Show Summary

Diversionary presents world premiere of “The Daddy Machine”

Family-friendly musical was commissioned by Diversionary

Two moms, two kids, one singing dog and 62 dads!

Diversionary Theatre will present the world premiere of the family-friendly musical The Daddy Machine as the fourth show of its 2007-2008 season. Running January 18-27, The Daddy Machine was commissioned by Diversionary. Based on the book by Johnny Valentine (published by alysonbooks), the musical’s book is by local playwright Patricia Loughrey and music and lyrics are by local composer Rayme Sciaroni. This new musical celebrates lesbian and gay families, and will be co-directed by Rayme Sciaroni and Siobhan Sullivan.

Diversionary’s Executive & Artistic Director, Dan Kirsch, explained the genesis of the show. “About two years ago, one of our patrons asked us, ‘Why don’t you ever do a show I can bring my three-year-old-daughter to?’ As the 3rd oldest continuously producing LGBT theatre in the country – with a mission to express and champion the lives of the LGBT community – we quickly embraced his request and started seeking a family play to produce. When we found none, we decided to create one ourselves.”

Diversionary commissioned award-winning playwright Patricia Loughrey (the Kaiser Permanente tour of her HIV education play Secrets won the Ryan White Award), who read gay and lesbian family picture books and chose The Daddy Machine for its delightful story and theatricality. Composer Rayme Sciaroni came aboard to write music and lyrics, and the result is a warm, funny, rollicking musical – a show for our patrons to bring their children to. Telling the story of ‘two moms, two kids, one singing dog and 62 dads,’ is – if not the first – among the first stage productions for family audiences representing lesbian moms and their children.

The story revolves around the mischief that ensues when Harry, disgruntled over not getting his favorite pancakes for breakfast, accidentally invents a machine that produces dads – complete with plates of pancakes. With a cast of seven, the bulk of the dads are produced by audience participation: anyone can be a dad when they walk through the daddy machine!

Loughrey has expanded on the storybook to add dimension to the characters and hilarity to the plot. A singing dog named Stonewall rounds out the fun. She has also researched the stories of gay and lesbian families in hopes that the play will honor them with a genuine reflection of their lives. Loughrey interviewed parents, children, adoption counselors, and the staff of Family Matters – a San Diego LGBT parenting organization.

Diversionary’s efforts to reach both LGBT parents and their children through The Daddy Machine has lead them to work with Family Matters as a community partner for the production. Their mission is to promote and sustain the well-being of families with one or more parent who is LGBT as well as those considering parent hood in Southern California. They now have over 800 families within their LGBT-friendly membership.

The parents from Family Matters expressed a concern that the play should not send the message that children with same-sex parents are missing something essential in their life. Yet they admitted some of their children living in lesbian-parented households ask the question, Do I have a father? “The challenge of the piece for us is twofold,” says playwright Loughrey, “To add depth and detail to the existing story, and to address the issue of ‘daddy’ in a way that invites kids and their families to talk openly about that role, without reinforcing the message which some kids hear that ‘Parents = one man, one woman.’” In the original story book the children are curious about what a father is like. The musical adaptation expands that idea in a scene in which the kids discuss all sorts of family configurations. While debating the meaning and purpose of a father, their on-line search for answers triggers the creation of a machine that produces dads. But the machine does not have an “off” switch and the house soon fills with run-amok dads!

The children’s book The Daddy Machine – written by Johnny Valentine – is published by alysonbooks under their imprint “Alyson Wonderland,” which is dedicated to “providing children of gay and lesbian parents books which reflect the reality of their lives.” The imprint was launched in 1990 with the publication of the first-ever lesbian household story, Heather Has Two Mommies. With the world premiere of the musical The Daddy Machine, Diversionary Theatre hopes to expand the celebration of non-traditional families to live theatre.

The new work has generated a lot of interest from funders. “We are very pleased to have received a major grant from The James Irvine Foundation to support the creation of this new work,” said Kirsch. “The grant from the Foundation has come from their New Connections Fund, which supports activities that: involve a broad segment of California's populace in authentic, lasting, and meaningful cultural activities; acknowledge the diverse cultural expressions represented in the state; promote artistic expression of diverse cultures; foster greater civic interaction, cross-cultural understanding, and mutual respect; and demonstrate innovation in audience development and participation strategies (including involving audiences that are not traditional arts-attendees).”

