'Rounding Third': SCRC explores life and baseball

Blake White and Matt Bridges spent much of last week enthusiastically shouting into empty space at the South Carolina Repertory Company.

They were in the middle of coaching a Little League game played by invisible children represented by signs posted around the theater.

"Over there is shortstop," Bridges says, pointing into thin air. "And over there is first base."

The two were rehearsing for SCRC's new play, "Rounding Third," a two-man production about Little League coaches and dads with very different coaching methods.

White plays Michael, the sensitive father trying to bond with his son, who believes that baseball should be about sportsmanship and having fun. Bridges is Don, the stereotypical macho dad who believes winning is everything.

"Don is the Vince Lombardi-esque type of character," Bridges says. "Everything he says is taken very seriously. He is out to win at all costs."

The two coaches collide when Little League becomes symbolic of their approaches to life. Don thinks winning the championship game will set the stage for their children's eventual successes, while Michael thinks baseball is designed to teach them how to work well with others. By the end of the play, of course, each dad takes his coaching and life philosophies back to the drawing board. "Of course, that brings them into comic conflict," says Tom Evans, the play's director.

In true SCRC style, "Rounding Third" is meant to entertain and provoke thought. The theater company is known for productions that aren't mainstream.

Since last year's sold-out run of "Doubt," an open-ended play designed to leave the audience guessing, the theater staff has implemented a series of "talkbacks," Q&A sessions after the shows with the cast and the audience. Talkbacks for "Rounding Third" are scheduled following the Oct. 29 and Nov. 5 performances.

"Ninety percent of our work has never been done in the Lowcountry," White says. "(The SCRC) is growing and expanding every day. With these slow economic times, we still have a solid foundation under us, and we're a nonprofit."

Indeed, in addition to the witty dialogue, economics played a role in the decision to bring "Rounding Third" to Hilton Head Island. Such limited-cast productions are catching on in popularity nationwide because they're less expensive than shows with a full Shakespearean cast of characters, says Evans.

But what "Rounding Third" lacks in cast, it gains in constant comic chatter.

"The challenge for me as a director is moving through time and space," Evans says. "(The characters are) resting in a bar and the next thing they're on the baseball field. Or they're in Don's van and then back at the baseball field, either in a game or in practice. We have to keep the audience aware of where they are."