As an actor, Parker Gray knows almost anything could go wrong onstage. In the comedy The Play That Goes Wrong, everything Gray could imagine going awry does.
“I’ve been in shows when actors have dropped lines and you have to improvise on the spot. Props have broken and you have to figure out what to do. People have missed their exits or entrances,” Gray said. “This play is kind of a microcosm of everything that has gone wrong at some point in various productions throughout life and they’ve thrown it into one.”
The Oliver Award-winning comedy by Henry Lewis, Henry Shields, and Jonathan Sayer is a co-production of WaterTower Theatre in Addison and Stage West Theater in Fort Worth. The show is running in Addison through Feb. 12, and it will run from Feb. 16 -March 12 in Fort Worth.
The show centers on the Cornley Drama Society‘s production of The Murder at Haversham Manor, an Agatha Christie-style mystery. Even before the opening night performance begins, a CD of music and a dog seem to be missing, and a mantlepiece falls. Circumstances do not improve for this amateur cast desperately to prove themselves with this show.
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“I would hope that if a regular production went as wrong as this one, that we would say, ‘Stop! I’m sorry. We can’t continue tonight.’ But the actors in this particular production don’t feel like they have that luxury or maybe even that know-how to say, ‘ Stop, this isn’t safe.’ For some reason, their entire professional life depends on finishing this play at any cost,” Gray said.
Gray plays Chris, the director of this ill-fated show.
“Chris is the straight man. He is the one who is trying really hard to put on the best show he can,” Gray said. “This is his directorial debut. He has also been newly elected head of this drama society. There’s a lot of pressure, there’s a lot of stress and a need to impress audiences.”
The Scene
Chris also cast himself as the inspector who must solve the show’s mystery.
“Perhaps he should have cast better actors to surround himself with,” Gray said.
Co-productions, like The Play That Goes Wrong, are becoming a familiar phenomenon as theaters recovering from the pandemic are looking for ways to share resources. In 2022, Circle Theatre in Fort Worth and Theatre Three in Dallas co-produced Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein.
“Co-productions in general if they are done well and with the right people are really a smart business model,” Gray said.
This farce is a good fit for a co-production.
“Addison and Fort Worth are two vastly different cities with two vastly different audience bases and within that, WaterTower has a vastly different audience than Stage West does,” Gray said. “Sometimes you can’t beat doing just a good slapstick, door-closing, flat falling-down farce and I certainly think any type of audience base will want to see this show.”
Gray is as familiar with the business side of theater as he is with acting. He served as Undermain Theatre’s operations manager from 2017-2019. He left that position to pursue acting full-time, only to have the pandemic stall acting opportunities.
As the pandemic eased, his workload picked up in late 2021. His most recent performances include the Circle Theatre/Theatre Three production of Young Frankenstein and the world premiere of Stede Bonnet: The F*cking Pirate Musical at Theatre Three.
In August 2022, he got engaged and decided he need more financial stability. That’s when he learned Second Thought Theatre was looking for a new executive director. He started his new job in January.
“There’s a lot of stress doing acting full-time because your financial position depends on the next show that you book,” Gray said. “Just the thought of having something a little bit more stationary and foundational for me was a boon, especially since I was going into eventually being married.”
Second Thought Theatre has been Gray’s favorite theater since he was a college student and Carson McCain, the theater’s artistic director, is a close friend.
“The chance to work at my favorite theater and work with one of my favorite theater workers and for us to run this theater, that sounds like the only time I would want to go back into non-profit theater management,” Gray said.
As executive director, Gray will manage the books and handle financial and administrative duties. From taking donations to writing contracts for the theater’s artists, his work will vary. He may even clean the toilets.
“What I do today is going to be different from what I do tomorrow and that won’t necessarily be what I do this time next year,’ Gray said.
Gray intends for the theater to be the beacon of artistic excellence he admired as a student.
“My hope for Second Thought going into the future is to continue to be the place that I saw it as when I was younger, which was the cornerstone as the best art in the city,” Gray said. “It’s always been the place that I go to see an artistic statement and an evocative night of theater.”
As an executive director, he hopes Second Thought Theatre avoids the troubles of the Cornley Drama Society. But he does share Chris’ ambition.
“If we do have anything in common, it is that eternal optimism and the hope and want to put on good work,” Gray said.
Learn more: WaterTower Theatre, Stage West Theatre, and Second Thought Theatre
