Production — Dinner on the 14th floor

Dinner on the 14th Floor was written by Evan Placey as 4 short plays: Apartment 14A, Apartment 14B, Apartment 14D and Apartment 14F. Each play takes place at the same time, on the same day and on the same floor of a Toronto apartment building.

Seoul Players are proud to present two of the plays: Apartment 14A and Apartment 14D, which have been brought together for this Seoul production by Director Margaret Whittum.

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Cast biographies

• Molly Berg
  Molly moved to Seoul this past September from Los Angeles, California. Molly received her BA in Theatre from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and has been involved in theatre, film and TV over the past decade. She is thrilled to be performing her first show in Korea. Her next project is the children’s show Teeth written by Maggie and produced by Theatre Seoul. Many cheers to Maggie and her fellow performers for reminding her of what a thrill it is to make people laugh. http://www.mollyberg.net/index.html
• Daami Cagney
  Daami is from Queensland, Australia. His experience in the performing arts extends over 15 years and involves directing and performing in theatre productions, musicals, film, TV, radio, orchestras, jazz bands and grungy rock 'n' roll. He has performed in several Seoul Players productions, including Cosi, Rapunzel (for the 2004 Chuncheon International Theatre Festival) and Hitchcock Blonde. Daami is an accomplished musician and is a founding member of the Seoul based music group E' Joung-Ju Ensemble.
  
• Lyle Bjorn Arnason
  Lyle was born in Upham, North Dakota and has been living in Seoul for over three years. He graduated with degrees in Theatre and Art History from Minnesota State University, Mankato. Some of his favorite roles include Nicely-Nicely Johnson in Guys and Dolls, Marcus Lycus in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and Martin Vanderhoff in You Can't Take it With You. This is his debut with the Seoul Players.
  
• Ed Miller
  Ed is pleased to be involved with Seoul Players again and even happier to have Maggie tell him what to do. This is his second performance in Seoul. His first was playing Frank in Never Swim Alone in the summer of 2005. Prior to Korea, Ed was active in the Philadelphia Theater and Film community - acting, directing, and writing. Ed is a member of Seoul City Improv. Ed promises a free drink to the first person that tells him they loved his performance after each show.
• Margaret Whittum
  Margaret is thrilled to be directing for Seoul Players. She is from Steamboat Springs, Colorado, and has been doing theater for 15 years. She graduated from Colorado College with a Drama degree. She has directed Into the Woods, Chicago and True West. In 2006, she wrote, directed and produced an original show, Love the Radio Edit, for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. She now works for Theatre Seoul, teaching acting in English and directing children’s shows. She is also proud to have started the Seoul City Improv comedy group in July this year.

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Relationship Woes Portrayed in Toronto-Set Seoul Play

By David Watermeyer, Contributing Writer
KOREA TIMES
November 27, 2007

Put on by the Seoul Players, "Dinner on the 14th Floor'' is set in an apartment building in Toronto. A new arrival on the floor has invited fellow floor dwellers to dinner.

And thus we are provided an excuse to glimpse into the lives of two dysfunctional couples whose antics alternately shock and amuse us in this brief, but not easy play.

Denise played by Molly Berg is the female half of a young married couple whose universes are clearly not intersecting.

The universe of Marvin, played by Daami Cagney, is in a TV sports channel and its unclear whether he's escaped there or just prefers life there. His universe is about to be shattered rather abruptly by Denise ― but for that you will have to see the play.

The other couple are the Davids. No not Mr. and Mrs., but rather two gay guys David 1, and David 2 played by Lyle Arnason and Ed Miller respectively.

Being trapped in an elevator on either side of a Christmas tree gives the two a chance to explore some niggling issues in their clearly not all too rosy relationship. Its not quite tragic comedy but its not far away. Was it a tad too declamatory? But then I was sitting in the front row.

The play will be held this coming weekend Friday, Saturday and Sunday and the same on the following weekend Dec. 7-9. Friday performances are at 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday performances are at 6 and 8 p.m. Go and join your fellow foreigners and bring your Korean friends along too. Tickets available through info@seoulplayers.com.

The following is an interview with Seoul Players’ producer Diana Underwood.

Q. If possible could you tell me a little more about the Seoul Players, such as how long its been going. What its aims are. How it operates. Management, decision-making. What sorts of plays are chosen?

A. Seoul Players was established five and a half years ago, and this is our 10th production in that time. We are a non-profit organization.

All those involved with the Players volunteer their time for the love of the theatre and, of course, the chance to give back to the foreign community here.

We've been fortunate to have a very dedicated and talented bunch of people involved with the Players over the years, from many different backgrounds. It seems like the productions just keep getting better, as we learn from our previous experiences.

We have done everything from comedy to drama to Shakespeare (well "The Compleat Works of Wllm Shkspr" anyway), and all our plays have been in English.

