Local Playwright Discusses Group Rep's 'Next Window Please'

The latest production by The Group Rep at the is an original play written by one of their own. Doug Haverty wrote Next Window Please, a play about the staff of a bank that has to fire half of its employees due to a new merger.

Haverty has been with the Group Rep since 1982. Originally from Sacramento, he grew up Fresno and Stockton and now lives in Burbank. In addition to being a produced playwright, Haverty also works from home as a graphic artist and teaches graphic design two days a week at the Fashion Institute of Design and Marketing.

As The Group Rep rehearsed his play for the Saturday premiere, Haverty spent an evening chatting with North Hollywood Patch by phone. The play runs Friday and Saturday evenings at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m through September 17, plus some Thursday shows as Haverty explains below. Tickets are available through www.thegrouprep.com.

PATCH: Did you write this play with The Group Rep in mind?

DOUG HAVERTY: No. I wrote this play based on people that I had worked in bank with. There are six women in it and I was just trying to paint a portrait of these women, dramatize them. I know that over the years the people that have come through the Group, there’s been a wide array of people that could play the parts.

PATCH: At what point did it become a Group Rep production?

HAVERTY: Last year we started doing readings and workshops of it. Then they committed to putting it in this season.

PATCH: Are all of the actors you imagined could play the parts the ones who ultimately got cast?

HAVERTY: No, and not all the women that we did the workshops with were available for this production slot, which is the dilemma when you’re working with really good people. A lot of times they’re just not available. They’ve committed to other shows or they’re working on movies, so you have to start looking for other ingredients.

PATCH: Those are high class problems though, being too successful.

HAVERTY: Yes, it’s a wonderful problem to have for everyone.

PATCH: When you knew it was going to be a Group Rep production, did you adapt anything to the space at Lonny Chapman Theater?

HAVERTY: No. The space there’s pretty flexible. It takes place in a bank, behind the plexiglass. That’s where the action is set so in my wildest dreams, if it was on a big stage, you would see the whole counter of teller windows and the plexiglass. That’s the back wall of the stage so the customers are beyond the plexiglass. You never see the customers. But we’re doing a more suggested atmospheric theatrical treatment at Group Rep.

PATCH: Do you personally know all the actors playing the tellers?

HAVERTY: I think I’ve seen all of the actors’ work in other plays except one who is also a member of .

PATCH: When people see these characters from the bank, are there any they might think cannot possibly be true? And you can attest that they are true.

HAVERTY: That is likely because there are a couple characters that are larger than life and colorful. It’s a big cross-section. It’s an L.A.-based bank, it draws from the population of L.A. so there’s people from all ethnicities and accents. It’s a little bit like being at the DMV or LAX where you hear all these accents.

PATCH: As far as behavior of the banking community, is it outrageous?

HAVERTY: I think it’s not what you would consider conventional, buttoned-up banking people. Also you’re seeing the scenes that happen behind the glass usually after or before hours. There are some scenes that take place where the bank is in full motion and you see all the characters doing business.

PATCH: Is it particularly timely that you wrote this play now that banks are in the news?

HAVERTY: I think part of it is over the past three or four years, banks have been headline news. It also deals with the economy because this bank is merging with another bank and they have to eliminate half the staff. Layouts and eliminating staff is just a part of our life now. Instead of just taking what is handed down to them, these ladies decide to take matters into their own hands. We also look at what it’s like to be on the other side of that equation, to be the person who’s deciding who gets laid off. That’s no picnic either. My brother went through that and it actually gave him health problems, so it’s very stressful. It also looks at the work environment as a family. A lot of people have regular full time jobs where they go to an office. They’re spending 40-60 hours a week with the same people. It becomes a new family. So when you have to jettison half the people, it’s hard.

PATCH: What would you say to people who might be worried Next Window Please is a downer?

HAVERTY: Well, there’s also a budding romance. That’s fun. It’s something that neither person expected. I think the fun is in the characters, getting to know these women. Laced throughout the play, there are little monologues by the women where almost like a documentary where you ask a question like “What was the best day of your life? What was the worst day of your life?” so they reveal things to us, the audience, that they might not reveal to other people. Those are fun too. Some of the people I’m hoping are funny.

PATCH: Have you been seeing the rehearsals?