Diversionary has received four other small grants in support of the project, from the County of San Diego Community Enhancement Program, San Diego Human Dignity Foundation, San Diego LGBT Pride, and Wells Fargo Foundation.

Diversionary Theatre was started in 1986. The mission of the theatre is to produce plays with gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender themes that portray characters in their complexity and diversity both historically and contemporarily.

The Daddy Machine is the fourth show of Diversionary Theatre’s 2007-2008 season, and will preview on Friday, January 18, and open on Saturday, January 19 and run through Sunday, January 27. Due to the family nature of the play, daytime matinees on weekends and earlier evening performance times are planned. The performance schedule is: Fri/18 – 7pm; Sat/19 – 1pm & 7pm (opening night); Sun/20 – 1 & 3pm (opening day); Thurs/24 – 7pm; Fri/25 – 7pm; Sat/26 – 11am & 1pm & 7pm; Sun/27 – 1& 3pm.

Single tickets are now on sale. Tickets are $18 for adults and $12 for children under 12. Tickets for opening night will be $25/$20 and include a post-show cast party.

Groups of 10 or more receive a $3 discount. For tickets or information, call the Diversionary box office at 619.220.0097 or log on to www.diversionary.org.

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The City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture provides major support for Diversionary Theatre.

Creative Team

Chrissy Burns	Andy Collins	Lirenza Gillette	Susan Hammons
Haley Heidemann	Max Oilman-Williams	Krista Page	Sven Salumaa
	Benjamin Shaffer

Press Photos

Pictured l-r: Sven Salumaa, Andy Collins, Max Oilman-Williams, Lirenza Gillette, Jacob Caltrider. Photo credit: Ken Jacques.	Pictured l-r: Benjamin Shaffer, Andy Collins, Haley Heidemann. Photo credit: Ken Jacques.
Pictured: (front): Jacob Caltrider; (2nd row) Max-Oilman Williams, Krista Page, Lirenza Gillette; (back row) Susan Hammons, Sven Salumaa, Andy Collins. Photo credit: Ken Jacques.	Pictured: Jacob Caltrider. Photo credit: Ken Jacques.
Pictured l-r: Sven Salumaa, Andy Collins, Susan Hammons, Krista Page. Photo credit: Ken Jacques.	Pictured: Lirenza Gillette. Photo credit: Ken Jacques.
(Clockwise from bottom left): Jacob Caltrider, Haley Heidemann, Susan Hammons, Krista Page, Benjamin Shaffer. Photo credit: kevincullenphotography.com	(Clockwise from bottom left): Jacob Caltrider, Lirenza Gillette, Susan Hammons, Krista Page, Max Oilman-Williams. Photo credit: kevincullenphotography.com
“The Daddy Machine” cast. Pictured (l-r), (front): Jacob Caltrider; (2nd row): Lirenza Gillette, Max Oilman-Williams, Benjamin Shaffer, Haley Heidemann; (3rd row): Andy Collins, Patricia Loughrey (playwright), Krista Page, Sven Salumaa.	“The Daddy Machine” cast. Pictured (l-r), (front): Rayme Sciaroni (music and lyrics); (2nd row): Max Oilman-Williams, Lirenza Gillette, Benjamin Shaffer, Haley Heidemann, Jacob Caltrider; (3rd row): Andy Collins, Krista Page, Patricia Loughrey (playwright), Sven Salumaa.
Four young people will alternate in the "Harry" and "Sue" roles during the run. Pictured (l-r): Benjamin Shaffer, Haley Heidemann, Lirenza Gillette, Max Oilman-Williams.

Reviews

San Diego Union-Tribune
Monday, January 21, 2008

THEATER REVIEW
'The Daddy Machine' churns out lighthearted fun
By Janice Steinberg

Diversionary Theatre has always embraced risk. Still, producing a world-premiere kid-friendly musical seems like a high-wire walk over Niagara Falls for the theater, which presents often-edgy plays with gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender themes.

Diversionary took additional chances assembling a homegrown creative team. Patricia Loughrey, an award-winner author of educational plays, was new to musical theater and had never worked with composer Rayme Sciaroni. And the show they wrote, “The Daddy Machine,” about the children of a lesbian couple who make a machine that produces fathers, required child performers who could not only act but carry solo songs. That alone could have been a recipe for disaster.

