Dallas — If you grew up in small-town or even medium sized-town Texas, you'll recognize the characters in Pluck the Day, Steven Walters' reworked comedy that opens Second Thought Theatre's 2012 season in its new home, Bryant Hall next to the Kalita Humphreys Theater.
Or if you've seen plays by Texans like James McLure or Southerners like Beth Henley—for this type of play, Texas is definitely of the South, as opposed to the Southwest—you know these folks too. Heck, if you've been around working-class types who enjoy cheap booze, regardless of the regional dialect, then you're still on board.
These folks are everywhere, in states both red and blue—as in necks and collars. In the mind of writers, they make for colorful characters, because caricature isn't so far removed from reality.
Pluck the Day was one of the first shows done by Second Theatre Theatre when it was using the smaller Frank's Place at the Kalita in 2003 (between then and now, STT has produced shows in the studio space at Addison Theatre Centre). Walters, one of the original STT company members, has rewritten it and updated some of the references (among them, the line "it gets better" garners laughs). The play was done last year at the Araca Group in New York. This new production is directed by Matthew Gray (who also does set and costume design).
Duck (Clay Yocum) can't get even the easiest answers in the crossword puzzles, although he still does them between gunning cans of Old Milwaukee. Bill (Chris LaBove), who is significantly smarter, and gay, indulges him with the correct answers. They fight, but have a longstanding friendship, as they do with Fred (Mike Schraeder). He's a peyote-loving ne'er-do-well who's going to propose to his girlfriend April (Jenny Ledel, in a lovely, understated performance).
Those four make up a love trapezoid, if you will, and the odd man out is the guitar-playing Merle (Dallas musician Greg Schroeder), who mainly lays next to the porch, sleeping and occasionally strumming his instrument. Remember those guys who would always come to the college kegger with a guitar and sit in a corner and play and sing while everyone ignored them? He's that, but without the party part. More like set dressing on the mulch-surrounded ramshackle front porch.
Not much happens in terms of plot, and it takes a bit to get going. But pretty much from the beginning, it's funny. The characters and situations are familiar, but never feel cliché, thanks to Walters' writing. They may be stagnant, but they're loveable losers. Well, two won't be losers if they can escape this McLennan County dead-end.
LaBove, who is the co-artistic director of STT (with Walters), makes his acting debut with the company, and it's a dynamic performance. If you're wondering why Bill hasn't already high-tailed it out of town, his final admission of why he hasn't is laid out in an emotional, heart-breaking speech.
Schraeder and Yocum get to compete for most intimidating, idiotic lunk. But as their respective characters dictate, they each successfully approach it in different ways. Fred knows how to manipulate that to his advantage, and would win in an actual fight because he has a sinister streak. Duck isn't really a threat because no one with any kind of a brain would take him seriously, and in Yocum's portrayal, you sense that he knows this deep down.
But, as his malaprop-prone character would say, "queso será."
Pluck the Day isn't deep, but it's entertaining and keeps the har-hars coming. It's as fitting for STT's housewarming as a koozie is to a can of Lone Star. 
