Puppy Love: Sylvia Comes to the Silver Center

Sylvia, a comedic play about a middle-aged man and his dog, plays this weekend in PSU’s Studio Theatre. The show is hilarious (Sylvia, a stray dog, is played by the human being Jackie Goodrich), but also touching. From man’s best friend, the characters and the audience learn quite a bit about what it is to be human. 

The play is written by A.R. Gurney and directed by Paul Mroczka. Greg (B. Christopher Williams) finds Sylvia alone in the park and brings her home to his jealous wife, Kate (Darcy Graham). As Greg grows closer to his dog, he grows farther from his wife, and their marriage suffers. They meet some colorful characters along the way, all played by Shannon Sullivan. 

Greg finds Sylvia during a difficult time in his life. "He’s kind of going through a midlife crisis, which, I kind of went through my quarterlife crisis already, so I know what that’s like," Williams said, "and being a 25 year old junior, I can relate to feeling a little bit out there and not knowing where to ground myself with the people around me, and that’s what I think is cool about him finding Sylvia, and really latching onto something that’s positive in his life for once. Gives him a reason to feel happy." 

Williams has never owned a pet in his life, and Goodrich is a self-labeled cat person, proving that the play isn’t only for dog owners. The characters 
and relationships in the play are very present in people’s lives. "People see themselves in this show, or they see people they know," said director Paul Mroczka, "For Darcy’s character [Kate], it’s like [Greg is] having an affair, basically. And actually, to a degree...her character, Kate, is having an affair with Shakespeare." 

One of the challenges of playing a dog is capturing their sense of time, Goodrich said. The actor must figure out the most important thing in a dog’s head at any given moment, and be aware of when that changes. Some of the cast went to the humane society a few weeks ago, where they spent time in the playroom with a dog that had arrived just two days before. "Being able to play an animal is really special, because we can learn so much from them," said Goodrich, "It brings us back to being people." 

"Even though Sylvia’s a dog, I really do relate to her a lot," said Goodrich, "She’s very spontaneous and very eccentric and unique, and very jumpy, and she just says things when she wants to say things...But she loves so much, and she loves Greg, and she loves Kate even though Kate and her have their differences."

A.R. Gurney’s Sylvia opened off-Broadway in 1995, starring Sarah Jessica Parker as Sylvia. The show hit Broadway for the first time this week with previews already underway. Other works of Gurney’s include the Pulitzer Prize finalist Love Letters, published in 1990. 

Gurney’s simple language in Sylvia packs a lot of punch. "It’s just funny how something so simple can be something so complex at the same time," said Goodrich, "it’s not this huge dramatic, like, someone died, and it’s a murder mystery, or anything like that. It’s about a dog, and about this couple just arguing about this dog, but it is dramatic, and it’s super funny, it’s just so relatable, and I think it’s really hard sometimes for good writers to get that across." 

Sylvia is playing Oct. 2 at 7 p.m. and Oct.3 and 4 at 2 p.m. in the Studio Theatre in Plymouth State’s Silver Center for the Arts. 

CLOCK PHOTO/NIKO ZELINSKI