“The Daddy Machine” premiered on Saturday, and Diversionary's sparkling high-wire act rivals the Flying Wallendas. In Loughrey's clever script, a lot of the humor stays broad enough for children (for instance, a slapstick bit where four of the dads run wild in wacky costumes) but there are also witty references to crack up adults.

Sciaroni's bouncy tunes and nimble lyrics got this mature viewer happily joining the kids in sing-alongs. Only one song, “A Little Blessing,” strayed into treacle.

Well-paced direction by Sciaroni and Siobhan Sullivan kept young viewers from squirming during the hour-long show. The kids even get a chance to come onstage, don silly hats and emerge through the “daddy machine” (an appliance box).

Loughrey adapted “The Daddy Machine” from a picture book of the same name by Johnny Valentine and added the inspired touch of the family dog, Stonewall, an actor in a floppy-eared cap with a “tail” sticking out behind, who acts as a sort of emcee.

Played with engaging goofiness and a pleasing voice by Jacob Caltrider – in what the program describes, remarkably, as his first paid acting job – Stonewall sets up the spirit of fun with an opening song expressing his delight in his squeaky toys and family of “two kids and me, two moms and a couch. . . . It's all good.”

The children are brainy 13-year-old Sue and impulsive 8-year-old Harry, whose lust for pancakes is thwarted when one mom loses a filling and the other rushes her to the dentist. Dads make pancakes, Harry declares in wistful song – “one dad, one boy and a stack of pancakes, a perfect team.”

Meanwhile, Sue is googling “fathers,” and suddenly Dad No. 1 (Andy Collins) steps out of the appliance box bearing a spatula and a foot-high stack of pancakes. Dad No. 2 (Sven Salumaa) soon follows, and the “Daddy Machine” keeps spitting them out, with four actors and the briefly appearing audience recruits. Sue ultimately laments being in “a household full of jocks” in the song “Sixty-Two Dads.”

On Saturday, Lirenza Gillette and Max Oilman-Williams played Sue and Harry (they alternate with Haley Heidemann and Benjamin Shaffer), and they're both troupers. Gillette brought deadpan hilarity to “Sixty-Two Dads,” wearing a white boa and red cowboy hat, her clear voice unfaltering as a playful dad dangled her upside-down.

Susan Hammons and Krista Page take dual roles as the moms and Dads No. 3 and No. 4, joining Collins and Salumaa in a doo-wop paean to “The Art of Making Pancakes,” the lyrics tickling young viewers with threats to add special ingredients like liverwurst and anchovies.

Production details show impeccable care. Costumer Shelly Williams must have had a blast creating the dads' silly dress-up duds, and scenic designer Christian Lopez fills the family living room with a kid-appealing palette of orange, green and purple and accents of polka dots; a “wall” to one side disguises the back of accompanist Tim McKnight's piano.

Along with performances at San Diego State University and Cal State Long Beach, “The Daddy Machine” has been booked for R Family Vacations' March cruise. (The company, co-directed by Rosie O'Donnell's partner, Kelli O'Donnell, focuses on gay and lesbian travelers and their families.)
Those engagements promise to be the start of a long life beyond San Diego for a show that does just about everything right.

Janice Steinberg is a San Diego arts writer.

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San Diego CityBeat Listings
January 22, 2008
By Martin Jones Westlin

House of dads
A critic-proof play and the rest of this week's theater

Diversionary Theatre’s world-premiere The Daddy Machine is critic-proof, which is to say it’s one of those shows you like regardless. It’s a fantastical, family-friendly musical skit more than it is a play, centering on a same-sex household, a singing dog and 62 dads (some of whom are recruited from the audience) who pop out of an otherworldly contraption and make life interesting for Harry and Sue (Max Oilman-Williams and Lirenza Gillette), the two kids.

The point of this Patricia Loughrey libretto is that the parents’ gender takes a back seat to the love and stability they create in the home—as Sue puts it, “A dad is a just a mom who’s a man.” The Daddy Machine underscores that little gem with gentility and fun.

The play, co-directed by Siobhan Sullivan and composer-lyricist Rayme Sciaroni, will be mounted at San Diego State University and Cal State Long Beach next month. The show will also run in March on a Mexico ship cruise for gay and lesbian families. For now, it runs through Jan. 27 at Diversioinary Theatre, 4545 Park Blvd. in University Heights. $20-$25. 619-220-0097 or www.diversionary.org.