We tend to select plays that are not too complicated, in terms of language, so ESL learners can enjoy them too.

Being in Korea, and in an international city like Seoul, we like to cater to a wide range of audience members, and not just native English speakers.

Another criterion in our selection process is in performing plays that have been staged previously in other cities. This particular play, Dinner on the 14th Floor by Evan Placey, has been staged in Edinburgh and Toronto.

Our director, Maggie Whittum, had the chance to work with Evan in Edinburgh on a different production and thought his writing style would be perfect for the Seoul Players. He made some amendments to his original play for our company and its debut in Korea.

The Korean context: Do the Seoul players address or is it more focused on life outside Korea. I was wondering if something on life in Korea from a foreigner's perspective could be tackled. I realize rights etc. are prohibitive here.

The goal of the Seoul Players is, firstly, to entertain. We are avid supporters of the arts both here and in our own hometowns. We strive to focus on topics that can easily cross borders and 'translate' well in Korea.

For example, Dinner on the 14th Floor discusses relationships, love and life-long partnerships. We hope that the emotional content and humor of the play can be readily understood.

As far as staging rights are concerned, we make every effort to ensure we have permission to stage our productions. Usually there are royalty fees involved to the playwright. Since we are a community non-profit theater group, most playwrights are reasonably understanding about their fees.

Q. How can people become involved? What plans, if any, are there for future productions, activities?

A. We have a mailing list from those who have contacted us at info@seoulplayers.com. When auditions are coming up, we send out notices and invite anyone interested to come and audition.

Our next production is being planned for early Spring 2008 ― although we haven't quite narrowed down what play it will be.

We will be needing actors, directors, stage hands, writers, technicians, builders, graphic artists and translators to help (just to name a few), so we welcome anyone who wants to become involved.

Q. Financing. How could people donate?

A. Every production costs money and the Seoul Players rarely makes a substantial profit. We think our shows are successful when all our costs are covered! As such, we are always on the lookout for sponsors to support our shows so we have more flexibility with the next show and what we can do in terms of venues and props. In return, we try to support their businesses.

Often, our sets are recycled from previous productions and the props remodeled. We've had to be quite creative over the years in this area, but everything always seems to come together!

More importantly, however, we feel that the biggest success is to have a full house, which we were able to do our opening night of Dinner on the 14th Floor. This was a first in the Seoul Players' history; we've always been close but never quite to full capacity.

The actors really feed off the energy that a live and enthusiastic audience creates. There is nothing more exciting than seeing smiles and hearing laughter when you're underneath those hot lights. So, the best way to support our small theater group is to come and see our shows and tell others about them too!

Q. How you became involved. How long have you been interested in theater?

A. My love of theater started in the 1980s when I worked backstage as stage manager for my school's production of "Guys and Dolls" in Australia. It wasn't until I answered an ad in a Seoul magazine in 2003 that I returned to the theater, as stage manager for Seoul Players' production of "A Christmas Carol," and I've been involved ever since. More recently I've done "Front of House," and this is my first time as producer. In a transient expat community, the longer you stay somewhere, the more responsibility you sometimes find yourself taking on!

The Seoul Players bring talented people together, some with a lot of theatre background, and some with none ― but a lot of enthusiasm!

Mostly, people are looking for ways to get back into theatre, something they've done before or have been interested in for a long time.

We've found that some Players have become interested in theater only since moving to Seoul and wouldn't necessarily have been brave enough to do it in their hometowns. Living abroad seems to offer many people the opportunity to try new things and take risks.

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Press article: Seoul Players providing live laughs

By Moon Gwang-lip, Staff Reporter
JOONGANG DAILY
December 05, 2007

Ed Miller, left, and Lyle Arnason perform in the play "Dinner on the 14th Floor" a production by the Seoul Players  now showing in Haebangchon, Seoul.

Park Chung-wook is a young Korean fan of American TV dramas, and he discovered a new source of fun Saturday.
Live theater.
His discovery was an English-language play in Korea that he hadn't known existed.
Park was invited by an American friend to the show, "Dinner on the 14th Floor," the latest production by an expat theater group called the Seoul Players.
"The play was as fun as American dramas," Park said after the 60-minute comedy ended to applause at the Orange Tree, a bar in Haebangchon, Seoul. "It was different from Korean plays.

"The acting was good" Park said. "I think many Koreans would like to come and see these English plays once they find out about them."

The Seoul Players were performing their 10th production since starting out in November 2001. They are not an amateur group -- most members have some background in professional acting and some have five years of experience or more, according to Margaret Whittum, the Seoul Players director who is from the state of Colorado in the United States.

The quality of acting in each production is controlled through auditions for roles, Whittum said.

"For this show we had 16 people audition for the four roles," Whittum said.

