In a coup for this modest production of a local playwright’s debut, Amanda Muggleton takes the title role of The Mentor. She plays an actor who has turned to tutoring now that her glory days are gone, opposite young actor Connor Morel as a wannabe-actor student. As their characters discuss and spar about the career and craft of actors in this two-hander, there’s a strong sense that they are drawing on their own professional-meets-personal passions and struggles.

Connor Morel and Amanda Muggleton in The Mentor. Photo © Lucinda Goodwin

The words also ring true because they were written by actor Joshua White, whose deftness with dialogue, dramatic structure and character development is impressive for a first script. His play is set in the apartment of Amanda Redfern, where Jordan Ridley arrives for his first one-on-one class. With unconventional, often confronting techniques, she presses him not so much about the techniques of acting but why he wants to be an actor and essentially who he is. Over the course of several classes, it’s apparent what Amanda wants to teach Jordan above all is to understand himself.