HAVERTY: Yeah, I think they’re funny. I’m not going to say this is a knockdown drag out comedy. It’s a play and there’s humor, there’s drama. I’m thinking people can be moved in certain parts and I’m hoping they’ll laugh in certain parts.

PATCH: Has the play changed as the actors have come in and been rehearsing?

HAVERTY: Yes. With all the readings that we did at GRT, I changed it between every reading. Then the director and I talked about one aspect that we both wanted to touch on. I was kind of waiting until the actors had settled into their role and I did another round of revisions and added some material.

PATCH: What is the future of Next Window Please after The Group Rep performs it?

HAVERTY: I don’t know, and I never do. You put these things out there and you think, “Is anyone going to like this?” It’s a contemporary play with six women and one man so I was hoping that maybe other theaters would want to do because in any theater group I’ve ever been involved with, there were always more women than men. I’m trying to fix that one play at a time. I’m always trying to write great parts for women.

PATCH: Tell us about your history with The Group Rep since 1982.

HAVERTY: Well, they did my play In My Mind’s Eye in 1984. The world premiere was there and it’s since been done around the country and published by Samuel French. Then in 1989, they did my musical which was called Roleplay that I wrote with Adryan Russ. That one’s gone all over the world. It had three productions in New York including The Cherry Lane. That was published by Samuel French too.

PATCH: Do you act as well?

HAVERTY: I have. I’ve acted on and off for half that time.

PATCH: Having been with The Group Rep since the ‘80s, what has the emerging NoHo Arts scene been like for a writer?

HAVERTY: It’s been good. I’ve worked on stuff at with Kevin Bailey and James Mellon. I’ve worked on stuff at Theater West so there’s lots of places where you can work on stuff. I’m an active member in which is the Academy for New Musical Theater. That’s just around the corner from Group Rep. The has been very supportive and it’s so great. I’ve gone to plays with them, like a theater night with Chamber members and they’re all coming to see this. I feel like there is a sense of community and people who care about the arts and are supporting it.

PATCH: You must have been around when the city started the NoHo Arts initiative?

HAVERTY: Yes.

PATCH: What were your impressions at the time and as it’s grown over the years?

HAVERTY: Well, it’s been very steady and gradual. Now I feel it’s blossoming. Look at Lankershim, it just feels like a whole little thriving art community. Now with the there, it seems like it’s really going to a viable thriving entity.

PATCH: Does the NoHo Arts District give you confidence in writing a play, that you know there will be someone to perform it?

HAVERTY: There is no shortage of people to perform it in L.A. It’s almost embarrassing. There’s such a richness of talent here in this town. So that’s never a concern for me. It’s usually the opposite, like oh my God, how are we going to narrow it down to one cast? It’s always tricky in this economy to fill the seats in the theater so for this show we’re trying something new. We have two Thursday performances that are “pay what you can.” Traditionally we haven’t had good turnouts on Thursday so we thought let’s try this. Also every Friday night is Ladies Night where ladies get in for half price. So we’re trying to make it attractive to come.

PATCH: Would Next Window Please be as effective playing to 10 people as it would to 90?

HAVERTY: In my mind, no. Just because different things are going to strike different people as funny. So if you’ve got 90 people and the theater’s full, it seems like more of a community where people feel like they’ve made the right choice to come there. If 1/3 of the people find something funny, then the audience is responding. Also I think when it’s a small house, sometimes people are kind of reticent to be very vocal.

PATCH: So people need to turn out to make the most of it.

HAVERTY: Yeah, and I want the actors to have good houses so that when they’re performing, they feel like their craft is being appreciated.

PATCH: Are you working on another play?

HAVERTY: Yes, I’m working on about three other plays and rewriting a musical and starting a new musical.

PATCH: What would you share about those developments so far?

HAVERTY: I have a play called Aftershocks. We just did a workshop production of that at Theatre West that went very well. Working on another play at Group Rep called There Is A Season. I just had a musical done at the Lyric Theater in Hollywood called iGhost. It’s a modern day version of The Canterville Ghost. We’re introducing Bluetooth wireless wizardry, because when you think of it, there’s really not much difference between ghosts and the signals that bounce around our rooms. I’m rewriting that after the production we just had.