An Interview with Shay Gines, Director of Mary, Mary

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Jody Christopherson
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Jody Christopherson

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Shay  Gines photo by Jody Christopherson

Tell me about Directing Mary, Mary? What excites you about this play?


Shay Gines: Mary, Mary is kind of the perfect Spring time rom-com with a sassy, smart female lead. So, it is right up my alley.

 In your opinion, how does it play in the modern era? 


Shay Gines: I think that Jean Kerr was ahead of her time. She wrote about issues that she was experiencing personally. Her work is just as valid today as it was when it was originally penned.  She writes about the absurdities of family life, the struggle to balance family and work, the challenges of relationships, and the whole gooey ball of wax that is being a talented, brilliant, beautiful, fallible, and sometimes insecure woman. I know I can relate to all of that.

The most exciting and most challenging things you have (hope to) discovered in this process?


Shay Gines: This script provides opportunities for both broad physical comedy and intimate tender connections. Building those moments is what both excites me and poses the biggest challenges. The goofy physical comedy has to be rooted in reality and the timing has to be spot-on in order for it to work. The small personal moments between characters reveal who they are and yet communicate a universal human experience. I think those are the most compelling and engaging moments in theatre. Finding the place where both extremes can exist together is what makes this work so invigorating and fun.
What are your hopes for the American Theater?


Shay Gines: I want more people to go to live theatre. As our society continues to depend on technology and personal devices to make connections and experience the world, I hope that theatre can become the alternative to cyber. Live theatre is an event that you attend in person and sit with other people to it experience together. There is an energy that is exchanged between audience members and between the audience and performers that makes each performance unique and something you cannot get through a screen. My dream is that theatre will have a resurgence and more Americans will discover the personal and fulfilling experience that it offers.
What the thing you would give your younger self, a theatermaker just starting out?


