Vineyard Playhouse Opens the Season with "Tape"

The Vineyard Playhouse kicks off the 2011 Summer Season with a production of "Tape," a riveting, caustically funny play about three high school friends who meet up 10 years later and wrestle with questions of memory, motive and truth.

Over the course of 70 minutes, this cast of three friends, in one unbroken period of real-time, in a single motel room set, confront their differing versions of the same memories. The characters are Vince, Jon and Amy. In the Playhouse production, Vince, a drug dealer, is played by Michael Urie, who is best known for his role as Marc St. James, assistant to magazine editor Wilhelmina Slater and rival to Betty (America Ferrara) on TV's "Ugly Betty." Vince's friend Jon Saltzman (Ryan Spahn) is a documentary film maker who had a controversial tryst with Vince's ex-girlfriend, Amy (Victoria Campbell) 10 years before.

Written by Stephen Belber in 1999, "Tape" was first produced at the Actors Theatre of Louisville as part of the 2000 Humana Festival of New American Plays. It was later filmed by Richard Linklater starring Ethan Hawke, Robert Sean Leonard and Uma Thurman. This cast is what MJ Bruder Munafo, Vineyard Playhouse producer and artistic director, called, "the best of the best." In addition to his work on "Ugly Betty," Urie has won many awards and has appeared in New York theatre productions like "Angels in America" at the Signature Theatre. Spahn won the LA Weekly Theatre Award, and was nominated for the  LA Drama Critics Circle, Stage Scene LA, and Ticketholder Awards for his performance in “Stupid Kids.” And Islander Campbell, who has worked with the Vineyard Playhouse for many years, performs and works with the Drilling Company Theatre in New York.

"I love mixing Island and off-Island talent," said Munafo, and this combination seems to be a winning one. "We took a risk doing this play because it's really tough subject matter, and we weren't sure what was going to happen," she said. Sounds like the risk paid off, as "Tape" opened last week to what Mufafo called "really great responses."

"Tape" runs through June 18. The play contains strong language and adult themes.

"Tape," starring Michael Urie with Ryan Spahn and Victoria Campbell; directed by Claudia Weill, at the Vineyard Playhouse. Tickets: $35; $30 for seniors and juniors. Advanced purchases can be made by calling the box office at 508-696-6300, ext. 21, by emailing boxoffice@vineyardplayhouse.org, or online at vineyardplayhouse.org.