Z•E•S•T
Finding the right theater role
Writing, directing plays suit Middletown
native’s talents
By john burton
Staff Writer

CHRIS KELLY Mary Lynn Dobson’s pen has proved to be her most useful tool for a career in theater. The playwright’s award-winning Two on the Aisle, Three in a Van is being staged at Monmouth University’s Pollak Theatre, West Long Branch.

She has been involved with theater for years, and lately Mary Lynn Dobson has been thinking she may have found her niche.

"I’m just finding out what I’m good at, and maybe this is it," she said of writing and directing.

In particular, Dobson’s writing has been getting noticed lately.

That notice would include a professional theater company’s upcoming staging of one of her plays at Monmouth University’s Pollak Theatre in West Long Branch.

The play, Two on the Aisle, Three in a Van, gives a peek behind the curtain of the theater world, detailing the experiences of a summer community theater group, trying to survive the season. The action unfolds around three tech crew members who function as a sort of wisecracking Greek Chorus while hanging around one of the crew’s vans outside the theater, as various cast and crew members stop by during a performance.

While she has been involved in theater since her days as a student at Middletown High School North, as an actress, director, and writer, the play at Pollak did not originate from her own experiences. The idea came from a friend, and his tales of woe concerning jaded burned-out techs and stagehands and ego-driven "actors" who revel in the big-fish-small pond syndrome.

"And I just ran with it," working on the play in fits and starts for the last couple of years, she said.

The production at Monmouth is being staged in cooperation with the university and the Henlopen Theater Project, a professional Equity group and arts organization, from Rehoboth, Del.

The production features a cast of professional performers who have vast experience, appearing in Broadway and off-Broadway productions, as well as numerous movies and television programs.

While this is the first professional production of Dobson’s play, Two on the Aisle was one of the 1999 winners of the YES festival of new plays presented at Northern Kentucky University. Dobson’s play also was the most attended play in the festival’s history.

Dobson recalled the first time she saw the stage design and the actors portraying characters for the play, which until then had existed only in her mind and on her computer screen.

"It was surreal," she said of the experience.

In addition to this play, Dobson has written other works, including The Somewhat True Tale of Robin Hood, which she described as "Monty Python-ish" and was intended for children’s theater but with enough jokes to keep the adults awake.

Robin Hood is published by Dramatic Publishing, Chicago, where Dobson has become its fasting selling new playwright.

Initially, Dobson said, she sent her manuscript to the publisher, correctly believing it would be rejected. But with the rejection, that publishing house included recommendations on how to improve the work.

"About three months later they called me and told me they wanted to publish it," she said. "I’m probably the only playwright who, when offered to be published, asked, ‘Does this mean I don’t get a rejection letter?’ "

That play is regularly produced by local theater groups around the country. Robin Hood and Two in the Aisle also have been well received in a number of playwriting competitions around the country, Dobson said.

"Except in Indiana because Indiana hates me," she said.

Following one of Indiana’s competitions, Dobson’s submission was returned with a comment from one of the judges calling her the "Howard Stern of children’s theater."

It wasn’t a compliment, Dobson said.

For whatever reason, those in the Hoosier state don’t seem to get her humor. Or maybe they don’t like comedies. Dobson noted that the winning play in the state’s competition that year was titled Why Did Grandma Die?

Indiana notwithstanding, Dobson is still inclined toward comedies, rather than what is seen as "serious" drama, she said.

"People expect you, if you’re a woman playwright, to write about ‘women’s issues,’ but I’m not really good at being a woman," she said. "I don’t have issues of balancing a career and family. I don’t have children, which is good because they usually run away from me — which could pose a problem if they were my own."

In addition to writing, Dobson also has been directing various productions at Playhouse 22, East Brunswick. Last year she directed A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, and she recently had the same duties for Sylvia. She is now preparing a production of the musical comedy She Loves Me. So what’s next?

"Probably a nap."

Following that, Dobson said she will continue to pursue some of her other favorite activities, which includes driving her husband to financial ruin.

Dobson said she plans to continue to work in the dramatic medium. She has been noodling around with two possible future plays and plans to continue until she gets it right.

Two on the Aisle, Three in the Van will be presented at Monmouth University’s Pollak Theatre June 28 at 8 p.m., June 29 at 2 and 8 p.m., and June 30 at 3 p.m. Tickets are $25 and may be purchased through the university’s box office, (732) 571- 3483.