Shay Gines: I would have encouraged myself to learn about all the aspects of theatre; lighting design, set design, etc. I would have told myself not to wait to have a list of credits, to pursue opportunities that excited me and to be unashamedly bold. Actually, that is good advice for me even now.
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Retro Productions to Present a Revival of the 1960’s Rom-Com
MARY, MARY
Limited Run May 3-18 at the Gene Frankel Theatre
Written by Jean Kerr – Directed by Shay Gines
“So far in 2018, I’ve reviewed quite a fair amount of excellent indie theatre productions. I feel hard-pressed to find one that’s brought me as close to tears as this one has…. easily among my top shows of 2018.” – We Are A Masterpiece, On Stage Blog 
“Riveting revival … The performances in this production are first rate and could not be bettered… Gines’ production is not only brilliantly cast but it also moves with the speed of an Acela train.” – And Miss Reardon Drinks A Little, TheatreScene
“This is one helluva revival.” – The Butter and Egg Man, A Seat on the Aisle
“Retro Productions, one of the Off-Off Broadway’s best kept secrets, has been wowing those in the know with one stellar production after another.” – Benefactors, NY Theatre Wire
“I’m off to one of my favorite theater companies: Retro Productions, which unearths plays from the distant past.” – The Desk Set, Theatre Mania
Award-winning Retro Productions kicks off its 2019 season with one of the longest running Broadway comedies of the 1960’s, Mary, Mary written by Jean Kerr. The witty revival runs May 3 – 18 at the Gene Frankel Theatre in SoHo. Shay Gines who previously directed Retro’s revival of And Mrs. Reardon Drinks A Little, directs. Opening night is slated for Friday, May 3.
Mary is a compulsively wise-cracking magazine editor who uses her sense of humor to shield her insecurities, while Bob is an infuriatingly sensible publisher. Their marriage ended in divorce and they haven’t seen each other in 9 months, but now Mary has been called back to Bob’s apartment by their mutual friend and lawyer, Oscar, in the hopes that they can avert an audit by the IRS. Throw in Bob’s young fiancée Tiffany; his old war buddy, the handsome and single film hero whose star is in decline, Dirk Winston; and one major snow storm–and we begin to wonder, will Mary and Bob recognize that they are soul mates in time to get back together before they each end up in the arms of another?
Artistic Director Heather E. Cunningham shared why she choose to produce Mary, Mary, “It is not often that we think of female playwrights when we think of the 1960’s, and when searching for our next production I made the decision to only consider plays written before 1980 by women which fulfilled our mission of “Retro” (and honestly, I wanted to do a comedy!). Jean Kerr was one of the most prolific female playwrights of the 20th century and Mary, Mary is by far her best work.”
Mary, Mary ran for 1,572 performances and the play remains number 52 on Playbill’s list of the 119 longest running Broadway shows. The original Broadway production ran from 1961 – 1964 and at the Helen Hayes Theatre and later at the Morosco Theatre. A 1963 film was made of the play starring Debbie Reynolds.
The cast features Heather E. Cunningham (NYIT Award for Best Actress in An Appeal To The Woman Of The House/Retro), Desmond Dutcher (Street Theatre/TOSOS), Chris Harcum (American Gun Show/Edinburgh Festival), Meghan E. Jones (The Awakening/Brooklyn Lyceum), and Robert Franklin Neill (NY Neo-Futurists).
The creative team includes costume design by Ben Philipp (currently an Assistant Costume Designer for Amazon’s The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel), scenic design by Jack and Rebecca Cunningham (3 NYIT nominations for set design), lighting design by Asa Lipton, sound design by Trevor Williams, properties design and associate producer, Sara Slagle (NYIT nomination for properties design).
Performances take place at the Gene Frankel Theatre, 24 Bond Street (Between Lafayette & Bowery), New York, NY 10012. Subways: 6 to Bleecker Street, B/D/F/M to Broadway/Lafayette. Tickets are $22 students and seniors, and $25 for general admission https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/cal/1011. Running time: 2 hours.
Performance schedule:
Friday, May 3 @ 8:00 pm
Saturday, May 4 @ 8:00 pm
Sunday, May 5 @ 2:00 pm
Monday, May 6 @ 8:00 pm
Thursday, May 9 @ 8:00 pm
Friday, May 10 @ 8:00 pm
Saturday, May 11 @ 8:00 pm
Sunday, May 12 @ 2:00 pm
Wednesday, May 15 @ 8:00 pm
Thursday, May 16 @ 8:00 pm
Friday, May 17 @ 8:00 pm
Saturday, May 18 @ 8:00 pm
More info is available at www.retroproductions.org
BIOGRAPHIES
Jean Kerr (Playwright) 1922-2003. Bachelor’s degree from Marywood College, M.F.A. from Catholic University. Her writings include: Jenny Kissed Me (1948); Please Don’t Eat the Daisies (1957); The Snake Has All the Lines (1960); Mary, Mary (1961); Poor Richard (1964); Penny Candy (1970); Finishing Touches (1973); How I Got to be Perfect (1978); Lunch Hour (1980). She had many collaborators, contributing to John Murray Anderson’s Almanac (1953-1954); co-writing King of Hearts (1954) with Eleanor Brooke; and working often with her husband, Walter F. Kerr, on projects such as The Song of Bernadette (1946); Touch and Go (1949) and Goldilocks (1958).
Shay Gines (Director) is an award-winning producer, actress, and director. She has directed in theatres across the country including: Rough for Theatre at the Occidental Theater in Eagle Rock, California; Where’s My Lunch at Touchstone Theatre in Pennsylvania; and The Trojan Women with the Greek Festival in Salt Lake City, Utah. In New York some favorite productions that she’s directed include: My Alice with Esperance Theatre Company, Red Suitcase with Rising Sun Performance Company, and First Communion with Emerging Artists Theatre Company. Shay last directed And Miss Reardon Drinks A Little for Retro Productions. She is a Founding Executive Director of the New York Innovative Theatre Awards and the Off-Off-Broadway Editor for Theatre World, the annual pictorial and statistical record of the American theatre.
About Retro Productions: 
Retro Productions (Heather E. Cunningham, Artistic Director) was founded in 2005 with the mission to present works of retro theatre. Retro is defined as “involving, relating to, or reminiscent of things past (American Heritage Dictionary).” Retro Productions strives to tell good theatrical stories which have an historical perspective – with an emphasis on the 20th century – in order to broaden our own understanding of the world we live in. Over the past 14 years, Retro has produced 20 plays including the 2015 critically acclaimed production of The Butter and Egg Man and The Runner Stumbles which was moved to an off-Broadway run by The Bleecker Company in 2011.
Retro Productions has received 28 New York Innovative Theatre Awards nominations since 2008 – including 2 wins for Outstanding Actress in a Lead, for Kristen Vaughan (Benefactors by Michael Frayn in 2011), and Heather E.  Cunningham (An Appeal to the Woman of the House by Christie Perfetti Williams in 2014). In addition, last year Retro was awarded the prestigious Caffe Cino Fellowship Award. NYIT Nominations include Outstanding Production of a Revival for The Butter and Egg Man in 2015, Outstanding Production of a Play for An Appeal to the Woman of the House in 2014, Benefactors in 2011 and The Desk Set in 2010, Outstanding Original Full-length script for An Appeal to the Woman of the House in 2014, and We Are A Masterpiece in 2018, Outstanding Ensemble for Benefactors in 2011, as well as acting and design award nominations. www.retroproductions.org

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