Hidden Gems in "Repulsing the Monkey" Set

If you saw Repulsing the Monkey, you caught a great script, acted by fantastic actors, and set in a cool old bar. But did you also see some of the Easter Eggs we placed on the set? Check out these photos and see how many you caught...

Uncle Mike (left) and Dad.

Remember when Danny says, "I had an uncle who had his heart opened up..."? Well, we chose playwright Michael Eichler to play that part. He doesn't appear in the play but, if you had your eyes open, you saw this photo behind the bar.

Mom and Dad.

Speaking of Dad, Director Kevin Six cast himself as Danny and Janey's father. Playing the part of Mom, and seen here in a photo that we placed in the "Family Circle" (the mirror on the right side of the set), is Tiffany Tang. Tiffany played Janey on the original reading so we decided to honor her in this "old photo of Mom and Dad". Oddly, the photo was taken at the Big Kitchen, another place where site-specific theatre has been done by members of this company.

Janey (Laura Bohlin) at her First Communion

Janey and Danny talk about Mom and Dad putting their First Communion pictures up in the bar and we had one of those too. This is Laura Bohlin's actual First Communion picture. Isn't she cute? We wanted to use everyone's First Communion photo as their headshots in the program but not everyone was raised Catholic...

Jewell and her cousin, not Danny and Janey.

At the end of the play, Danny hands a framed photo to Janey. It's meant to be a sentimental gesture between brother and sister. The only problem is we didn't have pictures of Steve Smith and Laura Bohlin from their childhood. This is because they grew up in separate cities and aren't even brother and sister. So we used this rather darling photo of Jewell at a wedding instead.

We also wanted the Kensington Club to look more like Jablonski's, with more references to Pittsburgh. To that end, designer Christina Johns recreated old Imperial Whiskey and Iron City Beer ads. Not only that, but she recreated the labels for the prop bottles the actors used.

Christina also talked the Southside Chamber of Commerce to send along the Duquesne and Pirates banners. Pretty cool, eh?

The great Roberto.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, Roberto Clemente was a Major League Baseball right fielder who played 18 seasons for the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1955 through 1972. Danny looks right at this photo, placed on the mirror, when he asks the Bonus Points question.

We hope you enjoyed this walk down Manufactured Memory Lane.  Thank yins for coming to the play and we hope to see you at another one real soon!