Doug Segrest and Kristy Meanor are doing it again.
After Meanor adapted Segrest’s book A Storm Came Up for the stage and it garnered attention from the theater world, the pair collaborated again to bring their shared love of the Golden Age of Hollywood to life through Hooray for Harry. It premieres on the Wetumpka Depot stage July 11.
“There are so many charming things about that time period of films,” Wetumpka Depot artistic director Kristy Meanor said. “We would be reading about some of the character actors and their lives. Their lives were far more interesting than anything you see on film. That is how the characters were born in this play.”
In writing the play, Meanor and Segrest compared notes on the numerous films they had watched. They quickly developed characters they wanted to see on stage. Meanor has always been in theater, and Segrest is a sports journalist with a love of theater.
“We have a lot of fun writing together,” Meanor said. “We think alike. Working with Doug is like having your own dramaturge fact checker. He has an encyclopedia brain for not only sports but movie trivia.”
The characters and story lines came from old movies such as My Girl Friday, Arsenic and Old Lace and You Can’t Take It With You.
The main character Harry Wood is the epitome of leading men of the time as movies transitioned from silent to sound. Wood decides he is better suited as a stuntman.
“All of the characters are identifiable,” Meanor said. “There is a newspaper touch which is fun for Doug because he is a journalist. Anything he writes there is going to be a journalism thing in it. The newspaper gets involved in a story that is going on.”
Most of the play is set around the guesthouse of a Spanish revival home in Burbank, California once owned by Harry.
“He built this big Hollywood mansion,” Meanor said. “He lost all his money because of bad investments and living in the guest house of this mansion because the old lady who bought it let him stay in the guest house. He has adopted some industry friends who aged out of the business with him. It’s snappy dialogue.”
The cast has been rehearsing for the show that opens July 11 and runs through July 27. Tickets are available through the Depot’s website at www.wetumpkadepot.com. Currently Meanor and others are working on the stage including building Harry’s Spanish revival home and guesthouse.
“It is a beast of a set,” Meanor said. “It will be ready by July 11. You have to make a mess to make some nice stuff. We are at the mess stage.”
