“Seminar” Marries Nice Writing to Excellent Acting

Nominally, Theresa Rebeck’s Seminar is about writing, with four young New Yorkers paying $5,000 apiece for a 10-week seminar with a literary lion in the hopes that he can channel their artistic and professional aspirations into a consummation devoutly to be wished. But at bottom, it’s simply a story of five wanting people bouncing off each other and the sparks that fly from the collisions. 

On that modest score, Seminar is a clear success, with Little Fish Theatre imbuing Rebeck’s script with exactly the charm it needs to succeed on its own terms.

Kate’s (Bridget Garwood) sprawling, rent-controlled, river-view apartment is the perfect spot for the gang — unrequited love Martin (Vonzell Carter), up-and-comer Douglas (Daniel Gallai), and opportunistic sex kitten Izzy (Rena Carter) — to share their work and suffer the acerbic assessments of Leonard (Richard Perloff), once upon a time a celebrated novelist but now confined to editorial work and exclusive seminars like this. First up is Kate, whose story he hates so much after a half-dozen words that not only won’t he read further, but a week later he’s still raving about what a steaming pile of shit it is.

Here we run into the only real problem with Rebeck’s script. Okay, so it’s a running joke — highlighting what an asshole he is — for Leonard to rip Kate a new one again and again over a story whose first sentence he hasn’t finished. But throughout the play he — and occasionally other characters, including in the pivotal final scene — will spend ten seconds skimming someone else’s work and act as if they’ve actually grokked it. I get the conundrum: even just one minute of reading in silence (never mind the kind of time it takes even fast readers to process anything more involved than a shopping list), the audience is bored. But as it is, the obviousness that the characters can’t possibly be ingesting what’s on the pages in front of them — or even believe they’re ingesting it — is asking for too much suspension of disbelief. Aside from that first instance with Kate’s story, there’s no joke here about the readers’ scant attention: Rebeck simply couldn’t write around the problem she created for herself.

But this is an annoyance rather than a tragic flaw. Despite a claustrophobic set-up, the plot has enough nice little turns, and the writing enough wit, to keep us engaged start to finish. The key is that Rebeck has drawn five distinct characters, all of whom progressively reveal layers of their idiosyncratic humanity.

Through the character work she’s done with her very fine cast, it’s clear that director Branda Lock knows this is where the play’s bread is buttered. With almost every scene containing four or all five of the characters, every actor save Perloff spends a considerable amount of time onstage not being the center of attention — yet every one of them reacts to the goings-on in ways consistent with their character’s inner life. The easiest to see is how Carter/Izzy smiles to herself whenever anyone else is put on the spot, but the entire cast is always on-point in their own apt ways. And it’s not just the subtle stuff. Although Garwood gets the opportunity to play the widest emotional range, everyone has their moments, and everyone shines. 

Lock’s blocking is a natural extension of all that character work, managing to keep Little Fish’s unusually long stage area (perfect for Kate’s apartment, which is lovingly rendered by Minolae Jain) free of dead space. 

The only production flaw comes between scenes. Partly because the action necessitates numerous costume changes, scene breaks are long — and made longer still by Little Fish’s choice to have the actors (rather than crew) effect whatever prop/set changes are needed (which they do in half-light rather than blackout, creating a further break in the flow). Lock’s one directorial failing was not coming up with a conceit to cover such notable delays.

But this, too, rises only to the level of annoyance. On the whole, there’s little to quibble with — and lots to like — about Seminar, a nice piece of writing that an excellent cast truly brings to life.

Seminar at Little Fish Theatre
Times: Fri.-Sat. 8 p.m. + Sun. 2 p.m.
The show runs through October 8.
Cost: $20-$30
Details: (310) 512-6030, LITTLEFISHTHEATRE.ORG
Venue: 777 Centre St., San Pedro