learned by Being in a Bad Play will keep audiences in stitches.