Hound Dog script by local playwright finds a stage at Showtime
Table reading will be open to a public audience
A group of neighbors and friends will be doing a table reading of Hound Dog, an original play by a local playwright, on April 30 at Showtime Studio & Coffee.
Hound Dog is a play about a man named Earl looking back at a life of poor choices and mistakes, set against the backdrop of the 1960s and the Vietnam War.
“It's about people that we don't see. This is a guy who really is removed and . . . ignorant. He doesn't have to be, but he chooses to be. He doesn't want to be challenged by life in some ways,” said Jay Reilly, Falcon Heights resident and friend of the playwright. Reilly is a retired Chanhassen Dinner Theater emcee.
Earl cares the most about one specific thing—a Lincoln Continental—to the detriment of the rest of the people in his life, including his wife whom he loses when he bets her in a game of poker to win the car of his dreams.
“I think we’ve all had times in our lives when things haven’t turned out the way we have wanted them to, or we’ve estimated wrong. And they’ve affected our lives,” said Bob Murphy, Roseville resident and chair of the board for local nonprofit Arts Roseville.
While the play is humorous, there are serious themes as well, including the loss of the main character’s son in the Vietnam War.
Richard A. Levin, the playwright, is a retired University of Minnesota economics professor who grew up in South Florida, where the play is set. He lives at Coffman Commons on Larpenteur Ave near the Bell Museum. The table reading has become a Coffman Commons affair, with several residents participating in the reading. Coffman residents Jay Reilly, Mark Zappa, Donna Divine, Gail Fraser, and Brian Nerney make up most of the cast, in addition to Murphy.
Zappa encouraged Levin to do something with his script and brought it to Arts Roseville to see if they could collaborate on bringing it to life. He invited Murphy to meet Levin and invited him to be a reader too.
Things came together when Showtime Studio & Coffee agreed to host a table reading performance. Arts Roseville agreed to help with promotion.
“One of the things that we really like about Hound Dog and Showtime is that we are kind of blending in. You know, we're kind of senior folks here. And Matt is bringing out the younger group. So, it's sort of both sides, both ends. And I think that's really cool,” Murphy said.
The cast will read the script from a table in front of an audience, performing the voices, but without stage acting or a set. The goal is to lift up theater arts in Roseville. They also hope to gain more interest from the community and see if they might be able to find a director or producer to take Hound Dog to the next level.
“If it wasn’t for the connection with Showtime, Hound Dog wouldn’t be seen,” Murphy said.
Showtime has become a community hub for musicians and artists since it opened to the public in 2025. Recently the vision is expanding to include some improv and theater, including a BIPOC improv jam which occurs every first Saturday of the month at 4:30 p.m.
“The BIPOC Improv Jam is a welcoming space for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color to connect, create, and shine on stage,” according to the event page.
Space at Showtime is offered on Thursdays nights to various performers who want to try something new. Showtime wants to help remove barriers for artists to pursue their craft by making the space available for things like the Hound Dog table reading.
“We give the space away all the time. You hear a lot about other places that give away their space for an hour and it’s a big, public event thing. But that’s just a Thursday at Showtime. And then we move on to something else, because there are so many amazing people doing amazing things,” owner Matt Sieberg said.
The table reading for Hound Dog will be about an hour long beginning at 7:00 p.m. on April 30. Admission is free. Showtime is located at 2700 Lexington Ave N across from the Roseville Fire Station.
ICYMI
Naomi Krueger
Naomi Krueger
Disclosure: The writer of this story (the editor of The Roseville Reader) serves on the volunteer board of directors of Arts Roseville with Bob Murphy, Matt Sieberg, and Mark Zappa who were featured in this article. No compensation was provided by the subjects of the article for publishing this piece.
