The director talks about staging an Irish play by an American playwright in which magic, mystery, and death underlie the relationship of two brothers.
“Do you know that I’m dead?” Those words, inscrutable as they are, mark the very beginning of The One Good Thing, a new play by Joe Bravaco that is now in rehearsals for its U.S. premiere at Washington Stage Guild.
The question, addressed by one brother to the other as they stand outside a cottage on the coast of Ireland, is left hanging, though it provides the hook for all that comes after.
The twists and turns that follow that revelation were described by the British Theatre Guide as “unexpected, compelling and dramatically satisfying.” The review appeared after the play’s official opening, in April, in a part of Yorkshire where sheep, statistically, outnumber people, though people, happily, prefer plays.
“But why is it set in Ireland?” I asked the director, Steven Carpenter, as we sat down for a lively video interview last week during a break in rehearsals.
The answer, Carpenter replied, is that the playwright, Joe Bravaco, conceived it as Irish.
“According to Joe,” he explained, “the genesis of the play was the song ‘I’ll Be Singing,’ which was written for the film adaptation of John Patrick Shanley’s Outside Mullingar. The song, echoed in this production, gave rise to the story.”
Bravaco, who lives in New Jersey, is both a playwright and a librettist. He started out as a high school English teacher who taught journalism and drama.
“The play,” Carpenter continued, “is full of magical ideas, endemic to the Irish. The way the brothers speak, for example, is similar to the work of Conor MacPherson or Brian Friel.”
Carpenter, who admits to “a little bit of Irish blood, far back in the family,” described the relationship between the brothers as one without great animosity.
“They do a fair amount of verbal sparring — what the Irish might call ‘takin’ the piss’ — but it’s mostly in fun, and is just one way they express their love for each other.”
There are many surprises in the play, which — as Carpenter warned me — cannot be revealed in this article. Audiences will have to watch the story unfold and wait till the end for answers. (One such mystery, a tantalizing clue, is the meaning of the play’s subtitle, which is or “Are Ya’ Patrick Swayze?”)
When he first read the play, Carpenter — who wears many hats at WSG, including that of associate artistic director — knew immediately that it was a winner.
“I was halfway through the first act when I knew that this was a Stage Guild play,” he said. “Our niche, as it were, is plays about ideas, plays in which the argument is the action.
“In fact, we like to say that words are the ‘special effects’ of our plays,” he laughed.
Carpenter is both an actor and director, though he thinks of himself primarily as a director-style actor. “When I’m acting, I think about the totality of the parts, as well as the effect on the audience, both of which are directorial traits.
“As a director,” he continued, “I find that the biggest challenge is communication. In a cast of six actors, I might need to find five or six different ways to speak to the actors and see which approach works best for each of them. With two actors, the job is easier.”
The two actors in The One Good Thing — Ryan Neely and Chris Stinson — are familiar faces in the theater world, with lengthy résumés listing stage and screen credits.
“Both are smart, intuitive actors who bring a lot of their own ideas to the table,” Carpenter wrote in one of our many follow-up emails. “They’ve made rehearsals stimulating and fun.”
Turning to his early life, Carpenter fell in love with theater as a student at the University of Michigan’s Flint campus. “They had a great theater department at the time,” he said, and that steered him to graduate school at the University of South Carolina.
Grad school included an internship at the Shakespeare Theatre Company, here in DC, where he worked as an extra in a season’s worth of plays.
“In nine months, I had about four lines,” he quipped.
“But the real education was being able to work with company members, such as Ted van Griethuysen, Floyd King, Ed Gero, and others. That was invaluable.”
He decided to remain in Washington, where, for several years, he worked as a freelance actor — performing many roles at WSG along with other DC theaters — before joining the company as one of its full-time managing directors when executive director Ann Norton stepped down.
Today, Carpenter is one of the four actor-directors who manage the company. The others, all co-founders, are Laura Giannarelli, Bill Largess, and Lynn Steinmetz.
“We’re like a family, and we all wear lots of hats,” Carpenter said, pointing out that, apart from his official title, he is also the casting director, the production manager, and — in one of his most memorable (and Helen Hayes–nominated) performances — a sound effects creator in It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play.
The company, which was formed in 1986 by a group of theater professionals — most of them classmates at Catholic University — still embraces an air of collegiate idealism that is hard to find in today’s largely commercial world.
The One Good Thing marks the beginning of Washington Stage Guild’s 40th-anniversary season, which combines the classics with a few contemporary plays. Highlights include Samuel Beckett’s Happy Days, George Bernard Shaw’s Caesar and Cleopatra, and Patricia Milton’s Accused.
“Our motto is that we’re one of the oldest theaters in America that most people don’t know about,” Carpenter said, adding that the company has flown under the radar for years.
“We try to stay relevant, and we’re even occasionally edgy. But the bottom line is that we’re a theater that’s based on words.”
On a personal note, Carpenter met his wife, Lauren Hyland, when both were working on a play in which he was the director and she was the assistant director. They have one son, a teenager who’s into athletics and who is currently not the least bit interested in theater.
One of the attractions of DC, when Carpenter first arrived in the mid-’90s, was that it had already developed a strong theater community.
That sense of community survives, though it’s open to visitors. “We welcome actors from outside, we embrace them as part of our DC family, and we enjoy seeing them again when they return,” he explained.
“But DC theater is special. To begin with, it has the smartest audience you’ll ever come upon. It’s an audience that’s highly intelligent, savvy, discerning, and loyal. It’s metropolitan in feel, but local in size.
“I don’t think you get audiences like that in New York,” he concluded. “New York audiences include a lot of tourists. We don’t. In fact, we know many of our audience members personally. We often hang out in the lobby and talk to them after the shows.”
Like most of us, Carpenter is worried about the decline in government funding. However, he’s hopeful about private support.
“We’ve seen an increase in individual donations ever since the pandemic. And that,” he grinned, “is very encouraging!”
Running Time: Approximately 90 minutes, including one 10-minute intermission.
The One Good Thing – or “Are Ya’ Patrick Swayze?” opens in previews on September 25 and runs through October 19, 2025, presented by Washington Stage Guild, performing at The Undercroft Theatre at Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church, 900 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC. All tickets are general admission and $60. Students and groups of 10 or more pay $30 each, and seniors pay $50. To purchase tickets, click online.
Post-show discussions: September 27 and October 18, both following the Saturday matinee performance.
COVID Safety: Masks are recommended (not required). Washington Stage Guild’s complete Health and Safety Policy is here.
The One Good Thing – or “Are Ya’ Patrick Swayze?”
By Joe Bravaco
CAST
Jamie: Ryan Michael Neely
Tommy: Chris Stinson
CREATIVE TEAM
Director: Steven Carpenter
Scenic Design: Brandon Roak
Resident Lighting Design: Marianne Meadows
Costume Design: Lily Komorow
Sound Design: David Bryan Jackson
Dramaturg: Bill Largess
Production Stage Manager: David Elias
Assistant Stage Manage: Luca Maggs
SEE ALSO:
Washington Stage Guild announces 2025/26 season (news story, April 22, 2025)