Irvine Theater Company is combining the O.C. premiere of ‘My (unauthorized) Hallmark Movie Musical’ with ‘Dr. Love’s Rom-Com Experience’ to create a singular, evening-long event.
Some people don’t just want to watch a Hallmark movie on TV, crying, laughing and indulging in the emotions the characters wear on their sleeves.
They want to be part of that world, and maybe even stumble onto a new romance just as if it had been scripted especially for them.
For anyone who fits – or possibly fits – that definition, Irvine Theater Company’s upcoming production of “My (unauthorized) Hallmark Movie Musical” sounds like it’s exactly what the doctor ordered.
Actor and playwright Eloise Coopersmith created and wrote the show in 2022, drafting her pal, composer Roxanna Ward, to write original music for the show’s songs, with lyrics by Coopersmith.
The show has played in San Francisco, Los Angeles and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, directed by Anne Runolfsson. The Irvine staging is its Orange County premiere.
“Hallmark” itself, though, isn’t a standalone production. Instead, in the hands of Irvine Theater Company, it’s part of a whole evening meant to immerse participants – we use that word advisedly in place of the more conventional term “audience members” – in the entire rom-com universe.
Bookending the Show with Firsthand Experiences
The first portion of the evening, in effect the pre-show, is the audience’s first taste of “Dr. Love’s Rom-Com Experience.” Referred to as the “Sip and Snap,” it’s described by ITC’s marketing and public relations rep Casey Long as “a happy hour that happens before the show.”
Attendees will be able to play various games with rom-com themes while availing themselves to photo opportunities in the lobby – selfies or photos of one another against what Long calls “classic Hallmark movie backgrounds.” He used a snowy, Christmas-y outdoor setting as an example, saying participants will say “It’s like I’m in a Hallmark movie.”
The “main event” is Coopersmith’s solo show, created during the pandemic, and out of which Coopersmith has gotten a ton of mileage in just a handful of years.
Long calls Coopersmith’s show “a love letter to the Hallmark movies – something that celebrates those cheesy tropes that we just can’t get enough of during the holiday season.”
It’s also, he said, “a media innovation, with one person onstage interacting with eight others offstage through previously recorded performances. I think it’s great – funny and also touching.”
The post-show phase of the evening picks up where the pre-show segment and the play end. Called “Dr. Love’s Match and Mingle After-Party,” it translates the innocent fun – and possibly also the romance – of the typical Hallmark movie directly to audience members by helping them connect with friends, new or existing, and possibly identify some romantic compatibility.
The latter leans heavily on the so-called “Tuesday app” invented by professor and scientist Paul J. Zak. Zak is perhaps best known to most as “Dr. Love” from the popular reality TV series “The Bachelor,” and his latest book (2022), “Immersion: The Science of the Extraordinary and Source of Happiness,” details concepts that those who attend this event will experience for themselves.
Long said Zak’s app “will be used after the show at the ‘Mix and Mingle.’ People will wear smart watches on their wrists that will measure their neural activity to determine their compatibility with other people who are in attendance – a date, or a friend, or they might meet someone new.”
The program, Long said, is “a great ice breaker” and “a fun experiment to see if your responses match that of other people. Maybe you’ll find people who feel the same thing you do, and maybe it will create a love connection.”
A Hallmark-like Musical about Someone Writing a Hallmark Movie
Coopersmith told Culture OC the basic concept for the show came to her during the COVID-19 pandemic while she worked her day job as a residential real estate appraiser.
She said that as the job began to grind on her and wear her down, she “took home with me the trauma” of her homeowner clients.
One day, recovering at home after work, she turned on the television and became hooked watching a Hallmark movie.
“Truthfully, until then, I had never seen a Hallmark movie. I became obsessed. These movies are positive, predictable and make you feel good.”
“Inspired, I started to write my own Hallmark movie about an essential worker reigniting her romantic flame while crafting her own Hallmark movie. She’s an avid Hallmark Channel viewer, battling pandemic burnout with dark chocolate, red wine and a craving for uplifting escapism.”
The self-reflexive act of writing a Hallmark movie about a person who is creating and writing a Hallmark movie proved cathartic. “Writing this show got me through some dark times.”
Coopersmith said the original stage version was directed by Anne Runolfsson. While noting that “it’s not possible to do a show without a director,” after the show played in Edinburgh, Runolfsson “handed the show to JP Queenan, our production manager, which is typical for a touring show.”
While Coopersmith was doing the show in Edinburgh, Runolfsson was performing it at The Legacy Theater in Connecticut, with help and input from Craig Tyrl (of O.C.’s The Wayward Artist) and Stuart Fabel.
Coopersmith said she and Runolfsson then “reconnected and made changes based on our experiences, and she then introduced me to JP and handed the show over to us.”
Hence, there is no “director” credit for ITC’s staging, Coopersmith noting that the show has now been around long enough and is fairly well set in its current form that it doesn’t require a director.
Coopersmith describes the show as “magical. It blends movies and live theater, featuring those delightful, cheesy moments we all secretly enjoy in romantic comedies. These guilty pleasures lift us out of the madness of today, allowing us to take a deep breath and feel refreshed and hopeful after sharing the experience. You join a writer on her quest to craft a story with a happy ending.”
