Offscript - Rapp star

Adam Rapp, a 34-year-old New York-based novelist/playwright, may not be ready to join the lofty ranks of Tennessee Williams, Anton Chekhov and David Mamet. But PushPush Theater, which has showcased the three canonical writers in its annual playwright festivals, gives the young writer equal time with the Adam Rapp Festival, running through Nov. 22.

For PushPush to focus on a young writer who’s acclaimed, but hardly a marquee name, represents a shift of attention. Instead of digging deeper into the talents of established masters of drama, PushPush’s Rapp festival gives a boost to a new talent, taking Rapp’s work for a spin while introducing him to new audiences.

PushPush’s Adam Rapp Festival features a full production of Finer Noble Gases playing in repertory with Nocturne, a reprise of last spring’s production of a one-man show starring Daniel Pettrow. The theater also stages readings of five Rapp plays, two of which, Bingo With Indians and Sparrow on the Roof, have yet to be formally staged.

As a monologue play, Nocturne reflects Rapp’s background as a successful prose writer, but the comedy Finer Noble Gases proves reminiscent of early works of Sam Shepard. The title is only one-third accurate, as the play isn’t particularly noble or fine, but definitely has gases. Rapp offers a bemused portrait of the farting, puking, spitting, thieving members of a rock band and their adventures with pharmaceuticals in their freezing, squalid New York apartment.

At times the play generates suspense as to whether shabby Staples (Matt Stanton) or Chase (Marc Cram) can raise themselves off the couch. If their bandmate Lynch (Daniel Pettrow) didn’t keep kicking in the television, they’d probably never stir. Finer Noble Gases almost feels like someone dared Rapp to write a play about Beavis and Butthead as musicians in their 20s.

Yet Rapp pulls it off with panache, and the PushPush production features both low comedy and moments of druggy lyricism. Gases more resembles one of Richard Linklater’s little movies like Slacker or subUrbia than anything you normally see on a stage. Near the end, the band members become motivated enough to actually perform a song, and while the lyrics prove hilariously stupid, it nails the musician’s marginal existence.

It’s hard to imagine theater scholars of the future poring over Gases’ lines like, “You’re twitching all over the place — that’s so cool!” It’s still a funny and strangely affecting work that suggests that Rapp could eventually grow into a major theatrical voice. PushPush deserves credit for taking a risk on a lesser-known writer and should continue the practice for its future festivals. It seems more in keeping with the theater’s edgy sensibility than dusting off writers whose worth is unquestioned.

But for future festivals, why not put the spotlight on Atlanta writers, instead of out-of-towners?

Not Dead Yet

There are signs of life at The New Jomandi, where Carol Mitchell-Leon has been named new artistic director.

While the 25-year-old African-American theater company has been plagued by problems — most recently, the cancellation of its 2003-04 season and the departure of interim executive director Byron Saunders — the choice of Mitchell-Leon is very intriguing. She’s one of the city’s finest actors and a solid director (most recently helming Jomandi’s Do Lord Remember Me), so it will be interesting to see the choices she makes as she tries to resuscitate the ailing company.

Her appointment also creates an unusual situation in our theater community. Now that Kenny Leon has launched True Colors Theatre Company, we have two former spouses working as artistic directors for two theater companies with similar missions. It sounds like something out of Noel Coward’s Private Lives.

Head of the class

Atlanta playwright and Emory student Lauren Gunderson has won Essential Theatre’s 2004 playwriting competition for her play Background. It will be presented at Essential’s 2004 Festival of New American Theatre, to be staged for the first time at the Top Shelf Space of Dad’s Garage Theatre in February and March. (Paul Rudnick’s The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told, which reimagines the Garden of Eden with Adam and Steve, will also be staged.)

Background will follow close on the heels of another new work by the playwright, Leap, which has its world premiere at Theater Emory Feb. 12-21.

curt.holman@creativeloafing.com

Off Script is a biweekly column on the Atlanta theater scene.