Dinner on the 14th Floor features two couples, one straight and one gay, living in the same apartment in Toronto, Canada.

Written by Canadian Evan Placey, the comedy sketches the highs and lows of the couples before a meal they were supposed to share.

Ed Miller, a straight American playing a gay man stuck in an elevator, said acting gay was not that difficult -- neither was standing still while the other couple was acting.
"It's not too hard to stand still," Miller said with a chuckle. "And actually it's not that hard to play a gay character. I'm not gay, but you know, these guys have been together for five years -- I had a partner for five years so I know how I would act in that situation."
In the play the straight couple gets into an argument because the husband has become something of a couch potato. The squabble intensifies to the point where his wife shoots up the television set with a gun.

Daami Cagney, an Australian playing the husband, says he really had to stretch in his role.

"I don't actually watch television," Cagney said. "I hate it. So the character is quite different from me."

Cagney said the play has a message that makes it more than just comedic entertainment.

Molly Berg, left, and Daami Cagney.

"I think the No. 1 goal of the playwright is definitely to entertain, but it's interesting to see the problems that both couples are having," Cagney said. "A lot of people have similar problems in most relationships. I think that's why a lot of people find it funny, because they experienced that situation to some extent."

One of the audience members was Brian Rose, a 56-year-old divorced British man. Rose could relate to the play.

"I know what it's like being married, and the kind of spat they had was very similar to the kind of spats I think most men and women have," Rose said.

The Seoul Players hope their next production will be a bigger attraction with the help of Koreans.

"We have very few Korean volunteers," said Canadian Pamela Munoz, a promoter of the Seoul Players. "We are looking for translators and people who can do some PR with local Korean-language newspapers."

The play began on Nov. 25 and runs Friday, Saturday and Sunday. It starts at 8 p.m. Friday and 6 and 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Tickets are 10,000 won ($11). For information call producer Diana Underwood at (011) 9368-2915.

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Press article: Seoul Players hit home with new play ‘Dinner’

By Audrey Mirlach, Contributing Writer
THE KOREA HERALD
November 28, 2007

Ed Miller (left) and Lyle Arnason in Evan Placey’s “Dinner on the 14th Floor”

The Seoul Players kicked off their 10th production, “Dinner on the 14th Floor,” last Sunday.

Margaret Whittum is directing this presentation of two of the original four shorts by Canadian playwright Evan Placey — “Apartment 14A” and “Apartment 14D,” both of which take place on the 14th floor in a Toronto building. Each script explores the loves and lives of the couples behind the apartment doors. The stories begin long after the “happily ever after” of most conventional love stories.

The first couple is Denise and Marvin, played by American Molly Berg and Australian Daami Cagney. This couple has been together so long that pushing each other’s buttons is ingrained. Denise knows Marvin so well that, as he passively sits on the sofa, she is able to have both her half of the argument and his.

Berg’s character is the more dynamic of the two, and she plays her with force — many people in the audience may cringe at the intensity of her shrill and nagging monologues. Cagney’s Marvin has a textbook passive- aggressive armchair-athlete approach to life that may resound with viewers.

In the end, the only way they can resolve their differences is literally to throw the props of their shared existence out the window. And perhaps they are props in the true sense of the word, as we are left wondering: Why are these people still together? What is holding this relationship up?

The second couple is David and David. Lyle Arnason from North Dakota plays David 1 and Ed Miller of Philadelphia plays David 2. Of the four characters, they are definitely the more likeable, and their light banter provides some comic relief.

They have become trapped in the elevator on their way home with a Christmas tree. The tree is wedged between them, and the emergency phone is broken — metaphors for what is really going on in this fiveyear relationship, with its barriers, boundaries (including sexual) and the lack of communication.

We learn that everything is not as it seems, and that this couple is as stagnant as the metal box they are trapped in. Working it out will require some fancy footwork and meeting halfway, there inside the elevator and once the doors open again. Both the characters and the actors have a chemistry that leaves the audience hoping they will successfully mend their fences.

Despite a few minor mishaps involving props and lighting, “Dinner” was an enjoyable, unblinking look at the realities behind “domestic bliss.” And the drama begs the question: Is that no more than a contradiction in terms? It’s a question that the play only asks, but doesn’t presume to answer. Judging from the warm applause after the show, it’s probably better that way.

“Dinner on the 14th Floor” is showing at the Orange Tree in Haebangchon. There are two shows nightly at 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays, and at 8 p.m. on Fridays, through Dec. 9. Tickets are 10,000 won at the door, or can be reserved by e-mailing info@seoulplayers.com. Drinks are available both prior to and after each one-hour performance. Arrive early for the best seats in this cozy venue. The Orange Tree is at Noksapyeong Station, Subway Line 6, Exit 2.

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