Debuting in Winter Park, new play makes fun of Florida and its history

In “State of Confusion,” opening May 12 at the Breakthrough Theatre of Winter Park, Ponce de Leon shows up in Florida — and a real-estate agent is chomping at the bit to make a sale.

“She’s really trying to push it,” says “State of Confusion” playwright Howard Elgison, despite the pitfalls of owning property on reclaimed swampland. A Florida native, Elgison is pushing the funny side of the Sunshine State in his comedy, making its debut here.

The Ponce de Leon bit is just one of 14 different comic sketches that present 39 different characters, in period costumes, up to Disney’s game-changing arrival in the state.

There are a few jabs thrown in from more recent headlines, as well: “The Disney-DeSantis thing is too good to let go,” says Elgison with a chuckle. That “thing,” of course, is the escalating legal feud between the Florida governor and the theme-park giant over managing the company’s property that is currently heading to the courts.

But for the most part, Elgison tried to avoid overtly political humor in his play — well, as much as he could in the current climate.

“My God, everything is political these days,” he says — making writing comedy harder.

But the writing of the play wasn’t the most difficult part. That would be the fact that those 39 characters are portrayed by only eight actors.

“The most challenging thing about this is the costume changes,” Elgison says. And those changes have to be quick. Each skit in the roughly 70-minute play is only about four minutes long: “It goes lightning fast.”

Other sketches in “State of Confusion,” directed by Breakthrough owner Wade Hair, include looks at the arrival of “upwardly mobile peasants,” the TV-lawyer wars and a scene with mogul Henry Flagler titled “Corruption, Florida Style.”

The show concludes with a performance of a suggested new state song, called “Yo Florida!” It works in as many references to the goofiness of Florida life as Elgison could fit.

“Other than personal-injury lawyers, no one should get offended,” he says.

Elgison comes to writing plays after a career as a nuclear engineer in which he designed fission reactors for U.S. Navy warships — not a sentence one reads everyday. Born in Miami, he worked around the country and spent time in Charleston, South Carolina, where he was employed at a naval shipyard. He also dabbled in writing articles for a local magazine — some of which employed humor.

“That was the coolest time of my life,” he says. “I wrote a restaurant review of a Burger King.”

A tour guide he met while writing one article started telling him funny stories about Charleston’s history.

“I said, ‘That would make a great book,'” he remembers. “I thought, ‘How hard could it be?’ It turned out to be challenging.”

But he finished the comedic history of Charleston, titling his book “The Unholy City” — and went on write “Serve and Folly,” a humorous look at tennis, and co-write “Near Miss America,” a satire of the beauty-pageant industry.

He left the nuclear industry, disillusioned by disasters such as those at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, and ended up working in Central Florida in another branch of engineering for Northrop Grumman. He retired a few years ago but continues to write for online sites. And while living for a spell in a small retirement community, he wrote “Love, Laughter and Lunacy” — about life in a Florida retirement community.

The play was performed at the Highland Lakes playhouse in Leesburg, where he says it was well-received by friends and neighbors trying to spot themselves in the play’s characters.

“Several people said, ‘This is about me, isn’t it?'” he recalls. “I said ‘No…'” He trails off with another chuckle.

Elgison and his wife, Susan, eventually ditched the retirement community and came to Orlando.

“My wife said, ‘We’re leaving,'” he relates. “When I asked why, she said, ‘There’s a lot of old people here.'”

He credits Susan with letting him pursue his writing dreams.

“I have a lot of ideas, she has the right ideas,” he jokes. But then adds in seriousness: “If I didn’t have the writing to keep me going, I’d go crazy.”

‘State of Confusion’

• Where: Breakthrough Theatre, 6900 Aloma Ave. in Winter Park

• When: May 12-14

• Cost: $20 (student, senior discounts)

• Info: breakthroughtheatre.com

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