There are many people — tabloid editors among them — who would love to know what conversations Hillary and Bill Clinton have shared in private, on or off the campaign trail.
In his “Hillary and Clinton,” playwright Lucas Hnath imagines an alternative universe in which a character named Hillary and her husband Bill navigate strategies that aren’t all political from a New Hampshire hotel room during the 2008 presidential primary season.
Hnath has called his tale written in 2016 speculative fiction and suggested that the play’s Clintons may or may not be the Clintons, who served as both U.S. Secretary of State (Hillary) and U.S. President (Bill). Noted. There are two other characters in the play — one named Barack Obama and the other Mark Penn, just like the Hillary Clinton strategist during her ultimately failed 2008 presidential bid.
This curious work, making its San Diego premiere next weekend, is the first full-length production of brand-new OnWord Theatre, a company founded by three African American female artists. They are actor/director Marti Gobel, the company’s producing artistic director; Jamaelya Hines, its managing director and resident artist; and Danielle Bunch, OnWord’s marketing director and production manager.
Bunch is also starring as Hillary in this inaugural production, which is being directed by Gobel. Rounding out the cast are Pete Zanko as Bill, Kevin Phan as Barack and Geoffrey Ulysses Geissinger as Mark.
“All of the cast are about a decade younger than the actual people,” Gobel said. “That’s intended. We need younger people in our political arena.”
Gobel selected “Hillary and Clinton” for OnWord’s first fully staged show out of a desire to “present politics not in a political package but in the relationships that happen. It was the combination of what’s happening right now, my love of Hnath and the flexibility (the script offers) in multicultural casting.”
“Hnath is one of my favorite playwrights. He’s crisp with his words. If the actor gets out of the way of the words you have a lovely piece.”
For Gobel, this play also “highlights the absurdity of the political arena, reminding people that politicians are in fact people and that often there are a lot of things that are determined between the political player and the partner. It’s hilarious too, and I’m a little bit twisted.”
“Hillary and Clinton” is being staged in the penthouse suite of the Alma Hotel in downtown San Diego. There will be seating for about 40 people at each performance.
“We stumbled across the Alma Hotel through an old business partner of mine,” Gobel recounted. “We started collaborating with them; then we had to find work that we could accommodate in that space.”
When you’re a new theater company, identifying a venue in which to produce is only part of the daunting challenges. But Gobel has done that before, having co-founded UPROOTED theater in Wisconsin before relocating with her husband to San Diego. They now own a music school in Carlsbad.
“I found that this region was vastly different from how I had been operating in the Midwest in which I’m a known name,” she said. “I realized quickly that I was going to have to create some opportunities for myself.”
It was while appearing in Zora Howard’s play “Stew” at Scripps Ranch Theatre last year that Gobel connected with Bunch and Hines.
“We started talking about what we wanted in theater and what we didn’t like,” Gobel said.
After a few months of discussion, the three decided to form the nonprofit OnWord Theatre. A fundraiser last August produced the seed money necessary.
“We settled on some things and the voice that we wanted,” Gobel said. “We’re three Black women starting their own company, but we’re not going to be pigeonholed into doing just female voices or Black voices. I love Tennessee Williams and Sam Shepard. We want to do everything.”
Next up after “Hillary and Clinton” for OnWord Theatre is a hybrid staged reading on June 7 of Ike Holter’s “Lottery Day” at a venue in Spring Valley. Delicia Turner Sonnenberg will direct.
“I love Ike Holter,” said Gobel. “He hasn’t had any work done on the West Coast. I like the way he writes — very raw. The rhythms of his writing are so fantastic.”
Beyond that, Gobel looks to Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago as a model of what she’d like OnWord to be one day.
“It started in a garage,” she said of that famed theater’s humble beginnings. “They are known for their excellence and their care for their artists and staying on edge and on point. That’s what I would eventually like to become.”
‘Hillary and Clinton’
When: Opens Friday and runs through April 19. 7 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays; 4 p.m. Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays
Where: Alma San Diego hotel, 1047 Fifth Ave., downtown
Tickets: $45
Phone: 619-892-8123
Online: Onwordtheatre.com
