Can You Keep a Secret?-- Find out in DOUBLE JOY

By Christine Mason 



            Do you have a secret? – No, I’m not asking about that one time you stole some crayons from Ms. Lawrence’s basket in first grade—Do you have a deep secret that perhaps you’re embarrassed or ashamed to share? If so, how long would you hold off before sharing this secret with your current partner? 

           In the renown musical The Addams Family, Morticia Addams sings of secrets between a husband and wife as one of the greatest evils. She says, “lies and secrets / they’re the sins that keep / a husband from a wife.” This may be true, as opening up and being honest with another person lets them look at who you are in full light. However, sometimes these secrets could change an entire relationship. 

          What if you had a condition that you could not get rid of? It may be due to an accident, or a health condition that was beyond your control. You would learn the condition’s influence on you and your partner, placing an extra obstacle on your pathway. 

            In the movie Me Before You, a wealthy young banker named Will Traynor is left paralyzed after an accident. While this may an obvious secret, it does influence his entire outlook on life; that is, until a young lady named Louisa Clark becomes his caregiver. Her presence does change Will’s ultimate perspective on his unchangeable situation, but his paralysis does stand as a huge barrier between the two people initially, causing distress for both of them. 

          Now, let’s flip the situation around. What if you were in a new relationship and you were completely sure that your partner had a secret that he/she was trying to keep hidden. How long would it be before you ask about it? 

          In Joseph Lizardi’s new play Double Joy, a young woman starts dating an older man who is definitely hiding something. How will she choose to handle the situation? More importantly, how will his secret impact their relationship? Is love stronger than any physical barrier?

DOUBLE JOY By Joseph Lizardi 
A romance between a middle aged couple who allowed their growing love for each other act as a healing process that helps seal their relationship. 


Saturday, July 15th at 3pm 
Monday, July 17th at 9pm 
Saturday, July 22nd at 1pm 
Monday, July 24th at 7pm 


Tickets: $25 Online, $27 at the Box Office 
Premium Seats (Rows A-F): $30 Online, $35 at the Box Office


At the Theatre at St. Clement's 
423 West 46th Street, NYC 
Between 9th & 10th Avenue

For tickets click here. 

See LIKE THROUGH A MIRROR On Demand

LIKE THROUGH A MIRROR Written and Directed by Joseph Lizardi

What happens when make–believe dominates reality.

Watch it ON DEMAND at https://vimeo.com/ondemand/likethroughamirror

Each ON DEMAND Viewing counts as a vote for your play.

The play with the most On Demand Views wins a spot in the FINALS.

The Top 5 On Demand Plays will get extra votes added to the total votes in the festival.

Voting Ends July 26th at 8pm

The FINALS for the Strawberry One-Act Festival is on

Thursday, July 28th at 7pm at the Theatre at St. Clement's

423 West 46th St, NYC

For tickets go to https://www.therianttheatre.com/item.php?date=2016-07-28

LIKE THROUGH A MIRROR by Joesph Lizardi

LIKE THROUGH A MIRROR by Joseph Lizardi

What happens when make–believe dominates reality.

Tuesday, July 19th at 7pm

Thursday, July 21st at 9pm

For tickets go to https://www.therianttheatre.com/item.php?id=261

At the Theatre at St. Clement’s, 423 West 46^th Street, NYC
The Riant Theatre’s Strawberry One-Act Festival

LIKE THROUGH A MIRROR: Being Thrown into the Deep End of Dating

By Jenan Jacobson

Jenan Jacobson

In the span of a single summer, four married couples that were close friends with my family got divorced. Having watched these couples as models for parenthood and married life, I was understandably distressed and confused. I had never seen these people filling roles in my life that did not somehow revolve around their married status—suddenly Thanksgiving dinners were a mess of balancing which half of the couple would show up this year, and we were sending out quite a few more holiday cards. I was still young enough to believe that these people no longer really fit into the order of the world around me. They had broken free of my limited understanding of the world, and for me it seemed like the end of their lives. Reflecting back on these childish thoughts, I now see divorce a little bit more clearly, and I can comprehend futures for these people who have seen fit to part

ways. As a friend to the children of these shattered marriages, the new question that burned on my tongue whenever it came up was how they felt about a new person entering into one of their parent’s lives. Romantically. I, of course, restrained myself, but I always wondered. What was it like to enter back into the dating pool so late in the game? Having spent so much time removed from the writhing and changeable arena of casual romantic interaction, what is it like to return and be suddenly submerged? Have the rules changed? This is the same for widows and widowers. What does it take to become that vulnerable again? Having been parted from the normal and expected, what does it take to foster a reemergence of budding romantic feelings? If the break happens later in life, does age suddenly present an impossible impediment to finding new love?

In the play Like Through a Mirror by Joseph Lizardi, two actors rehearse for a show, donning roles that hit a little too close to home. Playing characters that fall in love despite an age gap, the rehearsals allow these actors to share parts of themselves with each other, moved along by the closeness mirrored in the play. Both characters find themselves in positions that have them reentering the wilds of availability, widowed and divorced, and unsure quite how to approach new relationships. The play balances the performed and the utterly genuine, and also emphasizes the importance of art in resolving issues in one’s own life.

My parents were both divorced before they met each other, and so I am the product of a reintroduction to the dating scene following such a rift in one’s life. Sometimes these trials and errors need to happen, it seems, and when forced to, people will swim rather than sink when thrown back into the deep end of dating. In the play, we watch these characters come to terms with being alone, and then perhaps being something more, and we root for them as they navigate these tricky waters. Come watch them figure out how closely fiction can inform fact!

Have you ever experienced a reintroduction to dating? Have any stories about meeting the right person the second or third time around? Comment below!

Like Through a Mirror will be performed as a part of the Strawberry One-Act Festival on July 15th (Friday) at 9pm, July 19th (Tuesday) at 7pm, and July 21st (Thursday) at 9pm. The performance will take place at the Theatre at St. Clement’s at 423 West 46th Street, NYC, between 9th and 10th avenue. Tickets can be purchased online at www.therianttheatre.com.