Description: A pair of new muses join a college theatre group in the hopes of turning a young actress into a great artist

First Produced: 2003
Date Added: 6/15/2011
Content Advisory: strong language, adult situations (sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll)
Keywords: Death and the afterlife  Fantasy  Mythology  Religion and spirituality  Behind the scenes  The Theatre  Shakespeare  Large Cast Size 
2 Acts, 80 Minutes
4 Females, 5 Males

NOTE: Muse of Fire is fully protected by copyright law and is subject to royalty. All inquiries concerning production, publication, reprinting or use of this play in any form should be addressed to Scott D. Edwards of Harden Curtis Associates; email: scottedwards@hardencurtis.com; phone: 212-977-8429; mail: Scott D. Edwards, c/o Harden Curtis Associates, 850 Seventh Avenue, Suite 903, New York, NY 10019..

Original Production Information

Muse of Fire was first presented by hope theatre, inc., as part of the New York International Fringe Festival in 2003 at Cherry Lane Studio, with the following cast and credits:

Dion: Jack Halpin

Polly: Sara Thigpen

Carlos/Hal: R. Paul Hamilton

Emily: Jackie Kamm

Cassandra: Heather McAllister

Phil: Jerry McAllister

Mick: Bret Christensen

Lenny: Vinnie Penna

Jessie: Christine Goodman

Director: Kelly McAllister

Stage Manager: Matthew Rankin

Understudy: Devin Moriarty

Understudy: Joseph Mazzella

Fight Director: Vinnie Penna

Review by Martin Denton

Muse of Fire, the new play by Kelly McAllister (author of last year’s FringeNYC hit Last Call), is wise, warm, and wonderful. It tells the story of two muses, Dion and Paulina, who are sent to earth by their boss Carlos to encourage a young college student named Emily to write the world-changing novel that is apparently her destiny. So Dion and Paulina, who are as different as night and day, or yin and yang—he’s a spontaneous, life-affirming, live-in-the-moment kind of guy; while she is the hard-headed, hard-hearted, logical, pragmatic kin of her Shakespearean namesake from The Winter’s Tale—head down for a 40-day sojourn on Earth.

What an eventful and important forty days they turn out to be! Eventful because Dion and Paulina assume human form as students at San Jose State College, where they join Emily in the cast of a cockeyed production of As You Like It, which is being directed by an enervated, extroverted lunatic named Cassandra, and whose cast includes a young man named Mick with whom Emily is in love, his current (very jealous) girlfriend Jessie, and a clownish young charmer named Lenny. Complications—of all kinds—ensue.

Important because, well, everything’s important, which is in fact the essence of this gorgeous, profound play. McAllister mines Shakespeare, pop culture (everyone from The Banana Splits to Keyser Soze), theatre lore, and the collective wisdom of the ages to create a beautiful and thoughtful paean to life, death, love, and memory. Within his own little wooden O, McAllister (who is also Muse of Fire’s director) reminds us what it means to be human, in all its foolish, painful, glorious glory.

He’s also brought together an ensemble of nineactors whose equal we would be lucky to see on any stage, let alone elsewhere at FringeNYC. Jack Halpin and Sara Thigpen are excellent as Dion and Paulina—Halpin’s goofily hilarious, yet somehow anchored by disarming goodwill, while Thigpen, in solid counterpoint, is tightly wound, smart, with overflowing heart just beneath the surface. R. Paul Hamilton is delightfully sly as their superior in the afterlife, Carlos, while the extraordinarily assured Heather McAllister is a force of nature as the play’s other parent figure, Cassandra. Jackie Kamm centers the play sweetly and firmly as Emily. Brett Christensen (Mick), Christine Goodman (Jessie), and Vinnie Penna (Lenny) are all splendid, and Jerry McAllister is terrific as Cassandra’s put-upon assistant/stage manager, Phil.

All in all, a feast for the heart and soul, all about shape-shifters and liars and broken hearts and sheer happiness and, yes, a muse of fire. It’s the loveliest new play I’ve seen in quite a while; don’t miss it.

reviewed at the 2003 New York International Fringe Festival

Excerpt from Muse of Fire

JESSIE

Celia?!? Shit! Mother fucker! Cock-sucking Baby-ass shit!

