Neil Simon’s play “Laughter on the 23rd Floor,” presented by Kaua‘i Community Players, will be shown until June 5 at the Puhi Theatrical Warehouse; Fridays and Saturdays at 7 p.m., and Sundays at 4 p.m. For more information, go to
Neil Simon’s play “Laughter on the 23rd Floor,” presented by Kaua‘i Community Players, will be shown until June 5 at the Puhi Theatrical Warehouse; Fridays and Saturdays at 7 p.m., and Sundays at 4 p.m. For more information, go to kauaicommunityplayers.org.
With a bottle of wine, I bribed director Arnold Meister to have a chat with me. Below are excerpts from our conversation.
NA: How’s your show going so far?
AM: We had a sellout on Friday, we had a sellout on Saturday, and we had only six seats open today on a Sunday matinee. And Sunday matinees are generally our weakest because people like to be outdoors on Sunday.
There are two things in a show that really matter: one is the writing and one is the casting. The lighting, the set, the sound, even the direction are way down in the list. You don’t always know who’s going to show up to audition. It’s difficult anywhere, even in big cities, but it’s even more difficult on Kaua‘i.
Some really good actors turned out for this show; people who really know how to create a character. So, half the battle was won there.
Neil Simon is America’s most successful playwright. He started back in the early 60’s and he wrote hit plays for 30 years.
And I had never done a Neil Simon before. I’ve done a lot of plays. All kinds-musicals, straight plays, comedies, dramas, Shakespeare-but for some reason, I don’t know why, I’d never done a Neil Simon.
You know how things sometimes can just happen and life leads you this way and that way. And when KCP asked me to direct a play, I didn’t want to do another big musical. It takes over your whole life. I don’t mind that because I love working in theater, but I thought I’d like to try something that has a smaller cast and is a little easier to direct. So I looked through the Neil Simon thing [volume of works] and found this play [“Laughter on the 23rd Floor”] and just fell in love with it.
It’s a New York sophisticated comedy. The laughs are very fast and you have to really listen. There are wisecracks. Were you excited by the comedy of it?
NA: I was. I love profanity. It was the most profanity I’ve ever heard in any play.
AM: Language is a factor of great power. And the more you aim it toward the family, the more you have to temper the language. But when you aim for adults, for thinking adults, you don’t have to temper it. You can say the language as you mean it, and adults understand that.
The more sharp and high-level the language is, the more we understand the concept of a higher level of thinking.
The language in this show is the way people talk, and yet it’s not abusive language.
I think if profanity is directed with hate, it’s a hateful language. If it’s directed in comedic ways, it’s not a hateful language.
