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Old Creamery Theatre brings baseball to the stage

By Loren Keller

Following a delay of game due to weather, “Rounding Third” hits the 99-seat Depot stage of the Old Creamery Theatre in Amana today for a three-week run of performances.

The comedic play about two Little League coaches who don’t see eye-to-eye when it comes to America’s favorite pastime was slated to open a week ago, but chilly spring weather forced its rescheduling.

“There’s no heater in our studio space, so we actually couldn’t do a show last week because it was too cold. You could see your breath,” says Old Creamery artist director David Kilpatrick.

Written by Richard Dresser, “Rounding Third” features Jason Grubbe in the role of Don, the competitive, blue-collar veteran coach whose son is the team’s star pitcher. Sean McCall plays Michael, a corporate executive and baseball neophyte who signs on as Don’s assistant because he wants a special activity with his son, who has never played the sport.

McCall, Old Creamery’s associate artistic director, says his role was a natural fit.

“I never really did have exposure to Little League. I was the kid who never got picked,” he says. “The character Michael has a son who he wants very much to expose to that sort of thing so he learns more and isn’t the kid who doesn’t get picked.”

Director (and baseball fan) Steve Taft directed “Nobody Don’t Like Yogi,” a one-man play about legendary coach Yogi Berra, at Old Creamery in 2005.

“We found some theater people would come to it because it was theater. But we had a lot of baseball fans that just wanted to spend an evening with Yogi Berra,” says McCall.

Despite their differences, the two characters in “Rounding Third” form an uneasy alliance for the sake of the team.

McCall says the play raises key questions about how parents should raise their kids in modern-day society.
“Do we teach them that everybody’s great and you do your best and we all win, or do you teach them that the world is harsh and you really have to compete if you want to be a winner? I think this play functions on all of those levels,” he says.

“The playwright has done a good job of giving a persona to each of those viewpoints and each of them learn throughout the progress of the play. It’s wrong to think a blanket statement of either version is correct. They both sort of learn there are elements of the other’s viewpoint that are very valid.”

Tickets for “Rounding Third,” rated PG-13, are $10 to $20 and available online or by calling the Old Creamery Box Office at (319) 622-6194 or toll-free at 1-800-35AMANA. Performances are scheduled through May 25.