Provocative Theatre: The Little Dog Laughed
Next up at Marjorie Lyons Playhouse is a collaboration between Centenary Theatre Program and Shreveport’s own StageCenter, a local theatre company run by Jared Watson and Seth Taylor. This eye-catching play is none other than The Little Dog Laughed by Douglas Carter Beane. This play follows the story of Mitchell Green, a movie star with a deep secret. Along for the ride are his agent, Diane, his “friend” Alex, and Alex’s girlfriend, Ellen. This play is a rollercoaster of serious moments coupled with falling out of the chair laughter. In it is a joke for everyone, whether your humor is a little more simple or if it is on the more adult side of things. Written in the early 2000s, The Little Dog Laughed takes aim at what it means to be gay or straight in Hollywood. It tackles topics like sex and sexuality, being “friends,” and how crummy the business in Hollywood is.
Starring in this one-of-a-kind production is Centenary’s own Logan Sledge. Logan is currently serving as the department chair for the Centenary Theatre Program. He was a student here back in the day and has been with Centenary as a professor for over six years. Just this last year, he earned tenure, and this will be his first year as the department chair. This will be Logan’s first time acting on stage at Marjorie Lyons Playhouse in a few years. As his student and as someone working on the play in a technical capacity, I have learned a lot from him acting on stage. There is something about watching a professional act that just cannot be taught. Every night, he’ll dig deeper into the character, deeper into the play, and make a new choice that just opens your eyes to the character. Watching him on stage is electrifying; it’s an experience I am very glad that I have had.
I had a chance to sit down with Logan’s co-star Jamie Kiihnl and get some insight into her experience with this play. Jamie has spent some time doing theatre before but has plenty of experience in film as well, making her the perfect actress for a character who works in the Hollywood film industry. Working in film for so long has proven to have some challenges when she came back to the theatre. In Jamie’s words, the hardest part is “keeping the nuances of being honest in an imaginary circumstance, but they [the audience] have to hear you. It’s about finding that perfect balance.” Finding that perfect balance is what Jamie does well. Her character, Diane, has quite a few monologues, and it’s important to keep an audience entertained during those long speeches. Creating nuance and levels to the monologues is what Jamie does best. She can keep an audience’s attention for however long she wants, which is very good because Diane has some very important things to say.
Jamie told me that learning those lines was difficult but that she “had a lot of assistance from you [Arden Miller], and that was very helpful because I was able to work in the space and outside of my home. It helped me focus.” A common question that non-theatre people have is, “How did you learn all of those lines?” The answer is a lot of hard work, and Jamie put in the work. I worked with her before rehearsals, running lines and going over why she was saying those lines. That work really made a difference. It’s important for actors to know lines like the back of their hands so that they don’t have to worry about that during a performance run. Overall, Jamie is just “really grateful for the support and the kindness of the cast and crew.”
I also sat down with the show’s director, Jared Watson, to get his thoughts on the play. He told me the story of how this was one of the first plays he saw when he was in New York and how he hoped he could one day bring this story to his community. I asked him what excited him about this play, and his response was “it is an incredible privilege to tell stories that mean something to me. I get to bring stories that matter to me.” Directors don’t always get to share stories that mean something to them. Budget, an audience, and what’s currently popular are all things that affect what stories get told. It just so happened that now was the right time to do The Little Dog Laughed. Jared also had some insight on why people should come to see the show. “It’s like a gay sex in the city. It’s like the shows you watch on television,” he said. Gay sex in the city? Sign me up!
The Little Dog Laughed will be running from August 19th and 20th at 7:30 pm and August 21st at 2:00 pm. Anyone with a Centenary ID will get in for $10, so steal this deal while you can!