Carpinteria’s Alcazar Theatre presents Gloria’s Old Haunt, by Mark J. Heller, the playwright behind last summer’s popular production of Social Insecurity. Co-director Leslie V. AnnRenee describes the play as a romantic comedy with a supernatural twist, full of “old-world charm and present-day cynicism.” The story follows Doug, a struggling writer trying to rediscover his artistic and literary voice while working on a screenplay in a Palm Springs hotel. His epiphany comes in the form of three spirits from the desert’s heyday as a glamorous getaway for Hollywood luminaries. “He comes seeking escape,” says Heller, “but what he finds is confrontation: three ghosts who refuse to let him wallow and disappear into his own exhaustion.”
The ghosts, director/screenwriter Billy Wilder and actresses Gloria Swanson and Carole Lombard, provide a source of inspiration and activation for the floundering Doug. “By the end, Doug doesn’t simply write again; he lives again,” says Heller. “The ghosts don’t give him answers; they give him back the courage to ask new questions…. They don’t give him a new voice. They give him back the one he abandoned.”
AnnRenee is co-directing Gloria’s Old Haunt with Åsa Olsson. “We sometimes approach a moment differently,” says AnnRenee, “but those different perspectives create a more balanced production.”
Olsson calls the process “energizing and exciting and grounds for great conversations … where ideas and creativity flow back and forth, discovering a bigger concept than you had initially conceptualized.” Gloria’s Old Haunt offers humor, wisdom, and heart, and recognizes that the strength to live your best life sometimes comes from surprising sources.
See Gloria’s Old Haunt at the Alcazar Theatre (4916 Carpinteria Ave, Carpinteria) September 18–20 and 25–27. See thealcazar.org.
