Going to the show?

What: “Picasso at the Lapin Agile,” by Steve Martin
When: 7 p.m. Thursday–Saturday
Where: Wylie ISD Performing Arts Center
(or, Centre des arts de la scene Wylie)
Tickets: $10 online at wyliebooktix.com

Wylie High Theater is Back in Black

Wylie High theater is back in black.

That has nothing to do with the AC/DC song. Theater director Christopher Shoemake has his troupe performing Thursday through Saturday night in the cozy black box theater at the Wylie Performing Arts Center. Curtain (if there was one) is at 7 p.m. Seating is limited due to the size of the space.

The Show

The premise:
A famous theoretical physicist meets a groundbreaking artist in a Paris café. There’s that and more in “Picasso at the Lapin Agile.”

If you’re up on your French, that’s “nimble rabbit.” The playbill even is in French, meaning Shoemake is the directeur.

If the premise is a bit out there, consider the playwright. “Picasso” was one of the first works by the uber-talented Steve Martin. Another work, “Bright Star,” with singer Edie Brickell, has been performed on several Abilene stages. In fact, when Abilene Christian University did the show in 2019, it starred Griffin Jones.

He’s now the husband of the former Maddie Lowry, a Wylie alum who is back at her alma mater as a theater instructor. She directed the October musical “Newsies.”

To add a bit more tie-in, Martin once owned a home in Fairway Oaks, just down the road from the PAC.

Finally for Shoemake

This is a show that Shoemake has wanted to do for about 25 years. He was in it as a freshman at Texas Tech in 2001, performing as Sagot, Picasso’s art dealer.

“It has been on my list ever since,” Shoemake said.

It showcases the range of Martin’s talent.

“It was one of his first shows to go on Broadway,” Shoemake said of Martin’s work. “An absurdist comedy … a fictional meeting of Albert Einstein and Pablo Picasso, in their 20s, and a third guest later. It’s kind of a surprise.”

Wait for it, audience, because you’ll want to get all shook up.

And, “it’s a really good character study for these kiddos,” he said. This show adds to the resumes of the more advanced actors he has, those who have plans to continue the craft in college.

The cast is small. In fact, so small that Shoemake chose to add more.

“Admirers. Normally, there is one in the show. We’ve expanded that so we have six to give more kids an opportunity to get on stage.”

The setting is an actual Parisian cabaret (founded in 1860), though it’ll be more of a café in the WHS production.

The “bar” is where Picasso and other artistic types of the day, such as painter Henri Matisse, would’ve hung out.

The conversation centers, not surprisingly, on genius vs. talent. The time is 1904, and both men are on the edge of worldwide greatness. They talk, Shoemake said, about what the 20th century will bring.

Enter the third character, one that the audience can't help falling in love with.

It is a comedy, and references to what’s ahead are humorous considering this is 2025 and we know what happened.

The show comes in under 90 minutes and is a one-act set entirely in the café.

A special “guest star” is the audience, which envelopes the scene. There is no stage.

The admission price includes a beverage — a tame one approved by Wylie ISD. Drinks will be served during the show, drawing the audience further into the scene, almost rubbing elbows with greatness.

Theory of Joshua Corrigan

Shoemake has several actors who also were in “Newsies.”

Joshua Corrigan, who was Joseph Pulitzer in the musical, portrays Einstein. Ashtyn Kershner, who was Jack Kelly, is Picasso.

Clayton George, who was Davey, will be that mysterious genius who swivels into the café.

And there are actors who weren’t in “Newsies” who aren’t as big, perhaps, on musicals.

“This is where they really like to shine,” Shoemake said.

“It’s a fun show,” Corrigan said. “It doesn’t follow the traditional plot line. The main character it centers on doesn’t come in until halfway through the show. Comedic all the way throughout. Little skits and little parts that we piece together, and you figure out, ‘Oh, this is Albert Einstein and this is Pablo Picasso.’”

“It’s an interesting idea because it’s before … they’re super-duper famous. Picasso is a little more well known than Einstein. In the show, he is publishing the theory of relativity, and that’s a big part of the show.”

Corrigan laughed and said that Einstein in the show doesn’t have that famous crazy hair.

“There actually is a line about that,” he said. “He’s younger but his hair is still curly. But there is a line, ‘You’re Einstein?’ and I poof up my hair.”

The actor learned a bit more about Einstein — there are a lot of jokes that go to his real-life character.

“Germaine, one of the characters (a waitress), says something like she thinks that this will be the greatest century for Hiroshima and Einstein is over here, like, ‘I don’t know about that …’”

There also is a love interest; who ever thought of Albert Einstein in love?

“Leaning into the personal life is interesting,” Corrigan said.

A senior like Kershner, Corrigan is working through his final performances as a Wylie High student.

“That’s sort of how it is with every show. This is the last fall play. I’ve been in four of them, so it’s weird but just have fun with it,” he said.

It’s more special for Corrigan because he is one of the students who will not be pursuing theater at the college level.

“I’m planning on majoring in political science,” he said, with law school after that.

Attorneys can be great actors, and the courtroom their stage.

Thanks for the Assist

Shoemake has had help with the show. Rylan Kerby is his student director.

“He’s done a great job listening to me directing and giving the kids notes and things like that,” Shoemake said.

Kerby’s ambition is to direct, though not theater. He is more interested in film, but this experience translates well. Previously, he has had acting roles, which also is beneficial to a director. He knows what it’s like to be taking instruction.

“I do acting almost as entertainment in high school but it does help me for the career I want to go into and gives me more perspective,” he said. “Knowing what’s going through the heads of the people I’m working with.

“Yeah, it’s a fun task but it is something I want to dabble my hands in.”

Like Corrigan, he views “Picasso” as something different.

“It’s unique, it’s abstract,” Kerby said. “There are no scenes, it’s just a constant flowing.”

He already understands that filmmaking is about setting the scene and shot, whereas theater is more direct engagement with the audience.

“That’s something I’ve had to find out through this show,” he said.

Kerby listed some of the usual suspects as favorite film directors — Christopher Nolan, Quentin Tarantino, Edgar Wright and James Gunn, who did the summer’s “Superman” movie.

His older brother sparked his interest in directing but “just watching and seeing a film that I would consider beautiful and looking at a shot and thinking, ‘Wow, that is really cool. So much effort went into that. I want to be able to do that.’”

It’s also about telling a story that will resonate and last.

“You can do that through writing and theater and music and film, but it’s film that spoke out to me the most,” Kerby said.

What has been easiest as assistant director?

“(The actors) know this production but it’s me with the nitpicky things. I know all these people and it’s not like me critiquing you but, ‘Hey, I want you to have the best performance and shine the best you can,’” he said. “The connections you have with these people, something I want to carry on to when I become a director.”

Hardest?

“Wow, I’m barely doing anything and Shoemake is doing all the work. If he wasn’t here, I don’t know if I could’ve gotten on with a project like this,” Kerby said. “It’s so abstract. It’s untraditional and unorthodox. It’s thinking outside the box.”

So, it’s about interpreting someone else’s work but also making it your own. As a film director, Kerby would want to do his own stuff.

“I have ideas in my head,” he said.