January 18, 2006

Playwright rises from theater tragedy

Wayne Erreca recovers from back-breaking fall to direct orginal script at OTP

By Kristen Hains
Special to the Herald

       Wayne Erreca will watch his original script "The Fallen in Coeur d' Alene" come to life February 10 at Old Town Playhouse's studio theater.
      "The Fallen," ironically, could be the title of Erreca's life story - except for the part where he got back up again. The 53-year-old Traverse City man has spent the past three years recovering from a life-changing theater accident, a back-breaking fall off a 14-foot ladder.
      "I felt very much like Humpty Dumpty," said Erreca, who returned to northern Michigan three years ago after nearly 20 years in California. "It was very clear to me that if I ever got pieced together again, which is happening, I would never be pieced together again the way I was before I fell off the wall.
      "You have to be willing to let go of past and the way it was because you're never going to get back there."
      Erreca found his way into theater thanks to some time he spent as a teenager living with his uncle, actor Victor Buono, well-known for his role as the heavy-set piano teacher in "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane" and as King Tut in the original Batman series. Erreca said it was his uncle's influence that stirred up an interest in theater. Writing, however, was something that came naturally.
      "(Writing is) just something I've always had a kinship to," he said. "Over the years I've kept a journal and I've just always felt very comfortable with putting my thoughts down on paper."
      In the midst of writing plays and working in theater, Erreca was also exposed to Martin Gerrish, a prominent figure in San Diego's theater community, a staple actor at the Old Globe Theatre and the founder and artistic director of Octad-One Productions. In 1996 Erreca took over the reigns of that theater company and served as director until his accident in 2002. While hanging stage lights at the Eastside Repertory Theatre, the ladder Erreca was on buckled, sending him crashing about 14 feet down.
      It wasn't until four days later that Erreca realized the full extent of his injuries. He had "slightly broken" the sixth vertebrae in his back. Erreca knows of only one other person who's experienced the particularities of the injuries and accompanying pain.
      "(George Clooney) is the only person-in describing his symptoms-that I went 'Oh my God, he is the only person, the only individual who almost verbatim has gone through what I have gone through.'"
      "It's a weird, weird weird injury because physically you look OK, not like you have a broken arm or lacerated face," he said. "When your spine is dissected in that manner it throws your whole system off kilter."
      Erreca suffered from chronic severe headaches and constant pain. The accident forced him to re-evaluate his entire life.
      "I was basically incapacitated and there was just no way I was going to be able to hold up to rigors of running a theater or anything else for that matter," he said. "I had lived in northern Michigan between 78-82. I always had it in back of my mind I would return here because it's such a unique, beautiful location."
      As much as his injury has affected him physically, Erreca says it may have saved his life. "When I look back I was moving 24/7 before the accident," he said. "Had I not fallen off the ladder, I sincerely believe I would have ended up having a stroke or heart attack. I was simply overworking myself."
      That overworking included six years where he directed and produced more than 30 productions and wrote five plays.
      As he continues settling in northern Michigan and recovering from his injuries, Erreca is content to look ahead.
      "I don't have any regrets," he said. "I had an absolutely fantastic time while I was in San Diego. Everything has a start, middle and an end, and nothing lasts forever. I'm just glad I had the opportunity to do what I did there."
      These days Erreca is focusing on the February 10 opening of his play. "The Fallen in Coeur d'Alene" is a psychological mystery that takes place in 1937 at the home of Tyrone and Cynthia Temple. The Temples are expecting guests but their reunion quickly turns into a case of mistaken identity, time lapses and hidden motivation.
      'The Fallen in Coeur d'Alene' plays Thursday-Saturday February 10-25 in the Old Town Playhouse Studio Theatre. Curtain is at 8 p.m. For tickets and information call the Old Town Playhouse at 947-2210 or visit the OTP website at www.oldtownplayhouse.com