January 30, 2004 Print this page

La Salle University Professor and KYW Film Critic Bill Wine
to Mix Roles with Premiere of His New Play, Mixed Doubles

What’s it like to switch roles in your professional life? La Salle University professor and KYW Newsradio film critic Bill Wine will experience this with the production of his new play, Mixed Doubles, for which he’ll be the subject of a review. It will be presented at the King of Prussia Players on February 6, 7, 13 and 14, along with Parentheses, a one-act comedy by Wine.

Mixed Doubles is about three married couples who gather regularly to play tennis against each other. The sport serves as a social event where the characters relax from the demands of their careers, children, friendship, love, religion, and sexuality. Regardless of how devoted the characters are to their spouses, it becomes apparent that every couple is at odds sometime.

Each couple is in an interfaith marriage. However, Wine adds the right amount of humor to lighten up the complications that surround differences of faith, such as holidays, children’s religious instruction and daily rituals.

He says he wants to show that all marriages are mixed somehow, regardless of whether the mix is because of religious, economic, political, or geographical differences. His wife, Suzanne, is Catholic. Many of their friends are interfaith couples.

“Like the central couple in Mixed Doubles, my wife and I are bringing up our kids with an appreciation of both religions, but an observation of neither. We celebrate the major holidays of both, but don’t attend church or synagogue on a regular basis,” says Wine.

Before putting down the actual words, Wine compiled enough research about interfaith marriages and different religions to fill a 300-page notebook. Although the couples throw sarcastic words at each other, Wine’s wife was still smiling after reading the play.

Wine has been a faculty member at La Salle since 1978, and teaches film history and scriptwriting. Working on his plays has made him a better writing teacher, he says.

“Writing plays and teaching writing feed into each other,” says Wine. “I learn more with each play, and I can pass that on to my students.”

The writing, he says, is only the first part of bringing the show to life. “The first time I ever saw actors perform one of my plays, I felt like I died and went to Heaven. Creating people and seeing them come alive gives you such a ‘high,’” says Wine. “It’s a totally amazing feeling.”
Nine of his plays have been presented in more than 20 productions, mostly outside of the Philadelphia area. Mixed Doubles is his first play to debut in the Delaware Valley, and he finds it interesting that a husband-wife team will co-direct the play.

As opening night approaches, Wine will know whether he wants to make any script changes. “It could drive you crazy, revising and revising until you think you are done,” he says. “It’s best to make the decisions after seeing how the actors handle the script. If the actors are struggling, the writing is not as good as it could be.”

So what’s it like for Wine to be critiqued?

“I can’t be a hypocrite, I have to accept criticism the way those I judge have to,” he says. His own experiences giving criticism will be helpful when teaching his actors to accept reviews. “One time the critic for The Los Angeles Times hated one of my plays, and I had to console my actors. I told them I make a living critiquing other’s work, which makes it easier for me to accept others’ criticism of my work.”

For a detailed description of the play visit www.kofpplayers.org.

-- Karen Toner