Friendships go to the dogs in Urbanite Theatre world premiere ‘Westminster’

Beware of friends who bring dogs as gifts.

That could be one of the messages in Brenda Withers’ new comic drama “Westminster,” which has its world premiere at Urbanite Theatre, where it took first prize at the 2023 Modern Works Festival playwriting contest.

The play brings together two couples on a Saturday afternoon. Krysten and her partner, Beau, bring an unexpected gift of a dog to her longtime friend Pia and her partner Tim. The dog “may or may not be a vicious breed,” said director Summer Wallace, the theater’s producing artistic director.

Krysten and Pia are old friends from childhood and believe they know one another pretty well. But no one expects the kind of reaction that develops from the arrival of the dog on all sorts of issues.

“This gift reveals the social prejudices that one has against certain types of dogs in general,” Wallace said. “There are people who have specific types of dogs, and there are social prejudices against different occupations, ways of thinking, ways of being. The play gets into class and social acceptance and non acceptance. Everyone has a very specific point of view and they think their point of view is the right one and everyone should think the same way.”

Withers was previously represented at Urbanite with the hit drama 2018 “Northside Hollow,” a play about trapped miners that she wrote with her partner Jonathan Fielding, who plays Tim in this production. Fielding and Withers are among the co-founders of the Harbor Stage Company in Wellfleet, Massachusetts, where Withers has developed many of her plays.

Friends diverge on many issues

Fielding describes Tim as someone who “says exactly what he’s thinking in the moment, without any sort of filter, for better or worse. I think he’s a pretty positive guy with a decent outlook on life.”

Tim is interested in getting a dog, though he and Pia have specific ideas about what kind of dogs they would like.

“It’s like getting anything new. Imagine buying a new car and you wonder, 'Is it a good fit for me?'” he said. Another concern for Tim is “I have really expensive floors,” which audiences will see as they step into the theater and see the set created by Jeff Weber.

Fielding is partnered with Dekyi Rongé as Pia. Ronge previously appeared at Urbanite in “Birds of North America” in 2022. She describes Pia as an organized planner. “I’ve got the five- or 10-year plan. I wrote it down and lived by that plan and repeated the benefits of that plan.” She says Pia has an older sister kind of relationship with Krysten, and thinks her friend “could do better for herself, could have a plan or life path.”

Krysten is played by Alex Pelletier, who said her character’s friendship with Pia has continued beyond the divergent paths of their lives.

“Once you go to college, your circumstances and friend groups keep you together, but what happens after that?” she said. “If you have very different ideas of what a path is, take the bull by the horns. Pia makes her path, and I very much wander and get lost amongst the woods. There’s a bit of recklessness and she doesn’t necessarily land on her feet.”

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Pelletier is partnered with Gregg Weiner, who was seen at Asolo Repertory Theatre in “The Great Leap,” “Our Town” and “Murder on the Orient Express.” He describes Beau as a high school dropout with a GED, who is ex-military, “not a fan of law and order and resentful of how pigeon-holed adults can be in the world. He bucks that system, lives his own storyline. He’s a real animal lover and believes animals should have as much rights as people.”

Wallace said audiences at last year’s Modern Works Festival “really responded to the language of the play and all the characters. They’re so different from one another. They all have points of view that are so different from your own person, but there are moments where you share commonality with that character.”

Withers will be in Sarasota during the final rehearsal period and the opening.

Wallace said it’s a testament to the work being submitted to Urbanite that a play could emerge so quickly from the festival to a world premiere production, which is really just the next step in the play’s development. It will be followed by another world premiere, “OAK” by Terry Guest, whose “At the Wake of a Dead Drag Queen” was a big hit for the theater in 2021.

‘Westminster’

By Brenda Withers. Directed by Summer Wallace. Runs March 22-April 28 at Urbanite Theatre, 1487 Second St., Sarasota. Tickets are $42, $28 for under 40, $5 students. 941-321-1397; urbanitetheatre.com

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This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: A dog comes between two couples in Urbanite premiere of ‘Westminster’