THEATER REVIEW: All the stage is a world

Jo Morello and Jack Gilhooley are two Sarasota-based husband and wife playwrights. They’ve distilled their lifetime of theatrical experiences in “Life Upon the Wicked Stage,” a collection of six comedy sketches that hit very close to home. Thanks to Dunedin’s itinerant Gypsy Stage Repertory troupe, Sarasota audiences got a chance to see these pieces performed at Art Center Sarasota.

It’s a fast-paced night of theater. Here’s a quick breakdown:

Act 1: “The (Play)Wright Stuff” pits a playwright against an exploitive director/producer who wants to mangle their script. “The Hetero Chorus Boy” flips stereotypes and offers a straight chorus boy passing for gay on Broadway. “Connubial Bliss” features Charlie and Marie Williams, two husband-and-wife playwrights and collaborators (Hmm…) whose pushy agent is terrified their impending divorce might mess up a good thing.

Act 2: “Obsolete” showcases a director who wants to replace actors with digitally-voiced soccer balls (like “Wilson” in “Cast Away” — a volleyball, actually). “The Dog Lovers” features a dog’s agent wrangling for a shaggy client’s points and perks. “Connubial Bliss” reprises the team of Williams and Williams — who ultimately find that they’re artists together and hacks when apart.

Ever wondered what goes on behind the curtain? These vignettes show you, with only slight exaggeration. As to the curtain in this performance, there isn’t any. It’s a minimally staged production. Directors Lil Barcaski and Mary Locarni basically used whatever they could find at the Art Center for props. In their hands, the material still works — and very skilled hands they are. Locarni and Barcaski direct with understated confidence. They know the laughs are on the page. They trust the material and don’t force the hilarity. The laughs emerge naturally as the characters believably interact.

Preston Copeland, Gloria de Luna, Tim Guerrieri, Beth Adele Long, Skyla Dawn Luckey, David Nisson, Natalie Sullivan, Tracy Roese, Tamara Spiri, Jonathan R. Thornsberry give life to the assorted characters. These ten actors are a mix of old pros and folks just breaking in. I won’t rank them or nitpick technique. They all performed with heart and all seemed to be having fun. Comedy works when you don’t play it like comedy. They all get it. And Gilhooley and Morello’s comedy definitely works.

Funny it is. Romantic it isn’t. The rose-colored glasses come off. This is theater, warts-and-all. Almost every sketch is some form of negotiation — and the details ring true if you’ve had even the slightest contact with this world.

Yes, there’s a lot of inside baseball. But the sketches are basically character sketches — short, sharp vignettes revealing the wheeling , dealing, needy, greedy, passive-aggressive, just plain aggressive, egotistical, insecure, selfish and giving tribe of theater people. These people hold a mirror up to life. That’s their job. These sketches hold a mirror up to their lives.

Morello and Gilhooley do an excellent job.

They make a great team.