Don’t Talk to the Actors

Phaedra Cook January 8, 2015 4:00AM

[
          {
            "name": "Related Stories / Support Us Combo",
            "component": "11591218",
            "insertPoint": "4",
            "requiredCountToDisplay": "4"
          },{
            "name": "Air - Billboard - Inline Content",
            "component": "11591214",
            "insertPoint": "2/3",
            "requiredCountToDisplay": "7"
          },{
            "name": "R1 - Beta - Mobile Only",
            "component": "12287027",
            "insertPoint": "8",
            "requiredCountToDisplay": "8"
          },{
            "name": "Air - MediumRectangle - Inline Content - Mobile Display Size 2",
            "component": "11591215",
            "insertPoint": "12",
            "requiredCountToDisplay": "12"
          },{
            "name": "Air - MediumRectangle - Inline Content - Mobile Display Size 2",
            "component": "11591215",
            "insertPoint": "4th",
            "startingPoint": "16",
            "requiredCountToDisplay": "12"
          }
          
            ,{
              "name": "RevContent - In Article",
              "component": "12527128",
              "insertPoint": "3/5",
              "requiredCountToDisplay": "5"
            }
          
        ]

Playwrights dream of making it big and getting their work on Broadway, but in Tom Dudzick’s semi-autobiographical Don’t Talk to the Actors, that dream turns into a nightmare. It’s the story of a playwright and his fiancée who are new to the theater world, where self-involved actors and actresses will stop at nothing to get what they want. The results of their manipulations are unexpected and hilarious.

Director Sam Martinez says, “As someone who spends as much time as possible either onstage or backstage, I know that sometimes I take the whole art and concept of theater too seriously. Don’t Talk to the Actors is a show that reminds everyone that theater ultimately should be fun and at times [is] just downright ridiculous.” Martinez says the show allowed him to poke fun at actors, directors and the process of mounting a play. “For the audience, I hope that this little bit of self-indulgence and self-depreciation [of ourselves] equals an evening’s fun — and maybe a little view into some of the inside jokes of the theater.”

Andrew Russell plays beleaguered playwright Jerry Przpezniak, while CarrieLee Sparks plays his fiancée. Mary Mink, Roderick Aust, Tad Howington, Tanya Terry, Kathleen Zaritski and Schrenia Bockholt fill out the rest of the cast.

8:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; 3 p.m. Sundays. Through February 7. Theatre Suburbia, 4106 Way Out West. For information, call 713-682-3525 or visit theatresuburbia.org. $16.
Sundays, 3 p.m.; Fridays, Saturdays, 8:30 p.m. Starts: Jan. 9. Continues through Feb. 7, 2015