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Player's Joy A WAVE4M Studios Production in association with Light Age Films, Soular Films, and the Actors Repertory Theater written and performed by Ralph Elias directed for the stage by Yoni Marten film directed by Kimball Carr and Yoni Marten |
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Twenty-six years as a professional actor/director and a lifetime as a baseball fan have made Ralph Elias stark raving sane — and a playwright. In Player’s Joy he takes you for a funny, eccentric, provocative trot around the bases of diamond and stage, through a dark clubhouse of painful memory, and back into sunlight. An American story told in an original style reminiscent of Spaulding Gray and Bob Costas (with a little help from Will Shakespeare) we think you’ll find Player's Joy to be just what the title implies! |
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Background ART Managing Director, Tanya Marten, and Artistic Director, Yoni Marten, first heard a reading of Player's Joy in early 2002. Actor Ralph Elias's wife, Allison, informed them Ralph had been working on a one-man show, and they really ought to hear it. ART being a theatre known for its development of new works told Allison, of course they wanted to hear itPlayer's Joy in early 2002. My wife, Tanya, and I had recently relocated ART to Frederick, MD and were in the process of trying to decide what the first show in our new location should be. I was discussing this dilemma one afternoon with my friend and neighbor Allison Elias. A few days later, Tanya and Yoni found themselves in Ralph and Allison's living room where, for the next 120 minutes, Ralph performed his work, holding his small audience spellbound. After a brief discussion, the decision was made that very night to open ART's new season with Player's Joy Among those who came to see the show that summer was Yoni's brother, Ethan, former ART Associate Artistic Director and owner of a new production company, Light Age Films. As were most of the audience members who saw Player's Joy during its stage run, Ethan was impressed and moved by the work. But he also saw something more — the possibility of Player's Joy as a film. Ethan brought in a third Marten brother, Richard, whose production company, WAVE 4M Studios was just getting off the ground, as well as young filmmaker Kimball Carr to work with Yoni on shooting the stage play, live in performance. Ethan convinced the group that Player's Joy would be as exciting on film as it was on stage. Fast forward to the Naro Expanded Theatre in Norfolk, VA. The script, already worked and reworked by Ralph and Yoni for the stage production, was reworked even further. From a house that seated a maximum 75, Player's Joy was moved to The Naro Expanded Theatre in Norfolk, VA, a house that seated more than 300. And for two glorious nights, in front of standing room only crowds, Ralph Elias performed this show based on his life, with all he had. For everyone who worked on this production, shooting the film was an amazing experience. The combining of theater and film helped steer ART into a new direction — developing new works that could be performed on stage and then translated to film. But Player's Joy was our first and remains a very special production for all of us who were involved in its creation and evolution. Even more exciting, in 2005, Player's Joy won the Dramatic Achievement Award at the Virginia Festival of Jewish Film, making Player's Joy a hot both on stage and screen. —Yoni Marten |
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