Arts Alive! podcast: Inside freeFall’s ‘For Closure!’

The comedic farce For Closure! is onstage through May 11 at freeFall Theatre in St. Petersburg. On today’s Arts Alive! podcast, we’re joined by playwright Hannah Benitez and actor Matthew McGee, who stars as one of the play’s central characters.

Benitez has fashioned a roller-coaster comedy that effortlessly blends social issues and silliness; small-town Florida realtors Amanda (Sara DelBeato) and Raven (Renata Eastlick) are losing tenants left and right because their prize, historical home-for-rent appears to be haunted. Or, well, something.

Enter self-styled psychic Camille Chevalier Milk (McGee), who joins forces with the couple to discover what in the (alternate universe) is going on.

Along the way, the audience is introduced to local politician and hypocritical homophobe Michael Davenport; dim-witted stripper Bobbi Gooshay; cheesy white rapper Rizzy Boi and numerous others. They’re all portrayed by just two actors – Glenn Girón and versatile freeFall fave Kelly Pekar.

The Brooklyn-based Benitez, whose previous works include Dike, Sister Brigid, Ashe in Johannesburg, GringoLandia and Adaptive Radiation, discusses her skyrocketing career, her inspirations and her creative process; although there’s been humor in much of her previous work, For Closure!, Benitez admits, is her first through-and-through comedy.

The playwright created the flamboyant Camille Chevalier Milk with McGee in mind. With his over-the-top drawl, exaggerated feminine gestures and soul-crushing sarcasm, Milk – a colorfully-dressed puree of Leslie Jordan, Rip Taylor and a couple of others – is right in McGee’s wheelhouse.

Click on the arrow to listen to the interview.