You might think that having one live actor on stage interacting with the pre-recorded performances of eight other actors is simply a gimmick, and that the show could just as easily be presented with a live cast of nine.
Your thinking would be in error. Coopersmith emphasizes that “the story of the piece calls for (this multimedia technique). I have an alternate version where all the characters are ‘live,’ but it lacks the uplift and magical experience of escapism that the pre-recorded format provides.”
Coopersmith underscores the fact that due to this, her “Hallmark” show and the “Dr. Love’s” segments are all of a piece. More crucially, “this entire Dr. Love’s Rom-Com experience, of which this show is a part, is a first. This immersive experience brings audiences together and allows them to connect.”
Her show was selected, she said, “because its use of multimedia and the familiar rom-com format help place our hearts in a place where we’re ready to connect.”
Self-Empowerment is the Name of the Game
David Ihrig, ITC’s artistic director, said he first heard of the “Hallmark” show through a pitch in his inbox.
“At that time, I was developing a piece about love and relationships for the express purpose of introducing an audience interaction component to a show. I wanted to amplify the communal experience of theater by incorporating technology to facilitate structured audience interaction after the show.”
In need of a ready-made show that could accomplish such goals, he reached out to Coopersmith, “asked for the script, read it, and realized this was a great option for the audience interaction concept.”
Ihrig notes that Irvine Theater Company’s mission “is to build the theater of tomorrow, a live performance facility that scales (down) the technology of MSG’s Sphere into a 500-seat theater.”
The “Hallmark Movie Musical” is, he said, “an innovative step towards blending existing genres and incorporating elements of film and television into a live musical performance, and that appealed to me.”
Even more crucially, the Hallmark show’s themes, he said, “are the most important aspect in creating the interactive concept which became the Dr. Love Experience,” a way of blending two like-minded shows into a single, seamless evening that envelops participants and allows them to become part of the show.
The “Hallmark Movie Musical,” Ihrig said, “allows audience members to explore their beliefs and values surrounding self-empowerment as it pertains to love and romance.”
Connecting ‘Brain-Based’ Technology with Cheesy, Feel-Good Movies?
Anyone reading this might well have already asked themselves, perhaps even more than once, “Is there really a connection between cheesy, guilty-pleasure, feel-good Hallmark movies and the nuts-and-bolts technology behind brain activity?”
Is Ihrig and ITC’s blending of these a case of live entertainment folly?
Considerable and advanced sciences are at the heart, if you will, of the upcoming event.
Zak calls the Tuesday app (named because the company’s CEO used to routinely say “Have the best Tuesday ever”), launched in July 2023, “the first objective neurologic measure that captures if people are thriving and helps guide them to invest in those activities and people that give them the most value.”
“I’m passionate about creating tech to improve peoples’ lives,” Zak said, “and about 50% of peoples’ happiness is due to the quality of their social relationships. Tuesday is the first objective measure of the quality of our social lives. Once we can measure it, we can improve it!”
Ihrig said he first approached Zak about his technology “several years ago. I was developing a brain-based approach to the dramatic arts in collaboration with the Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory at UCI. I read about the ability to monitor brain activity in real time in a non-intrusive manner, and knew this was a great way to work with actors.”
“Paul, an enthusiastic and generous scientist, was quick to support me. And I have used his technology for different projects since then. These were great experiences for my students and myself, and I wanted to offer the experience for audience members.”
More crucially, Ihrig reports that the “Dr. Love” event “was developed around the themes of the Hallmark show in order for audiences to explore these themes personally by having meaningful discussions with one another after the show. Mostly, I thought the technology would be a fun ice-breaker.”
Dr. Zak noted that the team’s goal “for the rom-com mingle is that the app motivates people to find interesting others to interact with and create some peak Immersion moments.”
He said he, Ihrig, Coopersmith and everyone connected with Irvine Theater Company “hope that by creating an emotionally compelling and fun play, that the audience will be ready to mingle afterwards, and this will enhance the theater experience.”
Ihrig said it’s his hope that the experience will also “remind people of the value of listening to one another and having meaningful discussions. Our brains are wired for social interaction. It is fundamental to our health and well-being. So put down your phone, get off the couch, come to the show, and talk to somebody!“
“MY (UNAUTHORIZED) HALLMARK MOVIE MUSICAL” and “DR. LOVE'S ROM-COM EXPERIENCE”
Where: Canvas, 17332 Von Karman Ave. #115, Irvine
When: July 26-Aug. 10
Admission: $35 to $60
Contact: 949-422-6896, IrvineTheater.com
A Most Unusual Venue
The entire “Hallmark”/“Dr. Love” event unfolds at Canvas, a space in an Irvine industrial complex primarily used on Sundays for religious services.
David Ihrig, Irvine Theater Company’s artistic director, told Culture OC that two daunting factors became apparent just as the company was being formed: Few, if any, venues are available and suitable for theatrical performances, and of those, the high costs are prohibitive.
A friend urged Ihrig to reach out to the organization that runs Canvas. He did, and in short order he discovered that entity “works hard to make the space welcoming for all, and so there is a notable lack of religious symbols.”
What has it been like working with Canvas to put up this show? “The space is great. The staff is great. ITC was lucky to have discovered it. I don’t think first-time visitors may even realize the space is used as a church.”
