Kate Gill’s Heartfelt and Socially Sharp Americaring Depicts a Family Failed by the System

Annie (Quinn Davis) is a high schooler who has much more to deal with than homework. Her father Mac (Kevin Patrick Dowling) turned to alcohol after Annie’s mother passed after a long (and very expensive) illness, and now only comes home from the bar to borrow drinking money. Her brother Mickey (Carlos Fruzzetti) has become a drug dealer because it’s the only way to bring in decent money. Annie’s pre-teen brother Jimmy (Teagan Guertin) is depressed and cynical, preferring to spend their time with the family’s violent orange cat Buzz, “the terror of the South End” as Mickey puts it. And Annie is working to exhaustion as a diner waitress while trying to keep her family from imploding further. As the story unfolds, we learn that the struggling family is one of many who have become victims of a capitalist society and a healthcare system that has robbed them of their mother, damaged their relationships, and shattered their hopes for the future. The American Dream they were promised has become a waking nightmare.

When Annie meets Kyle (Preston Ottaviano) as a charity event, the two bond over the mutual loss of their mothers. The connection leads to romance and a glimmer of happiness for Annie. But when she meets Kyle’s father Frank (Mark Gilchrist) and his new wife Marilyn (Fredda Takacs), the shocking truth about the wealthy Frank’s hand in her family’s fate threatens to destroy it all.

Skillfully steered by director Frank Licato, Americaring is a realistic depiction of an American family in tatters, drowning in its own dysfunction and reeling from the actions of a system that has turned its back on them. To its credit, it stays grounded and real, never descending into melodramatic pathos, and is sprinkled with humor along the way (much of it surrounding the unseen Buzz the cat), giving it a true-to-life feel. It ends with a spark of hope thanks to the resilient Annie, as she recovers from her obstacles and refuses to give up on the chance at a better life for her and her family. The characters feel real and evoke genuine sympathy, with tremendous work in particular by the sibling actors, who are heartbreakingly numb and world-weary at such a tragically young age. The family are the heart of the story, but given equal weight is the utter failure of the American healthcare system to put people over profit, and Gill pulls no punches in depicting the human cost of the injustice that pervades modern society. Americaring is one to catch and one to think about.

Americaring was presented at the American Theatre of Actors in June as a featured selection of The Midtown International Theatre Festival.