Review Fix Exclusive: Mike Nowak Talks ‘The Signal Season of Dummy Hoy’

Review Fix chats with “The Signal Season of Dummy Hoy” co-playwright Mike Nowak, who discusses the historical comedy of Major League star William “Dummy” Hoy and how he changed America’s pastime forever.

Set for a 10-day run at the Gene Frankel Theatre, “The Signal Season of Dummy Hoy” is more than a comedy for baseball fan, it’s a coming of age story that reminds us that anyone, in spite of their disabilities, can achieve anything.

Review Fix: What was the inspiration for the play?

Mike Nowak: I owe it all to Allen, who introduced me to Dummy Hoy. He was relentless in convincing me that this was a story that needed to be told. I was the theatre guy, he was the guy with the great idea. But as I am a baseball fan (less and less in the modern world, I might add, for obvious reasons), I decided to take a chance with Allen. At the time, we were constantly reminded that sports plays didn’t exactly have a wonderful track record.

Review Fix: How important is this story? Why do you think it should be told?

Nowak: Here’s how important this story is. Ask yourself how many deaf players are at the highest levels of sports right now. Ask yourself how long it took African Americans and Latinos to be accepted into sports. Ask yourself if any woman in sports makes as much money as a journeyman baseball player with a .209 batting average. Now you have the answer.

Review Fix: What was the writing and research process like?

Nowak: The writing, like any, was painful and sublime, depending on the day. The research was old school, done before the days of the Internet. OMG…we had to read BOOKS! How primitive! We spent time in the Oshkosh, Wisconsin Public Library, researching and copying microfilm records of newspapers from 1886. We relied on classic books like The Glory of Their Times and The Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract for any scrap of information we could get. A whole book might have a single reference to Hoy, which we treated like gold. It was difficult to find much about his career, so some of what we wrote is speculation. But theatre is art, not history, and we make no apologies for being creative.

Review Fix: What are your goals for this production?

Nowak: It’s been 28 years since we wrote the play. While I still perform in theatre from time to time, that’s not really my life anymore. I guess I would say that, as it has for three decades, I hope the play surprises, delights, educates and, in the best of all worlds, changes the way the audience thinks about people who are different from them.

Review Fix: Who do you think will enjoy it the most?

Nowak: Oh, dear, I have no idea. People who like a good story? People who like to laugh? People who like a challenge? I’ve told Allen many times that we didn’t write the easiest play in the history of the world. But if you allow yourself to get caught up in the world of the the characters, I think you will walk away from the theatre satisfied.

Review Fix: How do you want it to be remembered?

Nowak: As a solid, engaging play. And, considering that it seems to have held up for nearly thirty years, I think we did our jobs.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14230 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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