Local writer and director explores invincibility in this British Comedy
Author: McCale Ashenbrener
Becky Kimsey didn’t have to search far for inspiration for her latest play Invisible Eddie, about a painfully introverted man still living with his aunt Mary. At the behest of his auntie, Eddie was meant to be hypnotized to feel invincible, but as the hypnotist had a few too many, he instead feels invisible. Kimsey herself was a shy, unhappy kid that desperately wanted to disappear. “When I was a kid, I often found myself in crowded places and wished that I were invisible. I imagined the things I would do and what I could get away with.” As a young girl drama class helped her break out of her shell and she’s been involved in theater ever since. Just as Eddie’s invincibility is found through invisibility, Kimsey doesn’t “step onto the stage to be seen, I step on the stage to disappear.”
Kimsey received an Idaho Arts Commission Fellowship Grant that supported a trip to London to do some practical research for the play. “There is something honest and self-deprecating about a British comedy that I find familiar and not at all foreign.” The travel gave her much fodder for Invisible Eddy’s beautifully British cast of characters: “a cockney superintendent, a lustful landlady, a blustering boss, a blind Bonny and a baited barkeep at the Cock and Poppy Pub.”
Kimsey started on the stage and has performed in over 50 plays here in the Treasure Valley. “Directing, on the other hand, was something I never wanted to do, I avoided it like the plague,” she recalls. “But one day I realized that I was avoiding it because I was afraid of it.” To her own surprise she volunteered to direct Neil Simon’s Laughter on the 23 rd Floor in 2012 and even won Best Production and Best Director for that season. From there she secretly began writing her own plays and submitted her first script Gladys Nights, under a pen name, to Stage Coach Theatre. She has been busy acting, directing and writing, ever since. Kimsey thanks “the best directing mentor there is; Kevin Kimsey (my husband) taught me everything I know about directing and I couldn’t have been a successful director without his support and advice.” As we all know, behind every great woman there is often a helpful man.
Kimsey’s path from actress to director to writer is inspiring. Her advice for aspiring actors is to “Try it once. Just once. The “theater bug” will either bite you or it won’t…but if it does, I promise it doesn’t hurt.” Her vision and dedication has been compelling in the Boise theater community. “What we do is hard work and there is an incredible talent pool here in Boise…If you’ve never been to a live production before, you should give it a try. And I always recommend cutting your theatrical teeth on a good comedy!”
The world premiere of Invisible Eddy is Friday, February 28th at the Stage Coach Theater. Ticket prices are $15, for more information go to stagecoachtheatre.com (504)
