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In the second installment to this year's Playwright's Workshop, a woman is faced with a choice between her own career and the man she loves, a famous Hollywood screenwriter.
"His Gal Hildy" by Eric Pals, an SIUC student playwright, follows Hildy, a secretary, on her endeavor to claim credit where credit is due for her assistance to her boss, Howard Godfrey.
While Godfrey is basking in his success after winning several Oscars, including Best Screenplay, Hildy wants her share, but he refuses to acknowledge her. When Hildy makes the mistake of letting gossip columnist Hedda Hopper in on her secret, she is forced into a struggle between her own stratum and destroying the man she loves.
"His Gal Hildy" is the second play this summer in the annual Playwright's Workshop series presented by the SIUC Theater Department.
Pals was inspired to write his play while researching for a course in Classical Hollywood Cinema. During this research, he became interested in screwball comedy, a film genre that was popular in the 1930s and '40s. According to Pals, this genre is defined by films like "His Girl Friday," "It Happened One Night" and actors like Carole Lombard, who is known as the Queen of Screwball Comedy.
"I wanted to write a play that was a screwball comedy about people who make screwball comedies," Pals said.
After reading a story about Frank Capra, the director of "It's a Wonderful Life," Pals got the idea for his play. He said that the story was about Capra becoming deathly ill after winning numerous Oscars for "It Happened One Night" because Capra was so afraid of failing after reaching the pinnacle of his success.
"I thought it would be interesting to start a play right after somebody had a hit like Capra's and explore the positives and negatives of that success," Pals said.
As the play developed, Pals began to see the play starting off as a comedy and ending as a tragedy; and that is how he came up with the subtitle "a Screwball Tragedy."
"I'm interested in different genres and how they create expectations for the audience and what happens when you break those expectations," Pals said.
According to Pals, the Playwright's Workshop is mainly about the developmental process of playwriting. Therefore, what the audience will see is most likely not the final draft, but they will have the opportunity to give Pals their feedback to make this screwball tragedy a true success.
There will be a "talkback" session after Friday night's performance in order for Pals to see how his "genre manipulation" affected the audience's experience.
Pals said he will take what he learns from the entire process, including the audience's reaction to this performance, and continue to work on the script.
He said he wants his audience to leave the theater talking about the play and their lives.
Pals said, "I really hope people will laugh and cry and think about how the film industry and film genres have helped shape who we are and the way we think about our lives."
Performances run July 25-26 and begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Christian H. Moe Laboratory Theatre in the Communications Building. Admission is $5 with tickets available at the door.
