Chester Theatre debuts Easthampton playwright’s solo showDate: 7/11/2023 CHESTER — Midseason at the Chester Theatre — on July 20 and 21 at 7:30 p.m. — will be a special workshop production and debut of the solo show “Unreconciled.” This play, based on a true story, is co-written by Jay Sefton and Mark Basquill about a young boy who has his sights set on becoming an actor, and the priest who exploits his love of theater to abuse him. Sefton stars in the one-man production.
Sefton is an Easthampton-based actor, playwright and therapist. The story he wrote and stars in is about his journey from playing Jesus in a Passion Play in Philadelphia in the 1980s under the direction of an abusive pedophile priest, to his years as a struggling actor in LA., to a law office in Manhattan in 2018, where he eventually turns down the victim’s compensation offered through the Diocese of Philadelphia in exchange for his silence.
As Sefton describes it, “Unreconciled” is the journey from finding your voice to then using it to save yourself.
The play jumps around in time, from the Catholic school in 1985, where a part of the original footage of the Passion play is screened, to 2007 in Los Angeles where Sefton is working as a struggling actor doing “some bad movies and small parts in good TV shows.” LA is also where he wrote and acted in his first solo show, “The Most Mediocre Story Never Told,” which won an LA Weekly Award for best solo performance.
“I threw everything into it. It was about the stories I tell about life,” Sefton said. During that play’s run in 2008-2009 he toured the universities, and became fascinated with the give and take following the show, and hearing the stories that were told back to him.
This interaction led Sefton to come back east, obtain a master’s degree in psychology from Lesley University in Cambridge, and become a licensed mental health counselor and psychotherapist based in Easthampton.
During the years in LA he also started to confront his past and the church after a 2005 Grand Jury report, on the heels of the 2002 Boston Spotlight case, examined the Philadelphia Diocese, listing the names of accused priests including the one who abused him.
In 2007, Sefton called the victim’s compensation fund the diocese had set up, which offered to pay for his private therapy.
Twelve years later, in 2018, he applied to the Independent Reconciliation and Reparations Program set up by the Diocese, which offered money to victims that Sefton called “pennies on the dollar” of what a court settlement would be, if the victims signed a waiver and their right to sue. He had a year to submit the claim.
“It felt like more stalling; the Catholic Church covering themselves,” Sefton said. Eventually he said no to the offer.
Sefton wrote an op-ed that ran in a Philadelphia paper, entitled, “They normalized a culture of child rape and then asked us to sign away our rights.” The op-ed started to get shared, and other survivors started to reach out to him.
Sefton co-wrote “Unreconciled” with Mark Basquill, another survivor, who he said he will be meeting for the first time in person at the debut production of the play at the Chester Theatre.
James Barry, Chester Theatre co-artistic director with Tara Franklin, will be directing “Unreconciled.” He called the play a “tour de force.”
“The subject matter is quite serious, pretty heavy and emotional, and also really funny,” Barry said at a recent sit down with Sefton and three of the college interns who will be producing the mid-season piece. Barry said the play doesn’t follow chronological order, but the pace reveals the complete picture of the story.
The interns, Rori Haft from Mount Holyoke College, Sophie Potts from Smith College, and Natalie Werthamer from Mount Holyoke College, along with the rest of the seven-member team from colleges throughout the Northeast, will be taking the lead on stage management, design, marketing and development.
“I’ve only read it. The pace of it is incredibly engaging. It keeps you wanting to hear more,” said Potts, who works on costumes and props and wants to be an actor.
“I’ve seen a couple of one-person shows,” said Werthamer, adding that it’s all about storytelling, and being able to exhibit that amount of empathy in one sitting. “It’s the epitome of what actors want to do,” she said. Werthamer, who will work the front of the house, said she has ambitions as an actor and storyteller.
Haft has no acting ambitions, but to work in production and become the “director’s right hand.”
Barry talked about Sefton’s virtuosity in the 75-minute play. “He steps into 12 characters from his whole life. It’s utterly riveting, and so theatrical. It’s a story that needs to be told about political and religious injustices, that exists on its own as a riveting and engaging theatrical event.”
Barry said what drew him into the piece in addition to the story, is what he called “a loving and beautiful window into working class families, and the struggles unique to [them].” He said people feel the pressure and wear it like a badge, tamping down its effect on their lives as they work full time and part time jobs.
“That aspect of it too really shot the struggle to my heart. It’s such a loving gesture to people who didn’t grow up with a silver spoon in [my] mouth,” Barry said.
He said the theater company will give the show “everything we’ve got, and set him up for success, to have a debut.” He said the workshop production will be an opportunity to see how the play works, and will be both an exploratory and an education.
“Chester Theatre audiences are savvy, literate, and interested in the process,” Barry said.
“I’m thrilled to be here. I can’t imagine a better scenario. I’m so lucky to do this here,” Sefton said. Looking ahead, he said his goal is to perform the play in Philadelphia.
“Unreconciled” will be performed in the Town Hall Theatre at 15 Middlefield Rd. in Chester on July 20 and 21 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets for the mid-season event are $30, and are available online at chestertheatre.org, or by calling 413-354-7771.
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