GILROY
– Just how far will someone go to find love?
The Pintello Comedy Theater will try to answer that question
– well, sort of – starting this weekend with its third show,
”
I Take This Man.
”
GILROY – Just how far will someone go to find love?
The Pintello Comedy Theater will try to answer that question – well, sort of – starting this weekend with its third show, “I Take This Man.”
The show, written by Jack Sharkey, takes place in Boston on Patriot’s Day just after the running of the Boston Marathon. A young, love-starved woman named Giddy brings a man, who she tells a police officer is her husband, back to her apartment after he passed out just before crossing the finish line.
What may seem like good intentions quickly disappear when the audience finds that the woman has never even met the man before, but instead she has kidnapped him with the intention of marrying him. Giddy’s roommate, Charlene, tries to convince her that it’s a bad idea, but can’t outdo Giddy’s warped logic.
“He never finished the race. Everyone else came in, but he didn’t,” Giddy says. “Nice guys finish last, so I just knew this guy was Mr. Right.”
If nothing else, this style of thinking just confuses Charlene to the point that she can’t prove that Giddy’s doing anything wrong.
Laughs abound as Giddy tries to explain who the man is to Charlene’s fiancé, a police officer and, finally, the runner himself when he wakes up with a mild case of amnesia before realizing just who he really is.
The show, directed by Marion Pintello and produced by Rod Pintello, opens at 8 p.m. today and runs Friday and Saturday nights through June 28 at the Pintello Comedy Theater, 8531 Church St.
Marion Pintello said she and her husband decided to put on “I Take This Man” because the story was a perfect fit for their theater.
“This was real easy to choose because the characters are so likable, and it’s so fun,” she said.
“I Take This Man” also has a few faces in its five-member cast – which all hail from Gilroy or Morgan Hill and vary in experience – that some might not expect to see on stage and a few others that haven’t been on stage for a long time.
The show stars Kirsten Francis Carr, playing the part of Giddy, who also is the director of the Gilroy Visitors Bureau. She said that playing the part of a woman like Giddy, whose mind-bending logic can leave the audience scratching their heads, is a far cry from her day job.
“It actually makes it a little more fun,” Carr said. “With my job, I don’t get to act like that all the time.”
Solis Winery General Manager Steve Beck also is on the cast, playing the role of Charlene’s fiancé. However, Beck is no stranger to the stage, having more than 25 years of experience doing theater in the South Bay Area.
The Pintello’s daughter, Whitney Pintello McClelland, returns as the first repeat performer on the Pintello stage. But she said the first time around, when she was performing “Holiday Snap” in January, was a lot harder because she was helping build the stage and working to get the theater company off the ground.
“This show is easier because during the first show, as a family, we were putting together all the business side of it,” she said. “This time is more fun, and I feel more like a cast member.”
Rounding out the cast are Jayson Stebbins, a mortgage banker who plays the marathon runner, who hasn’t been in a play in 12 years, and Gary Glasspool, who works for a software company in Sunnyvale and plays a police officer. Glasspool has little acting experience, but he can still recite the only two lines he’s ever had in a show, both coming in a minor part in “Oklahoma.”
Stebbins said he stopped acting more than a decade ago because his work doesn’t give him much time but said he was excited to take part in the show when he heard about who was in the cast.
“I travel quite a bit, but I tried to make the time for this show,” he said. “This has been a treat for me.”
Carr agreed.
“All of our lives are busy, so it is difficult to have the time,” she said. “But the Pintellos have been so accommodating.”
Marion Pintello said the different levels of experience makes for a better show.
“The best casts have a variety of experience,” she said. “Having people without a lot of experience gives the director a lot more opportunity to teach.”
Four of the five actors also have young children, which made for some interesting practices. In fact, since their children wouldn’t be able to see the shows during its run, the actors in the show put on a performance for the kids Monday, with Rod Pintello billed as “Toddler Night.”
“They were laughing at the underwear jokes,” said Stebbins, who spends most of the show in a pair of boxers and an undershirt (which are mistaken as running clothes by Giddy).
