For his third play about food, Jacques Lamarre wanted to whip up something fresh, try some fresh spices and increase the portion size.
“Raging Skillet,” having its world premiere at TheaterWorks July 20 through Aug. 27, has three cast members, where his previous shows “I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti” and “Born Fat” each were one-woman shows. “Raging Skillet” is also louder and faster. It’s based on the memoir “The Raging Skillet” by Chef Rossi.
“I really wanted to do something different,” says the Hartford-based playwright. “This one is definitely more of a play. It’s more technically advanced.” While all three of his food plays treat the audience members as if they are at an event held by the star of the show, “Raging Skillet”— in keeping with Chef Rossi’s outrageous attitude — is “a rock ‘n’ roll occasion,” Lamarre says, replete with a DJ spinning rock records. DJ Skillit is played by George E. Salazar, last seen in Connecticut in a tour of “Spring Awakening” that played New Haven and New London in 2011.
Lamarre was inspired to write the play when he visited Book Expo America in New York City, when he was working as the director of communications and special programs at the Mark Twain House and Museum. (Lamarre is now a senior account manager at BuzzEngine in West Hartford.)
“There was a bit of a mission I was on at the time. Rob [Ruggiero, TheaterWorks’ producing artistic director] had indicated he wanted a new piece for TheaterWorks, something in the vein of “I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti.” “I didn’t want to repeat myself, but I wanted something entertaining for that sort of audience.
“Rossi was the Feminist Press booth, giving out peanut butter and bacon sandwiches. Her book was on display. I looked it over, and just based on the jacket copy, by the time I got to the front of the line, I asked her if she was interested in turning it into a play.”
Chef Rossi runs a creative catering business in New York City, also called The Raging Skillet. She also has a monthly radio show, “Mouthing Off Radio with Chef Rossi: Imagine Life, Love & Glory” and for over 18 years has been writing the “Eat Me” column for the feminist magazine Bust.
The book and play encompass her whole life story. “She arrived in New York from New Jersey,” Lamarre explains, “sent to live with the Hassids. This was when punk was really huge, and she went to all the clubs. She lands somewhere in between punk as an aesthetic and a classic rocker. Some of the photos she’s sent me from that period are a riot. I see her story as being very much about rebellion, including rebelling against the Orthodox Judaism in which she was raised. That rebel aesthetic carries over to her catering.”
Ruggiero arranged for John Simpkins, the former artistic director of the Sharon Playhouse who now heads the musical theater program at Pennsylvania State University, to direct “Raging Skillet.” Lamarre and Simpkins have not worked together before. “That was a marriage made by Rob,” Lamarre says. “But we’re very much on the same page — gay men raised in religious households. John’s main focus is musical theater, and in this the DJ serves as a third character. His sensibilities will be really useful.”
How involved has Rossi been with the project? “She’s mainly acting as a cheerleader,” Lamarre says. “She’s beyond excited about it. But other than little notes here and there, she hasn’t been that involved in the script’s development.” Lamarre, however, has constantly been revising “Raging Skillet” as it nears its world premiere. “Even after the actors arrived, I made changes based on their input.”
Those actors, too, have changed. A cast was announced in May, but in late June two of the three members of that cast had to pull out of “The Raging Skillet” due to other obligations. “We had to recast on a Tuesday and start rehearsals that Saturday,” Lamarre says. “Marilyn Sokol was the the first to come in, and had us howling. Dana Smith-Croll was the last to come in that day, and knocked it out of the park.” Smith-Croll plays Rossi, and Sokol plays her mother.
Sokol, whose long career dates back to the first national tour of “The Man of La Mancha” in the mid-1960s (including a stop at the Shubert in New Haven) and also includes experimental work with the Open Theatre and San Francisco Mime Troupe, a slew of Broadway and off-Broadway dramas, the comedy revues “Sid Caesar & Co.” and “Old Jews Telling Jokes” the films “Foul Play,” “The Goodbye Girl” and “Can’t Stop the Music” and even a summer stock production of “Lovers and Other Strangers” at the Ivoryton Playhouse — is pretty rebellious herself, yet plays the character Rossi is rebelling against.
“She’s a Jewish mother, sure, but very, very not stereotypical,” Sokol said in a phone interview from her Grammercy Park apartment in Manhattan. “You’ll find out that she is not the ‘establishment’ character.
“I’m very touched by this play,” Sokol continues. “It’s very challenging — new works are challenging by definition. When you’re sharing a three-character play, the responsibility is on everybody’s shoulders.
“I laugh a lot during rehearsals — I’ve got to curb that,” Sokol says. “Everyone in this production is so easy — like buttah — to work with. Like buttah. TheaterWorks is probably one of, if not the best, regional theaters with which I’ve ever been involved.”
RAGING SKILLET is at TheaterWorks, 233 Pearl St., Hartford, July 20 through Aug. 27. Performances are Tuesday through Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 2:30 and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2:30 p.m. (There is no Saturday matinee on July 22.) Tickets are $50-$65. 860-527-7838, theaterworkshartford.org.
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to correct a quote from Jacques Lamarre with reference to his and John Simpkins’ religious upbringing as children.
