Give My Regards to Nowhere: A Director’s Tale

In this humorous romp from Engling (Visions of Anna), a striving Chicago theater director empties his nest egg and borrows money from friends to stage an avant-garde production of William Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus. Thirty-year-old Dwayne Finnegan hopes the show will be his breakout, but it proves to be ill-fated from the start. First, Dwayne’s longtime collaborator and coproducer pulls out, after deciding to put his money toward financing a career shift in Los Angeles. Dwayne then turns to two friends, McDonald’s marketing executive Chaz and psychoanalyst Aleister, to raise cash. Added to the mix is eccentric self-appointed managing director Ingrid and a dangerous rehearsal space with many exposed live wires. The play puts a strain on Dwayne’s marriage to Angela, especially after Chaz, who’s married to Angela’s friend, carries on a poorly hidden affair with one of the actors. When the actor playing Lavinia confesses that the play’s rape scene has triggered the trauma of her own rape, Dwayne calls in Aleister for help, a jarring episode Engling fails to set the stage for amid the running gags. He’s better at poking fun at the theater world, as when Ingrid is exposed for plagiarizing another production. This zany send-up has its moments. (Self-published)