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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