The married team of playwright Paul Slade Smith and actor Erin Noel Grennan collaborated on world premiere comedy-drama
The world-premiere comedy "Beside Myself" that opens North Coast Repertory Theatre's 44th season next week began as a meeting of the minds, or rather a converging of ideas, between its playwright, Paul Slade Smith, and his spouse, actor Erin Noel Grennan.
"I'm a champion of normalizing the conversation around mental health and not making it a taboo subject," said Grennan. Her idea was "a play about mental health issues and about how our society deals with them. I brought the general idea to him (Smith) and said 'I think there should be someone who's a therapist who's having a crisis themselves.' He really liked that idea.
"His (idea) branched out of a doctor's appointment that he had: What would happen if you got put under for something and when you came to you emerged as someone else?"
This is therapist Gemma's predicament in "Beside Myself," being directed at North Coast Rep by artistic director David Ellenstein and starring Grennan as Gemma.
"She has voluntarily stepped away from her practice and is living with pretty severe anxiety when the play begins," said Grennan. "She's seeking other alternatives to helping her get her life back again. It speaks to our society of quick fixes, wanting to fix a problem rather than embracing who we are and learning to live with are flaws."
An ensuing medical procedure unexpectedly transforms Gemma into two versions of the same woman, trapped in one body.
"It's not exactly a peanut butter-and-chocolate melding of ideas - mental health issues and comedy," Grennan said. "One of the great things that Paul can do is provide a message in his play, but he couches it in great humor.
"It's tricky to ride the line between not wanting to make fun of mental health issues, but we didn't want to write a serious, in-your-face, depressing play about it. We wanted it to have hope and to have the idea that we all need each other, and people aren't alone in what they have."
Smith and Grennan, who make their home in Brooklyn, New York, are familiar presences at North Coast Rep. "Beside Myself" is Smith's fourth comedy to be produced there following "Unnecessary Farce" 10 years ago, "The Outsider" five years ago and "The Angel Next Door," in which Grennan stole the show as a grim maid named Olga, in 2023. The latter was chosen by Ellenstein to launch the Solana Beach theater's 42nd season.
"Beside Myself" is Grennan's third turn at North Coast Rep, having appeared last year in Katie Forgette's comedy "Incident at Our Lady of Perpetual Help." Grennan calls "Beside Myself" "the most technically challenging play I've done yet. (Gemma) is playing many different parts of herself at once, and it's very quick moving between these parts."
The other actors in the cast -- Thomas Daugherty, Jacquelyn Ritz, Matthew Henerson, Christopher M. Williams and Alanna J. Smith -- will all play multiple characters.
"It's a great combination of people," said Grennan of her castmates. "There are no bad attitudes in the (rehearsal) room. No egos. Everyone is ready to collaborate and have fun."
As with North Coast Rep's recent "A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder," which will move up the coast to Laguna Playhouse later this month, "Beside Myself" will do the same in October after its Solana Beach engagement ends.
Grennan had never worked in California prior to being in "The Angel Next Door" last year.
"I love it," she said. "It's such a different vibe and energy here. There's an added hectic nature, living and working out of New York. I do consider it home, but when we came here it was like a breath of fresh air."
When: Previews begin Wednesday. Opens Sept. 13 and runs through Oct. 5. 7 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays; 8 p.m. Fridays; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays; 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays