(Above: The three-person cast of “My Happy Hour with Pegoda” includes, left to right, Paul Calandrino, Ellen Chace, and Dan Pegoda, seen here in the tasting room at Capitello Wines, where the play will be performed; photo by Paul Carter)
By Randi Bjornstad
There is an element of truth underlying his writing of “My Happy Hour with Pegoda,” Eugene playwright Paul Calandrino insists.
“I always wanted to act in a play with Dan (Pegoda) — I’ve always been blown away by his performances,” Calandrino said a few days ago during a break in rehearsal in a back room at Capitello Wines, where the play — set appropriately in a bistro — will be performed.
Unfortunately, Calandrino went on, “No one will cast me in a major role — maybe I’m not good enough — so I got the idea that I would write a play for Dan and me.”
The two “met for a beer,” he recounted, “and we were bereft of ideas. So Dan said, ‘Maybe we could just put all this (discussion) into a play.’ “
The result is “My Happy Hour with Pegoda,” directed by Chris Pinto, another veteran of the Eugene theater scene.
Pinto says Calandrino’s new play reminds him a lot of a Seinfeld episode, “becoming a play with a lot of nice banter back and forth, about nothing and yet about everything.”
It’s also an homage to “My Dinner with Andre,” written in 1981 by Andre Gregory and directed by Louis Malle. Gregory played Andre and Wallace Shawn played Wally, and the script is a wide-ranging conversation between the two characters, as they meet and eat in a New York City cafe.
“In fact, the two plays share the same line: ‘The life of a playwright is tough,’ ” Calandrino said. “And the characters play fictionalized versions of themselves.”
There’s one other influence he wants to acknowledge, and that’s his affinity for the “The Trip to …” movies of actors Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon, as they talk and eat their way through Italy (2014) and Spain (2017).
“They riffed about everything as they went, and I wanted to capture that,” Calandrino said. “So I wrote a draft, and over the summer Chris (Pinto) hosted some readings, inviting some friends over, and we had discussions over pizza, wine, and beer while we talked about the play.”
That doesn’t mean “My Happy Hour with Pegoda” is in any way improvisation, Pinto clarified.
“The characters talk about themselves a lot, and some of it is truth and some is fiction, and the play sort of gets written during the show,” he said.
Part of the plot involves the makeup of the cast. Calandrino and Pegoda are working on the script when their friend and fellow actor Ellen Chace comes along, asks what they’re up to and then makes a case for — demands, really — having a woman in the cast of the new play. Calandrino’s character, Paul, doesn’t cotton to the concept, but Pegoda’s Dan agrees with Ellen, and she’s eventually written in.
And that’s one of the delights of the play, because the audience can’t tell whether “My Happy Hour with Pegoda” started out with a cast of three or if a female character really came along to insert herself into the script.
“There’s some truth and some fantasy in this play — probably 80 percent fiction and 20 percent fact — but nobody really knows which is which,” Calandrino said.
Chace laughed. “Names have been changed to protect the innocent, so to speak,” she said.
“My Happy Hour with Pegoda” appears under the auspices of The Not Ready for Retirement Players, which Pinto started two years ago with fellow actors Chris McVay, Achilles Massahos and Bill Campbell.
The original concept, which involved finding plays that included feature roles for older actors, is still a factor, but the phrase has evolved somewhat since then, Pinto said.
“People keep saying our casts have people who don’t look like they’re old enough to retire, and that’s true,” he said. “The idea now includes people who are still not ready to separate themselves from their art, even though they now have the pressure to make a living.”
Chace is happy to have the opportunity to work with the group in age-appropriate roles.
“Although Eugene is a very active theater town, often there are not enough parts for older people,” she said. “I’m way past the stage to play the ingenue, but I don’t want to stop acting, so I’m glad there’s a group like this with that in mind.”
There’s also a third concept behind The Not Ready for Retirement Players, and that involves preserving old-time theater’s more intimate atmosphere, where the stage is small, the seating is limited, and there’s not a lot of distance between actors and audience, Pinto said.
“We’ve tried to create that atmosphere by setting up a small stage in The Studio at the Hult Center, and we’ve also used the Wildish (Community) Theater in Springfield,” he said. “But we think Capitello will be perfect for this play — it’s small, and the play is set in a bar, so it just makes sense. And the owner is a friend and was willing to let us use the space, so we just thought, ‘Why not?’ “
Even more so because the space holds a venerable spot in Eugene theater history: It was the site of the Lord Leebrick Theatre, which began in 1992 and later became Oregon Contemporary Theatre, which vacated its original location, now Capitello Wines, five years ago.
My Happy Hour with Pegoda
When: 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 23-24 and March 2-3; and 2 p.m. on Feb. 25
Where: Capitello Wines, 540 Charnelton St.
Tickets: $15 general admission, $25 reserved seating (with a complimentary glass of wine), available at 541-520-3092 or online at eventbrite.com, under “My Happy Hour”
