LELAND — Oscar Wilde once said, “Life imitates art far more than art imitates life.” But Rebecca Reynolds’ latest work might be the exception to that rule.
Reynolds, a veteran actor, writer, and producer whose career spans television, film, theater, and chart-topping true crime podcasts, recently debuted her latest work, “Uncle Vodka,” in a pair of staged readings in New York City.
The play marks her latest collaboration with playwright McAdoo Greer, with whom she’s partnered on several projects — including the 2022 comedy “Breathing Space,” performed at the Old Art Building in Leland to celebrate its 100th birthday. Reynolds is a Leland resident and frequent contributor to the local arts scene.
Their newest venture, “Uncle Vodka,” follows the story of three sisters faced with a sticky situation: sell the beloved family cottage or come up with the funds to buy out their self-absorbed brother, who has invoked the Law of Partition to force a sale. (Partition is a legal process used to divide jointly owned property when co-owners can’t agree on what to do with it. It can be voluntary or court-ordered and often comes into play when one party wants to sell but the others don’t.)
The play explores what happens when old family money runs out and the siblings are divided: three want to save their 100-year-old cottage, while the fourth — their brother — demands a boatload of cash to be bought out. The playwrights described it to Playbill as akin to “the crumbling aristocracy of Chekhov’s world… only funnier.”
The two also like to quote singer Kacey Musgraves’ song “Family is Family”: “They own too much wicker and drink too much liquor. You’d wash your hands of them, but blood’s always thicker.”
Reynolds didn’t have to look far when coming up with inspiration for “Uncle Vodka.” Her husband, Jim Carpenter, was once a one-sixth owner of a family cottage.
“We availed ourselves of the Law of Partition because the other family members could buy us out,” Reynolds says. “And we used that money to start our own film company.”
Life imitating art imitating life.
However, unlike the characters in the play, Reynolds says her husband’s family handled the buyout without conflict. “That’s just our story,” she says, “but that’s not the happy story of most families.”
Reynolds and Greer — whom she affectionately calls Bobbie — began working on “Uncle Vodka” about 15 months ago. To test out the work, the pair held three table reads with 21 different actors to ensure the script was actor-ready.
“We just thought it was ready to have some Broadway people do it and make the leap to New York,” Reynolds says.
And leap they did. They held two industry-only readings in Manhattan on June 23 and 24. Both were filled to capacity.
“We had top-caliber actors,” she says. “They were part of the reason I think we were able to fill it up.”
That talent included director Karen Carpenter (“Love, Loss, and What I Wore”) and a cast of theatre veterans: Tony nominee Craig Bierko (“The Music Man”), Hannah Cruz (“Suffs”), Carson Elrod (“Peter and the Starcatcher”), Richard Hollis (“Hangmen”), Kate MacCluggage (“Left on Tenth”), Madeleine Martin (“Californication”), and Kellie Overbey (“The Coast of Utopia”).
The response was overwhelmingly positive — and most importantly, people laughed.
“Here’s the thing with comedy,” Reynolds says. “When people ask, ‘Is it a comedy?’ I always say, ‘If they laugh.’ If not, it’s a drama now.”
Still, the work isn’t finished.
“We’re not resting on our laughs (from the readings),” she says. “We want to make it better.”
They returned home the day after the readings and immediately set to work on revisions, including eliminating an act break and adding a new scene.
Their ultimate goal is to see it published and produced. While Reynolds would love to see it land Off-Broadway, she believes it’s also a perfect fit for summer stock theaters — and says a future production in northern Michigan is always a possibility.
The beauty of this work is that, in some ways, it’s a homecoming for Reynolds. Despite her success on TV, in film, and in podcasts, her heart has always been in the theater.
“I started in theater. My first job was a stagehand at Summer Theatre, and my BFA and MFA are in theater,” she says.
After graduating, she moved to New York and performed alongside the likes of Kevin Kline, David Ogden Stiers, and Patti LuPone.
“I want to be back in the world of theater,” she says.
As it turns out, it’s not just about life imitating art — it’s about a life meticulously crafted around it.