Dion and Polly enter, and go to the board.

DION

Ah, crap!

POLLY

I think I may throw up.

DION

Why? You got a great part. Jacques is like a secondary lead.

POLLY

Dion, shut the fuck up. I didn’t even want to audition. I don’t like acting.

EMILY enters, unnoticed by JESSIE.

JESSIE

Are you serious? You’re bitchin’ about getting cast as Jacques? Spare me. At least your boyfriend didn’t get cast opposite Miss Perfect for the umpteenth time. It’s like the world is trying to get them together, I swear to God.

EMILY

Hi Jessie.

JESSIE

Hi Emily. Congratulations! It’s a great part.

EMILY

Thanks. And Celia’s a good part, too.

JESSIE

A good part?

DION

Better than Adam/Phebe/Audrey.

EMILY

True.

JESSIE

There are no small parts. Just parts that suck. Like mine.

LENNY

(entering) As you like it? Can you stand it. (Walks to board, looks at cast list.) Touchstone. I coulda seen that hep cat coming my way if I had made like Oedipus and plucked ‘em.

JESSIE

Shut up, Lenny.

LENNY

Listen, sister, let’s keep the dead leaves off the lawn.

JESSIE

It’s not the jazz age, geek, so cool it with the hipster lingo.

LENNY

You are real kicksville, Mabel, and I ain’t selling you swamp land on that one.

JESSIE

(Looks at list) So, you must be Dion. I’m Jessie Springfield. Are you new? I haven’t seen you around.

DION

Yeah. This is only my second incarnation. (Polly elbows Dion) Oh, I mean, I just transferred from, uh, from this other school up in…Dakota.

JESSIE

North or South?

DION

Hmm?

JESSIE

North or South?

DION

This is my friend Paulina.

POLLY

It’s Polly.

JESSIE

So, you’re playing Jacques?

POLLY

Apparently so.

JESSIE

Isn’t that a guy’s role?

POLLY

Yes.

JESSIE

Well, I’m sure you’ll be able to pull it off.

POLLY

Thanks. And you know, Celia isn’t such a bad role, as far as minor roles go.

JESSIE

Are you a graduate student? You look way too old to be an under-grad.

LENNY

Say, are you dames gonna duke it up right? If so, may I suggest a large vat of warm mud in which to shake each other’s martinis?

POLLY

Let me wake you, Jack. The amount you know about jazz and jive don’t amount to diddly squat, so put a cork in your pie-hole, or you’ll be singin’ on a cloud in two spits and a cough. Dig?

LENNY

Dug.

MICK

(Entering) Hey. Is it up?

JESSIE

Hey, baby. Yes, it’s up. Do you want the good news, or the bad news?

EMILY

Maybe we should leave.

JESSIE

Why? What do you care? You got the fucking part.

EMILY

I just thought that you two might want some privacy.

JESSIE

Privacy in the theatre department? Right.

LENNY

All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women blabber-mouths.

JESSIE

God, Lenny! Can’t you ever just shut up?

MICK

Hey, take it easy.

JESSIE

You take it easy, asshole! You got cast in the lead. Again. Opposite Emily. Again. And I got the little supporting role. Again. And that stupid role is the biggest role this fucked-ass department has seen fit to give me in my four years here. Okay? Everybody get that? In four years at this place, Celia is the biggest part I’ve ever gotten! I am a loser! Yeah, I’m fucking pissed, and there’s nothing any of you can do to make me feel better. So just fuck off, and I’ll be fine. Isn’t this how we learn? By continually getting shat on? I must be a genius by now! (To EMILY) A good part? What do you know about a good part? I think it’s great that you’ll be Rosalind. Really, I do. You’ll be great. But please, don’t fucking tell me how good my part is, or I will seriously lose it.

LENNY

Well, it seems-

MICK

Lenny, not now.

JESSIE

Mick, congratulations. I’m proud of you, baby, like always. I gotta go. (Runs off)

MICK

Shit.

DION

Wow. She’s amazing.

LENNY

Do you think she’ll take the role?

Jessie walks back in, going straight to the cast list. She initials her name, and exits.

LENNY

Apparently so.