DAL to NYC to LA

Original Dallas play switches coasts and gains nonprofit partner after successful NYC premiere

A Dallas play is going Hollywood. Just three months after Self-Injurious Behavior, the autobiographical play by DFW playwright and actor Jessica Cavanagh, made its Off-Broadway debut in New York City, it's now switching coasts and setting down for a run in North Hollywood.

In April 2019, the play brought its entire Dallas-based cast and crew to Urban Stages in New York City after a successful staging at Theatre Three in summer 2018. Cavanagh, who also stars in the show as Summer, used her own experiences as the mother of a severely autistic boy to pen the play.

It follows Summer after she makes the excruciating decision to admit her 11-year-old son Benjamin to a home for special-needs children, and the emotional getaway she makes with her sisters to a renaissance faire in Portland.

The production caught the eye of Tony-winning stage and screen star Joe Mantegna, who is bringing the show to California along with veteran actor/director/producer Ronnie Marmo. It will run at Marmo's Theatre 68 this September and be coupled with an effort to raise autism awareness through a special partnership with Autism Works Now.

Cavanagh will reprise her lead role, along with Dallas-based youth actor Jude Segrest returning as Benjamin and ensemble member Madison Calhoun rounding out the original Dallas cast. The rest of the ensemble hails from LA, New York, and Portland. Marianne Galloway will again helm the project as director, having helped shaped the work in that capacity since its inception.

Producing powerhouse Bren Rapp, who has shifted her focus from mounting work in Dallas to getting Dallas-based projects on their feet in larger commercial markets, joins New York-based novelist and editor Laura Buchwald as additional producers.

Marmo, Mantegna, and Rapp have proved a formidable team, still riding the wave of the high-profile success of I'm Not A Comedian ... I'm Lenny Bruce. The one-man play written by and starring Marmo, directed by Mantegna, and co-produced by Rapp, has enjoyed more than 200 performances between Los Angeles and New York, and having recently concluded a nine-month Off-Broadway stint is now gearing up for a national tour.

Autism Works Now provides workplace readiness skills that result in meaningful, dignified employment for individuals with autism and related disorders. The California-based nonprofit was a beneficiary of proceeds from the New York showcase, which coincided with Autism Awareness Month and will again receive a percentage of all tickets sold.

But Mantegna, whose adult daughter Mia has autism and has participated in Autism Works Now programming, and Marmo are taking the collaboration even further this time. Participants of Autism Works Now's workplace readiness programs will be employed by the theater on performance days, will receive training regarding various jobs involved in putting on theatrical productions, and will have the opportunity to bring one of their operated businesses, the Glorious Pies pie truck, to performances to sell concessions.

Talkbacks with autism experts, celebrities, and individuals on the spectrum will also be scheduled around performances so audiences can increase their awareness and understanding of those living with autism, especially those now becoming adults and aging out of programs aimed at children.

"It is important to understand that this is a condition that does not go away," says Mantegna. "As much as we put emphasis on the issues that happen with children, what happens to them when they become adults? They are adults a lot more years than they are children and we have to think beyond."

Self-Injurious Behavior runs September 7-28, 2019, with previews August 30-September 1. All performances are at Theatre 68, 5112 Lankershim Blvd. in North Hollywood. Tickets go on sale July 22 at www.sibonstage.com.

Playwright and star of Self-Injurious Behavior, Jessica Cavanagh.

Photo by Jordan Fraker

Playwright and star of Self-Injurious Behavior, Jessica Cavanagh.

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RIP Albert

Colorful and iconoclastic Dallas artist Albert Scherbarth dies at 70

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Dallas artist Albert Scherbarth

Dallas artist Albert Scherbarth, known for his jubilant creativity which he displayed in a wide range of media, died on February 18; he was 70 years old. According to friends, he suffered a heart attack.

Scherbarth's myriad "canvases" ranged from printmaking to furniture to steel and metal working. He was a colorful presence in the Dallas art scene with a shock of thick hair that stood tall, definitive horn-rimmed glasses, and an unfiltered, no-nonsense personal style.

He was also a key figure in The Cedars district: an urban pioneer who settled in the area directly south of downtown Dallas in the early '80s when the neighborhood was a mostly-deserted collection of abandoned warehouses, before it became a major art nexus.

A post by Lee Harvey's, the Cedars District bar, said that "Some people don’t just live in a neighborhood — they leave their mark on it. Albert did exactly that. Through his art, his presence, and his time at our bar, he became part of the story here. We’ll miss him more than we can say. Rest easy Bert."

He was a real character, as well — a stocky physical presence (he played football in high school) who'd fix his stare upon you as if you were a critter to be studied.

One friend said, "I always feel that Albert is going to spring some meta shit on me every time i see him and he rarely disappoints. What a cool cat."

A native of Nebraska, Scherbarth moved to Dallas in 1979 to earn a master's in fine arts at the University of Dallas, Irving. After graduating in 1981, he began teaching in the community college district, including Brookhaven College, Northlake College, University of Texas at Dallas, and the Creative Art Center, as well as at Dallas' Arts Magnet.

Sculpture by Albert Scherbarth which appeared at the State Fair of Texas in 2018.Laura Walters/Facebook

After graduating from art school, he felt the need to do "real" work like his father, and took jobs in construction and woodwork, which helped shape the very physical nature of his art.

He was one of the early and many artists who resided in the Continental Gin Building, where he worked on his designs and commissions, fabricated other artists’ ideas, and helped galleries with installations, crating, and shipping.

Through the years he made furniture, got into fused and cast glass, poured concrete countertops, and painted, including a successful era of doing giant flower paintings. In his latter years, he acquired a welding machine and worked with builders, designers, and architects constructing screens, fences, furniture, and sculptures.

His works around town include a giant wine tree for Fleming Steakhouse in Frisco, and a sculpture named, "Cecil, age 12" up on Henderson Avenue at Capital Street which was was a finalists for the Henderson Art Prize. He also worked on the famed Bowler Hat sculpture in the Cedars.

In an interview with Voyage Dallas, he said, "I’m constantly looking for more meaning and more permanence in the work that I’m doing," and acknowledged that "I’ve been very, very fortunate to get a lot of really great commissions over the years. I’ve sold a lot of work and fallen into great studio situations – large spaces, cheap rent and wonderful landlords. Today, I think my ignorance of all the pitfalls ahead allowed me to storm through life and I have a certain stubbornness, a dogged determination to succeed."

"My grandfathers died before I came of age, my father died, my favorite uncle died so there was not much in the way of male guidance or perspective on how to be a man, so I’ve just kind of made it up on my own, stumbling through, winging it and I’m still alive, amazingly enough."

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