‘Outside Mullingar’ company keeps coming back for more

After runs at the Matrix Theatre and Skylight Theatre, The 6th Act brings “Outside Mullingar” to the stage for a third time — this time at the Sierra Madre Playhouse. The Tony-nominated play, written by John Patrick Shanley, follows neighbors Anthony Reilly (Michael Kirby) and Rosemary Muldoon (Liza Seneca) as they navigate family, grief, love and generational expectations in rural Ireland.

Liza Seneca, who plays Rosemary Muldoon, has developed a long-standing relationship with the script and the production’s cast and crew. Seneca also serves as the co-artistic director of The 6th Act, a theater non-profit dedicated to giving audiences “fresh takes on timeless stories.”

For Seneca, the opportunity to return to “Outside Mullingar” with the same cast has only deepened her connection to the story.

“There’s more of an ease [acting] because we have done [this show] now, so many times. But there’s also a deepening, because we’ve lived with these characters now for over a year, and really have let them settle into our bodies and bones,” Seneca said.

That familiarity has given the cast a unique opportunity to refine their craft, allowing them to discover new meanings in a story they initially did not expect to revisit.

“We had no idea after the Matrix [run] that we would even get a second shot at it. But now being able to do it a third time at the Sierra Madre [Playhouse], there is something so beautiful, so universal about this story that I think has also made all of us actors do it all over again out of love,” Seneca said.

The 6th Act’s rendition of “Outside Mullingar” has maintained a uniquely intimate quality throughout its three runs. Each production is staged in venues that seat fewer than 100 people, allowing audiences to experience the story from a more immediate perspective.

For Seneca, that intimacy has become central to the production’s appeal. Rather than feeling like distant observers, viewers witness the characters’ lives unfold from within the same room.

“I think intimacy is something that people have definitely responded to in this place … Because of the nature of all of those theaters, there really is a sense of being able to feel like a fly on the wall, versus being an arm’s length distance when you’re in a bigger space,” Seneca said.

Moving the production to the Sierra Madre Playhouse gives the cast another space to build on that close connection. “We think that this story set in a smaller theater is a fresh take on it, because you are getting to experience a new perspective on [the story] and be intimate with it — unlike in the Broadway renditions, which again, have more of that distance,” Seneca said.

For The 6th Act, the journey of “Outside Mullingar” reflects the company’s do-it-yourself approach to theater. As a non-profit run by Seneca and co-artistic director Matthew Leavitt, the production has grown from an informal living-room reading into a full-fledged production that has now reached its third run.

“We’re a tiny non-profit. It’s just the two of us that run every aspect of it, really,” Seneca said. “It’s really gratifying to see a project from the first read all the way to production.”

This progression mirrors the journey that’s at the heart of “Outside Mullingar,” a tale of people moving through change, loss and the unexpected ways their lives become intertwined.

“I think ultimately, for me, this play is hopeful. It go

es through so many emotions … I mean it starts with a funeral. So it starts in grief, but because of the way [Shanley] has written it, the [characters] are also really funny, and they find humor in the dark parts of life, which I think is so authentic,” Seneca said.

For Seneca, it is perhaps this call to find light in the seemingly unending darkness that makes this story worth returning to time and time again.

“I think if you give yourself over to [“Outside Mullingar”], you really go through … the whole spectrum of the human experience… what we all go through, love and loss, grief and joy and ultimately hope,” Seneca said.

DEETS

• The 6th Act’s “Outside Mullingar” at the Sierra Madre Playhouse.
• Visit their website to learn more about the company and explore other productions.
• Visit the theater’s website to see other upcoming productions and events.