By Khalida Sarwari
When it opened at the San Francisco Playhouse three years ago, Pulitzer-nominated playwright Theresa Rebeck’s “Seminar” was described as a “biting comedy about power, sex and art.” The play is running through March 25 at the Hammer Theatre Center.
Set in present-day New York City, “Seminar” follows four aspiring novelists—Kate, Martin, Douglas and Izzy—and their domineering professor, Leonard, as they clash over their writing, relations and futures during an intensive 10-week writing workshop held in Kate’s Upper West Side apartment.
“This (play) takes place in New York, so you’re getting a real look into what it is to be a young journalist-slash-novelist-slash-writer trying to break your way into the illustrious publishing world of New York,” said director Amy Resnick.
The play stars David Prete, an actor, director and writer from New York City, in the role of Leonard, along with four San José State University students, among them Sarah Haas, a fourth-year theater student who plays Kate. She labeled the play as a comedy.
“It’s a play based heavily upon the relationships of the five people in it,” said Haas, who is originally from Gilroy. “I think I would describe it as (a play that places) the relationships of struggling artists under a microscope.”
Haas, 22, described her character as a “creative, complex, strong-willed and strong-voiced” individual and artist. “She, although wealthy, is this very artsy—almost clumsy, modest—as in not promiscuous, just this creative, awkward person who we find at the beginning of the show is stuck in her artistic career, kind of an enormous six-year writing block, but she’s very much a giver,” said Haas.
What drew her to Kate is the way the character develops not only as an individual but as a young artist, someone Haas said she found herself relating to as she, too, has been preparing to build a career in acting after graduation.
Written by Rebeck, creator of the NBC musical drama series “Smash,” “Seminar” debuted on Broadway in November 2011 and starred the late Alan Rickman in the role of Leonard. He was later replaced by Jeff Goldblum. The San Jose production is being directed by Resnick, an Oakland native who is well known on the local acting scene, having won numerous awards, including the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award for best principal female actor in “God of Carnage” at the San Jose Repertory Theatre.
Being in the entertainment business herself, Resnick said she’s seen her fair share of people “having to sell out and give up what they believe in.” It was this aspect of “Seminar” that appealed most to her.
“It’s an interesting look at what artists have to do in a capitalistic society in order to make money,” she said. “We all have to find a way to be commercial, so how do we take our talent and artistry and find a way to make money with it without sacrificing our truths?”
Resnick said she agreed to direct the play when she was approached by San Jose State for a number of reasons. Having previously taught at the school, she was familiar with the Hammer Theatre, but it was also an opportunity for her, she said, to introduce students to professional theater. In that way, the play mirrors real life as both Resnick and Prete had to do some guiding and coaching to bring the show together.
“The challenge in this particular production is that two of the actors have never been in a play, so I treated this as a teaching experience as well as directing in a cast of professionals,” she said. Her approach was “to treat (the students) as if they were professionals, treat them with the same respect.”
“We just moved very practically through the play, and I say that as if it were building railroad tracks,” she said. “We just laid tracks one step at a time.”
“Seminar” is being presented as part of the Hammer Theatre Center’s winter season. The play runs through March 25 at San Jose State University’s Hammer Theatre Center, 101 Paseo De San Antonio, San Jose. Tickets are $11 to $21 at sjsu.edu/hammertheatre or 408.924.8501.
