Show: The Last Out
Role(s): Brooke Parris
Creator: Ben Donelly & Isaias Segui
Status: Completed (student project, not for release)
Listen: Unavailable
About the story: During the last game of a baseball beer league season, the away team leads the home team 1–0 in the final inning. The pitcher, 40-year-old Nick Parris, is throwing a no-hitter and allows a runner on. Nick is one out away and is facing 18-year-old varsity player Erick Ferres. The 18-year-old launches a game-winning home run, ending the no-hitter and the game. This shatters Nick whose life outside of baseball is on a downward spiral. Later Nick seeks out all the players to make a re-do of the ending of the game.
Creator’s Character Description: Nick’s disappointed wife.
What do I like best about playing this character: Despite being a small role, Brooke as Nick’s disappointed wife gives so much context to his life with so few words. When she nags him, there’s just this tired quality to her complaints: she is disappointed, but not surprised. He’s let her down again and again. The show is about Nick and his feelings, but everybody else around him is affected when he is selfish and fixates on his baseball fantasies. I like being able to provide that perspective with only a few lines.
What do I like least about playing this character: As the only woman in the production who essentially exists to irritate the protagonist, she walks the line of being a nagging wife stereotype. I played it a few different ways in the line reads but I think in the end I still ended up feeling like it was on the one-dimensional side, which I care about even for bit parts.
Related links for the project:
- None.
Related art:
