"The Runner Stumbles" A Play Based on a True Story - A Nun is Dead, a Priest is Imprisoned, and the TRUTH is on Trial - Presented by Stillspeaking Theatre of San Marino, California (StillspeakingTheatre.org) - written by Milan Stitt and directed by Donald Shenk
Reviewed by: Dave Van Horsen [Theatre and Book Editor for BabyBoomer-Magazine.com]
My scotch-Irish mother’s method for baking a cake from scratch consisted of dumping all the ingredients into the bowl of her Kitchen-Aire mixer, pouring into cake pans and baking. With this method, they sometimes were “a little heavy on the bottom” but other times they were light and airy and very tasty. Such can also be said for small theatre. If the ingredients are not right, they will sit like a lump and eventually be fed to the dogs. But when all the pieces needed for a theatre, directing, casting, acting, publicity, theatre space, and most importantly, plenty of money is there, what is taken from the oven can be an entertaining and uplifting experience.
All these pieces have come together in a new theatre premiering in San Marino. Yes, you heard me…San Marino. Hometown of George Patton, the Huntington Library and alcohol-free restaurants. Over the past 3 years the staff and congregants of San Marino Congregational Church United Church of Christ have worked preparing a fully equipped professional theatre, Stillspeaking Theatre. They have now premiered their three-play season with The Runner Stumbles, a drama by Milan Stitt.
Now, before you start harrumphing about a church opening a theater I will tell you that Stillspeaking Theatre is an Actor’s Equity sanctioned 99-seat theatre. And these people have not skimped on making this a quality theatre experience. Believe me when I say that plenty of 99-seat theaters would love this space. Notwithstanding all the distractions that rose their hairy heads opening weekend; howling police sirens, fugitive light, and no booze (it’s a church for chrissake!) This is a wonderful space with up to date sound and lighting and seating.
The inaugural play, The Runner Stumbles is the story of a priest and a nun working in a rural area of Northern Michigan in the early part of the 20th Century. The play moves back and forth across a 4 year period chronicling the priest, Father Rivard’s banishment to Solon, Michigan, the arrival of Sister Rita to the parish to teach school, and the events leading up to her death. This is recounted in real time, and secondarily, as questioning during the Father Rivard’s murder trial. This is a play that asks meaningful questions regarding adherence to church dogma, even to the point of personal destruction, and Christianity’s call to humanity.
Stillspeaking Theatre Director, Donald Shenk has a talented cast of veterans and young emerging actors. Lindsey Ginter (Father Rivard), an accomplished actor of stage, film and most recently television’s “Lost” shows us a priest trying to steel himself by conformance to the church’s rules and regulation when presented with the squishier aspects of human interaction like comforting grieving daughter Erna Prindle, played by Jen Bailey, or dodging questions from Monsignor Nelson, regally played by Alexander Wells. The standout of the play is Joanna Strapp as Sister Rita. She is spot on as a young idealistic nun with “protestant” opinions regarding the role of God and church in human lives. Strapp’s Sister Rita is ebullient and mighty talkative, her opinions her own and unabashed.
The mission of Stillspeaking Theatre is to provide an understanding of the human condition and explore ways in which God is still speaking to contemporary society. But this is not a religious play, beseeching you to save your self from the lake of fire. No alter calls and no offering. Sister Rita claims she is a person that happens to be a nun. This is a theatre that happens to be at a church. 
-Dave Van Horsen [Theatre and Book Editor for BabyBoomer-Magazine]
"The Runner Stumbles" is a play based on a true story written by Milan Stitt and directed by Donald Shenk.
Stillspeaking Theatre is an Actor’s Equity sanctioned 99-seat theatre located in the heart of San Marino, California on the Campus of San Marino Congregational United Church of Christ
For performance schedule and to order tickets: StillspeakingTheatre.org/tickets.html
Questions call: 626-292-2081
