“Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time”
By Andrew Kole

One of the missions of Theatre Aspen is to take to heart the bounty of talent close to home. For a playwright, the first manifestation of that manifesto is “Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time” by Andrew Kole, hands down one of the most distinctive characters matriculating within the philosophical nooks and metaphysical crannies that can render Aspen utterly incomprehensible to nabobs and neophytes alike.

A local television talk show host and a perennial candidate for public office—a run for the Aspen school board seat was his last defeat—Kole has only occasionally been seen in the core without a telephone headset monopolizing his ear. Gadfly, wise guy, scold, jester: if Aspen didn’t have an Andrew Kole, they might have to import him at considerable cost. He is the walking, talking embodiment of the talk of the town. If there are things better left unsaid in Aspen, then he is the first to say so.

“Seems Like A Good Idea At The Time” is no less than a playful albeit evocative navel-gaze that discovers, psychologically at least, from whence Andrew Kole has come—and maybe even why he can’t ever let well enough alone. Max Zirinsky is his wisecracking alter-ego, a character not unknown to those Aspenites who had the good luck to see the play performed under the tent in stripped-down workshop fashion by the resident Theatre Aspen talent a year ago. From act to act, from scene to scene, the omnipresent and omnipotent video screen provides the sly asides and chapter headings for a Greek chorus worthy of a Woody Allen film. Sanguine about the response to the workshop. Artistic Director David McClendon gave it a green light for a full production this season.

In the play, we follow Max through his live and his loves; we meet his parents and his dogs; we see his plan to make good on making money; and we come to wonder, in the end, what makes Maxie run? Kole’s main character is without a doubt the industrial descendant of Sammy Glick in Budd Schulberg’s iconic “What Makes Sammy Run?” Max Zirinsky is the quintessential American character falling forward through life as if the net net is the safety net that always seems to be there when he descends to terra incognito.

But a soft landing says nothing about the next leg of the trip. If Max Zirinsky is the America dream writ small, then “Seems Like A Good Idea At The Time” is also an exploration/explication of the limits of such a man’s life as he confronts parents, cops, girlfriends—and a life of pure unadulterated wanting without any real hope of satiation. What makes Maxie run? Perhaps the notion that he can lose in both love and life and still land right back on his feet.

From gadfly to full-time writer? From scold to resident Aspen artiste? For Andrew Kole after his debut as a playwright with Theatre Aspen, such aspirations take flight on far more than a wing and a prayer. If you don’t believe it, just ask him.