Arts Alive San Antonio

By JASMINA WELLINGHOFF, Editor

Writer Rachelle Neuman likes to play Mahjong with her friends, so it’s not surprising that the game she loves has also inspired her new play, “One Crack-Two Bam” that will premiere this weekend at the Cellar Theater of the San Padro Playhouse.

Actually, it’s not quite accurate to refer to her play as “new.”  “This play lived in my head for years. I conceived of it almost 20 years ago,” she said with a laugh. About ten years ago, she decided to commit her ideas to paper and eventually organized several readings by actor friends at her house. Though there was some interest among local theaters in producing it, it just never quite worked out until now. Neuman credits a newly formed production company, Real Life Productions Inc., whose mission is to offer low-cost theatrical entertainment primarily for the elderly in nursing homes and senior centers. In fact, its motto is “Raising Our Voices for Those Who Raised Us.” The nonprofit’s founder and executive director, DuWayne Green is also the director of Neuman’s play.

“DuWayne is really going all out for this play, and he is the most organized person I know,” said the happy playwright. “I am very grateful to him.”

The action of “One Crack-Two Bam” revolves around four women friends who get regularly together to play Mahjong, a game that originated in China a long time ago but has since spread the world over. Neuman pointed out that it was a game “our mothers played and now we play.” As the play opens, the group is struggling with a loss of one friend, Gracie, who passed away, and the need to find a new member.

“That becomes somewhat of a process because this person is not quite right, and someone else has such and such problems, etc.” explained Neuman.  “One of their old friends, Rose, comes back to San Antonio from New York and wants to rejoin the group. She is only reluctantly accepted and there are good reasons for it. To make things more complicated, there’s also a secret that has been locked away for years, a dirty little secret that has to be dealt with.”

The friends decide to go on a cruise, to play Mahjong and have a good time. What follows is “a funny and heart-warming story of friends, relationships, conflicts, betrayals, and finally new beginnings, romances… and forgiveness.”

Neuman and DuWayne have assembled a terrific cast of well-known San Antonio actresses, including Magda Porter, Sherry Gibbs Houston, Belinda Harolds, and Barbara Lewis Harris, who will be joined on stage by two men – Mark Daratt and Philip Marzec.

“I am thrilled to be part of this show,” said Porter, who has starred in many theatrical productions before the pandemic disrupted the thespian world. She portrays Helen, a widow who is against accepting Rose into their circle. She believes that Rose had an affair with her late husband.

“Mahjong runs through all of it,” noted Porter, who is not a Mahjong player in real life. “It’s a fast-paced game and it was a challenge for me. It was definitely a learning curve for me. Belinda and Sherry already knew how to play the game.”

“The show has a lot of humor but it also has drama, poignancy, and a little bit of everything, like life,” she said.

And like Mahjong. At some point, one of the characters says, “Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. But whatever happens, you have to deal with the hands you get.”

“I am honored to help bring Rachelle’s work to life,” said Porter sincerely.
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Feb. 24-26 at 7:30 p.m.; Feb. 27 at 2 and 7:30 p.m.; Cellar Theater at the Public Theater of San Antonio, 800 W. Ashby, 78212; tickets $25.63 at www.RealLifeProductions.org; 210-891-9678.