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Ask any serious Philadelphia sports fan and they will tell you a certain curse of sorts trails our professional teams who, year after year, get oh-so-close to capturing a championship — be it the Super Bowl, Stanley Cup and until last year, the World Series — then choke. ‘There’s always next year,’ has become the disenfranchised ones’ mantra as they look toward better luck, not to mention better coaching and playing, in the coming sports season.
Bruce Graham, 52, a successful Pennsport playwright with more than 30 years in the biz and a teaching gig at Drexel University, has captured the essence of the ultimate fanatic in his aptly titled one-man production "The Philly Fan," on stage through March 1 at Act II theatre in Ambler. Penned by Graham and conceived by seasoned Philadelphia actor Tom McCarthy, the 5-year-old play has enjoyed more than a dozen runs prior to the Feb. 13 debut, including the Fringe Festival, Media Theatre and Atlantic City venues among other places.
"People keep trying to book it and we can only do it when Tom McCarthy is available," Graham said, adding, "we really expect it to keep on living."
Though there are no plans presently to bring the production to his community, Graham is looking into the possibility and has the perfect Pennsport venue in mind.
"I would love to bring it to the Mummers Museum [Second St. and Washington Ave.]. That’s a great venue because there’s a lot of space and they would make money [for renting the space out] and so would I," he said.
The play is not set in these parts, but there are plenty of male sports fans who mimic the show’s character — someone Graham declined to issue a name because he wanted his character to be anybody. Played by McCarthy, who is in his mid-70s and has been on the local acting circuit for decades or longer, the Fan is the same age and alone now, his wife and best friend having passed on.
"He’s a blue-collar Korean War Vet, rowhome guy, good father, who hangs in the local bar," Graham said.
Definitely not the type of character theater productions feature but the playwright sees differently.
"You just don’t see that portrayed in the theater," he said. "He’s the kind of guy you’ve seen a million times but that theater has ignored."
The son of a theater-loving mother, Graham, 50-year-old wife Stephanie and 18-year-old daughter Kendall are active patrons of the arts.
Graham’s mother recently told her son she felt dumb going to the theater with productions too sophisticated and uppity for their own good.
"It’s a shame the theatre has gotten so heavy and deep. I don’t mind a message but theatre should be entertainment," the playwright said. "What I love about this play ["The Philly Fan"] is it’s just ordinary entertainment. My job is to transport people and tell them a story."
People who aren’t sports fans have told Graham how much they enjoy the show, and to him that’s the biggest compliment of all because it speaks to the character.
"If this was all about sports it would be boring and who cares? You really care about the character. In any good play, the character draws you in," he said.
Set the night before Super Bowl XXXIX when Philadelphia lost to New England, the Fan is in a bar and starts talking to a Dallas follower, naturally ripping on the guy for his wayward taste in football teams. From there the play hops around and highlights certain pivotal events in Philly sports history — one scene features the character in the middle of Broad Street for the Flyers 1974 Stanley Cup parade. To augment the acting, the director uses a projection machine to flash past sports headlines from local daily papers as the audience relives the memories. The story ends where it started, with the ’05 Super Bowl and the Fan home alone watching the game. When the Patriots beat his team, the man utters the closing line, ‘Wait till next year,’ reflective of what this town’s sports contingent loves to say when teams bottom out at crucial showdowns.
"That’s the mantra in the play because of all the things [Philly sports teams] have lost," Graham said.
When the Phillies won the World Series in October — their first since 1980 — Graham updated the ending with footage shot at Broad and Federal during the Oct. 31 parade. The Fan is in the crowd enjoying the festivities. The final line of the updated version has him say, "Now when are we gonna win a goddamn Super Bowl?" and with that he disappears into the crowd and walks down Broad Street.
Graham credits McCarthy’s chops for nailing the character and final scene.
"He is our [Philadelphia’s] Carroll O’Connor [Archie Bunker]. He has worked everywhere. Everybody knows Tom. He’s just a solid character actor," Graham said of his longtime friend and theater colleague. When McCarthy got the idea to do a play about a Philly fan, he asked Graham to write it, knowing him a big sports fan and accomplished playwright.
Growing up in Ridley Park, Graham would attend sporting events here and loved going to local restaurants with his family.
"[South Philly] was always so close. It was just 20 minutes away very convenient and comfortable down there," he said.
After his daughter graduated from Shipley High School last summer, the family relocated to Pennsport, an area they love because of its close proximity to the Italian Market and Center City.
"The people are nice," the writer said of his Pennsport neighbors. "We walk to great restaurants. It’s right off 95 if I have to run back to the old neighborhood, and convenient to the sports complex. It’s perfect, I love it."
Graham has been able to earn a living as a playwright, while teaching playwriting, stand-up comedy and film at Drexel two days a week.
"Writing pays most of the bills," he said.
Not bad for somebody who never took a playwriting class and started in stand-up comedy and acting in college at Indiana University of Pennsylvania in Pittsburgh where he majored in theater. At college he wrote his first play "A Night at the Rainbow Bar and Grille."
Based on the strength of his second play "Burkie," at the age of 26 while an English teacher in the Rosetree Media School District in Media, Graham became the playwright-in-residence at Philadelphia Festival Theater at the now defunct Annenberg Theater. Set in South Philly, "Burkie" is a family drama about a bluecollar family. As resident playwright, Graham wrote 10 plays in 12 years at the Annenberg. In addition, he has more than a dozen published plays under his belt after leaving the Annenberg, including "Coyote on a Fence," which ran in London’s West End during the late ’90s.
"Something Intangible," his next play, debuts at the Arden Theatre in April. Feature film screenplays include "Dunston Checks In," "Anastasia" and "Steal This Movie." Among his TV movie credits is "Hunt for the Unicorn Killer," about one of Philadelphia’s most infamous murderers Ira Einhorn. Graham has received awards from the Pew Foundation, the Theater Association of Pennsylvania, the Rockefeller Foundation and was the ’92 Princess Grace Foundation Statuette recipient.
"Hey I’m the first one to say I’m lucky. I’m the luckiest guy I know; I never had a real job in my life," he said with a laugh.
