Fully Committed
by Becky Mode
Available online
October 9 – November 1, 2020
With great responsibility comes great… stress!
This deliciously funny one-man show gives us a behind-the-scenes look at Manhattan’s trendiest restaurant where the best food inspires the worst behavior! Like so many struggling actors, Sam works at a restaurant. Managing the red-hot reservation line, he juggles scheming socialites, name-dropping wannabes and fickle celebrities who will stop at nothing in their zeal to land a prime reservation. All the while he’s hustling to land the role of his dreams and make it home for the holidays! Josiah Laubenstein plays more than 40 characters in this one-man tour de force!
DIRECTOR’S NOTES:
Fully Committed is, simply put, a very funny play about feeling—and being—alone. Despite the company of nearly forty other characters on the other end of the phone lines, Sam feels isolated, stagnant, and disempowered—a set of feelings we may all be able to empathize with right now. Yes, it’s a comedic tour de force for one actor who must embody an array of hilariously flawed characters. But it is also a story about family, loss, and the things that hold us back from what we strive towards.
As a theatre artist who has been unable to make much theatre this year, just being in rehearsals felt like a gift. Watching Josiah pepper his performance with bits of physical comedy and funny characteristics for some truly off-the-wall characters energized me. Each day, as we challenged ourselves to find ways to translate our theatre artistry to the screen, we discovered new reminders of why live theatre works. It’s spontaneous, joyous, fleeting—theatre is alive. This project became about more than capturing a theatre production for enjoyment in your home. It became a reflection of the excitement of live entertainment, the power of storytelling, the dedication of actors, the artistry of designers, and the resiliency that will keep theatre alive.
A comedy about our desire to dine out, our need to gather with family and loved ones, our ability to laugh at our mundane workplace drama, Fully Committed may seem particularly relatable, even with the tension of showcasing some of what we’ve lost during this past year. Although we cannot gather to share this story the way we are used to, we thank you for taking this opportunity to welcome the beating heart of Commonweal into your living room.
—Jaclyn June Johnson, director
