John McGivern, best-known for his Emmy-award winning work on PBS, will perform on Friday at the Springfield theater.
John McGivern of "American Fiesta"Whoever thought a popular line of collectible dinnerware could serve as an important backdrop for a play?
Well, it’s happened with “American Fiesta” on Friday at CityStage in Springfield where playwright Steven Tomlinson has crafted a funny, yet poignant story about an obsessive collector on a quest for the perfect piece of vintage Fiestaware as he deals with his parents’ opposition to his same-sex marriage.
A highly collectible commodity today commanding as much as hundreds of dollars, Fiestaware is a popular line of ceramic dinnerware launched in 1936 and discontinued in 1973 that were glazed originally in five colors including red, blue, green, yellow and old ivory. In fact, in a recent episode of ABC television’s “Modern Family,” Cameron declares to his partner after leaving a thrift story with a piece of Fiestaware, “Look, two bucks, a creamer, they didn’t know what they had.”
Tomlinson’s plays about business, ethics, and modern life have won numerous theater awards and have been performed in Colorado Springs and Philadelphia. In his most recent piece, “American Fiesta” – which was named Best Play by an Emerging Playwright by the American Theatre Critics Association in 2006 – he uses his collection of Fiestaware to reflect on family dynamics, cultural politics, and the doomed search for perfection in America. Tomlinson, who was recently awarded the Osborn New Play Award for “American Fiesta” from The American Theatre Critics Association. has also written and performed monologues for IBM, Guaranty Bank, and the Austin 360 Summit.
"American Fiesta" stars Milwaukee native John McGivern, best-known for his Emmy-award winning work on PBS. McGivern’s one-man shows, “The Early Stories of John McGivern,” “Midsummer Night McGivern,” and “John McGivern’s Home for the Holidays” tell the stories of being the third born of six kids in a working-class Irish Catholic Family in the Midwest. His stories are personal and funny and touching and familiar. His themes are based in family and remind audiences that as specific as one might believe his or her experiences are, we all share a universal human experience.
“I do a little pre-show for ‘American Fiesta’ where I announce that this is not my story. I’ve spent a lot of my lifetime telling groups my story, but now I’m telling someone else’s story,” said McGivern, referring to the semi-autobiographic work by Tomlinson.
“At the same time, it completely connects with me and my life, as well, that while a universal experience, I can relate and tell someone else’s journey as if it were my own….although Steven’s journey is certainly not the same as mine,” he added.
McGivern said he relished taking on another one-man show, even though it wasn’t his own.
“I was originally called about the play over three years ago. I told them to send over the script, and when I looked at it I told them it would be great to do and asked them if they had the rights. They told me they didn’t, but they would get back to me,” said McGivern about Renaissance Theaterworks, a Milwaukee, Wis.-based theater company.
“I heard back from them two years later and they asked me to come in for a reading for a play that I thought I already had based on our earlier conversations. They told me they would be auditioning all day long, but the only other person I saw there was someone sweeping the floor. And by the time I got home there was already a message waiting for me about getting the role,” he added.
McGivern has also appeared in HBO’s “We’re Funny That Way” and “Out There II” on Comedy Central, and was seen sitting next to Sally Field on “Politically Incorrect” and knighted by Julie Andrews in the hit film “The Princess Diaries.”