Most people, when they first hear about Patrick Schmitz's play, "Back and Forth," thought his inspiration came from the better-known "Noises Off," which like Schmitz's creation, takes place behind-the-scenes of a play.
Schmitz, who has spent a majority of his performing career in stand-up and improv admits he hadn't even seen or heard of the popular show, which also was adapted into a 1992 movie staring Carol Burnett, Michael Caine, Chirstopher Reeve and John Ritter.
"It's very much similar to the structure of "Noises Off," Schmitz says. "But it's not what I was going for."
In actuality, Schmitz was at a play once and found himself wondering what was happening backstage.
"It just struck my curiosity," Schmitz says. "I had heard stories about the drama and politics that takes place backstage so by the time I got to the show, I really wasn't as interested in what was going on in front."
With an urge to try his hand at writing and directing, he drew on his improv roots, trying to come up with a secne in which several people find themselves in one place, whether they like each other or not.
"You could put them on a boat, you could have two cops at a stake-out but then I thought people backstage would be fun," Schmitz says.
He recalls working with John Maclay, his boss at First Stage Milwaukee and a professor at UW-Milwaukee. He felt Maclay's stories and experience would make for great background, and got the idea to interview actors and other performers he knew.
"I would walk away from class thinking he (Maclay) was such a brilliant bastard," Schmitz says. "Then I realized, I knew a lot of brilliant bastards."
Originally, Schmitz planned to interview between six and 12 people, with a simple list of questions like "why do you do theater" and "is theater dead." Quickly, the process grew longer.
"It became an addiction," says Schmitz, who ultimately interviewed about 75 performers, including well-known local actors like John McGivern and Mark Metcalf.
Writing a play was difficult for the veteran improv artist and it was reflected in the first few scripts. Schmitz sought feedback and altered his writing after a number of readings and finally, it was Maclay, he says, who helped him realized what was missing.
"He told me I was one of the funniest people I know and that it was a shame that there wasn't any of "me," in the show," Schmitz says. "I took that to heart. He told me to add the wit."
The result is a show that explores the conflict between a small cast of characters performing in a small-town murder mystery show. They all are very different people but share a love for performing.
Brian, played by Josh Decker, a young and impressionable novice actor, gets a call to audition in Los Angeles, which would force him to miss the final performance the next day. It causes some tension among the cast, which is also dealing with the presence of Lance Fergeson (Michael Black), a well-known national actor helping the show as a favor to the owners, who are family friends.
Linda, played by Beth Lewinski, is a female comedian giving theater a try. Talented and funny, she rubs Deb (Amie Lynn Losi) the wrong way as Deb was raised to believe that women should be proper and while comedy is sexy for a man, it's weird on a woman.
Deb has a long history with Paul, played by Parker Cristan, who stayed with small-town theater strictly for the art and doesn't think you need to go to New York or Los Angeles to tell a good story.
"It was difficult to come up with the right cast," Schmitz says. "Most of the people I know are younger, meaning my age or younger. I needed two people who were hitting 45-50. I needed talented, non-equity and available. One of those three didn't match and I was in trouble. But this cast is absolutely amazing."
Schmitz began interviewing people about a year ago. Most of them were done in person or on the phone as Schmitz wanted to get more than just responses from the subjects.
"I wanted to capture their tone," he says. "One person I spoke to just 'went;' she didn't even wait for me to start asking questions ... she was great."
Despite the show's deep roots "inside" theater, Schmitz says "Back and Forth" will appeal in and out of the industry. The conflicts the characters face are similar to everyday conflicts.
"As long as there is a narrative involved, I think anything can appeal to anybody," Schmitz says. "This is much more than five actors on stage telling the audience why they should or shouldn't do theater."
"Back and Forth" runs March 18-20 and 24-26 at the Alchemist Theatre, 2569 S. Kinnickinnic Ave. Showtime is 7:30 p.m. except for a 3:30 p.m. matinee on Sunday, March 20.
