Even grizzled New Yorkers like 'Naperville'
At a New York City theater with an audience of "grizzled city-dwellers," a play titled simply, "Naperville" made its debut.
And, yes, its setting is a suburb not likely on most New Yorkers' radar. Yet its writer says the story didn't flop.
Even callous, snooty theatergoers in the Big Apple had a heart for Mat Smart's tale about the suburbs and the conflicting forces of family, home and faraway dreams.
When the play was first shown in late 2014 at the Slant Theatre Project, it drew a review in The New York Times that called it an "intricate, delightful comic drama." Smart, a 1997 Waubonsie Valley High School grad, calls it a "love letter to" and a "story in defense of" his native town.
"Naperville" is coming home - to Chicago, at least - where it makes its local debut on Aug. 26 at Theater Wit. Smart is looking forward to getting a hometown audience's perspective on his play, which captures the uniqueness of the suburbs, particularly its title town.
"The suburbs in general get a pretty bad rap as being just cookie-cutter repeats of each other," said Smart, 36. "People discredit the suburbs and their individuality."
Smart left his hometown to live what he calls "a pretty unglamorous life trying to scrape by as a poor artist in New York City and writing plays." But he still loves Naperville and returns often. His sister moved to Houston to work at Mission Control for NASA, but his mom still lives in the house where they grew up.
"I feel a lot of tension between wanting to be there as much as I can and for my career needing to be somewhere else," Smart said about the play's namesake city. "That's a central question in the play."
In "Naperville," a man named Howard is considering giving up his career in Seattle to care for his mother in his hometown after an accident left her blind. The two-scene play is set entirely in a Caribou Coffee as Howard takes his mother, Candice, to her coffee shop for the first time after her accident.
The Caribou that Smart had in mind - a place where he did some writing for the play during a span of eight months - has since closed. But drive past That Burger Joint on 95th Street near Neuqua Valley High School, and that's the spot where he imagined the play taking place.
Caribou's closing might lend unintended irony to the play's local flavor. But part of the purpose of setting the story within a seemingly ubiquitous coffee shop remains, the playwright says.
"There's all these chains in the suburbs - whether it's Starbucks or Caribou - and I think these coffee shops, they develop their own personality, clientele, regulars," Smart said. "Even within a store that looks kind of the same as the store in the next town over, it's different."
Within Candice's Caribou, she and her son run into Anne, a high school classmate of Howard's who is an expert on town founder Capt. Joseph Naper.
Historical references to Naper bring some humor, and they come from Smart's childhood memories of touring the Naper Settlement museum and a bit of research.
Smart has visited and researched and lived in several unusual locations as he aims to set a play on each continent. The most remote: the South Pole, where he worked as a janitor for three months. He says it's all part of his love of getting to know a place - as he did with Naperville as a kid - and telling a story about it.
"I love taking people on a journey - whether it's to Antarctica or just the local coffee shop," Smart said. "You can really create a world and try to get people to escape into it."
Preview performances of "Naperville" begin Aug. 26 at Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont Ave., Chicago. Smart plans to be in town for about three weeks for the previews, when he says the script will be open to changes before the play's official run begins with a press preview Sept. 6.
Shows are scheduled for 8 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday until Oct. 16 except for Sept. 9.
If you go
What: "Naperville" the play
When: Preview performances begin Aug. 26; shows Thursday, Friday, Saturday at 8 p.m. and at 2 p.m. Sundays until Oct. 16 (except Sept. 9)
Where: Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont Ave., Chicago
Who: Written by Naperville native Mat Smart, directed by Jeremy Weschler, starring Laura T. Fisher, Andrew Jessop, Abby Pierce, Charlie Strater and Mike Tepeli
Cost: $12 to $36
Info: theaterwit.org or (773) 975-8150