It was a canceled flight that served as the unexpected inspiration for Ashley Wettlin’s first full-length play.
Sitting alone in the Charlotte, North Carolina, airport as she waited for a later flight a few years ago, Wettlin began to daydream in detail about two dissimilar people trying to reach New York on New Year’s Eve.
“I had a lot of time to think in that airport,” Wettlin quipped.
Out of that experience was born “…And Getting Caught in the Rain,” which receives its world premiere at Centre Stage, Sept. 26-29.
The play was a co-winner of Centre Stage’s 2022 New Play Festival. It’s being staged as a part of the theater company’s Fringe Festival.
The story centers on Tilly and Barney, two people from different generations who set out on an adventure to reach New York. The two at first seem to have little in common. She’s in her 20s and he’s decades older.
But soon the two begin to bond over mutual interests, including their love for Rupert Holmes’ 1979 song “Escape,” also known as “The Pina Colada Song.” A familiar line from that song gives the play its title.
Finding friendship
Wettlin, 24, who grew up in Greenville, calls the play a “dramedy,” a mix of comedy and drama, about two people finding friendship despite a generational gap.
“They meet each other half way,” Wettlin said. “Growing up in the South, I always felt there was such a gap between younger and older folks.”
Politics is one prominent source of generational division, Wettlin said, but it’s not the only one.
Her six-person play seeks to show that “we really aren’t that different,” she said.
The play received a reading at Centre Stage in 2022 as a part of the New Play Festival and it was an audience favorite, said David Veatch, producer of the New Play Festival and stage director of the world premiere production.
“It’s a very funny play with characters you root for,” Veatch said. “It’s got elements of both a romantic comedy and a buddy comedy in a really fun story. When we presented the reading in 2022, the audience responded really well to the humor and heart of the play.”
Wettlin, who attended Mauldin High School and the Greenville County Schools Fine Arts Center, is based in New York City where she pursues a career as an actor, playwright and singer/songwriter.
She works as general manager of a facial business and also runs her own company, Just a Girl Productions, which produces tribute concerts — to singers such as Taylor Swift and Chappell Roan — using local talent.
As an actor in the Upstate, Wettlin may be familiar to theater-goers through her work in shows at Greer Children’s Theatre, Centre Stage, Mill Town Players and the South Carolina Children’s Theatre.
Want to go?
What: “…And Getting Caught in the Rain,” by Ashley Wettlin
When: Sept. 26-29
Where: Centre Stage, 501 River St.
Tickets: $15
Info: 864-233-6733 or centrestage.org
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