Limited seating will make 'Glengarry' sizzle even more

Director Heather Glenn Wixson, surrounded by an outstanding cast, standing from left, Michael Stailey, Tim Robinson, Peter Motson, David Williams and Robert Macadeag; seated, from left, Anthony Ejarque and Jonathan Hoar. (Courtesy photo)

Picture TV’s “Survivor” in a real estate sales office. The top salesman gets a Cadillac. The bottom one gets fired, sent home.

It’s into this rough and tumble pressure cooker that a handful of men find themselves scrambling to make that one big sale to put them over the top. Some will stop at nothing to make sure it’s them.

Theatergoers will have a unique opportunity this week to join in that pressure cooker sales office atmosphere as the Rochester Opera House presents David Mamet’s Pulitzer-winning play, “Glengarry Glen Ross” with limited seating on stage with the actors.

The play won the Pulitzer in 1984 and was also made into a movie starring a brilliant ensemble cast including Jack Lemmon, Al Pacino and Alec Baldwin.

The production that opens Thursday will feature ROH Executive Director Anthony Ejarque as salesman David Moss and be directed by Heather Glenn Wixson, who studied with and became a mentor of Mamet.

Wixson said directing the all-male cast came easily to her because of her relationship with Mamet and knowledge of how he approached the storyline and characters. “David Mamet had a technical approach and working with him helped me,” Wixson said on Thursday.

The play, full of rough and tumble repartee (including vulgarity and profanity) between highly competitive salesmen, speaks to a culture that rewards winning, greed and materialism above all else.

“The messages are not for men, it’s for our whole culture,” Wixson said. “It affects me personally. I believe in the message for this play.

“Being a man’s play is invisible to me. It’s about the culture.”

Only 80 theatergoers will be admitted at each performance. They will walk onto the stage, through the curtain and be seated to one side with the action taking place on the other.

Wixson said the audience may feel trapped, just like the salesmen who must either sink or swim in a battle to get the best leads and make the most sales.

 “The nature of the play … I wanted a confined feeling. I wanted the audience and the actors to be in this together,” Wixson said.

Ejarque, who came up with the idea to use the stage for limited audience seating, said, “It’s going to be more intimate, but the show lends itself to it. Having the audience in our lap will intensify the relationship aspect.

“It’s like a pressure cooker. Taking a big idea and putting it in a small space adds to the intensity of the show.”

In playing Moss, a big-mouthed salesman who tries to enlist an accomplice to help him steal the best sales leads, Ejarque said he had to draw on his entire acting repertoire.

“I’m pulling everything out of my toolbox,” he said. “I try to charm them, threaten, intimidate, seduce them. He (Moss) tries every trick in the book.”

Peter Motson, another accomplished actor, will play Shelly "The Machine" Levene, an aging once-prolific salesman who hasn’t closed a big deal for a long time.

Also starring are Jonathan Rockwood Hoar as top salesman Ricky Roma who is ruthless and immoral; and Robert Macadaeg as the aging and swag-challenged George Aaronow.

The play runs from this Thursday through next weekend. For more information http:rochesteroperahouse.com.

The Lebanon Voice and Fat Tony’s Italian restaurant are co-sponsors of the ROH production of “Glengarry Glen Ross.”